My first seed germinated!

[DesertCoconut]

Today was an exciting day for me. It's the little things that make me happy. My very first seed germinated! (arenga engleri) I've been collecting palms for several years, but just recently decided to start growing from seed. A few months ago I bought some roystonea regia seeds and probably made a mistake by just planting them in the garden before reading up on germination methods. I still have my fingers crossed for those. Since then, I started using the "baggie method" and bought or collected all of these over the past couple of months:

Arenga engleri (yay! for my first sprout)

Nannorrhops Ritchieana

Phoenix rupicola

Acoelorrhaphe wrightii

Carpentaria acuminata

Phoenix canariensis (collected locally)

Roystonea oleracea

Acrocomia aculeata (This one I tried some bagged and some planted outside under some queens and some planted in my indoor palm pots. I cracked open the bagged ones and left the others with the hard shells. I know those will take years!)

Copernicia alba

Copernicia baileyana

chamaedora radicalis (thanks, DoomsDave!)

I've built a shade structure over part of my garden with the irrigation all ready to go. I can't wait to start filling it with all my new potted seedlings! 

 

[Cindy Adair]

Congratulations! Growing plants from seed is such fun, especially trees!

[Steve Mac]

You will love the look of the young leaves they are very distinctive and interesting compared to the phoenix for example.

[doranakandawatta]

Beginning of a wonderful story !
Congratulations !

[Neil C]

Always exciting to see a germinated seed even if you've germinated hundreds, thousands before.

Regards Neil

[PalmatierMeg]

Good work! Keep it up.

[Fusca]

On 6/14/2017, 5:58:50, DesertCoconut said:

Today was an exciting day for me. It's the little things that make me happy. My very first seed germinated! (arenga engleri) I've been collecting palms for several years, but just recently decided to start growing from seed. A few months ago I bought some roystonea regia seeds and probably made a mistake by just planting them in the garden before reading up on germination methods. I still have my fingers crossed for those. Since then, I started using the "baggie method" and bought or collected all of these over the past couple of months:

Arenga engleri (yay! for my first sprout)

Nannorrhops Ritchieana

Phoenix rupicola

Acoelorrhaphe wrightii

Carpentaria acuminata

Phoenix canariensis (collected locally)

Roystonea oleracea

Acrocomia aculeata (This one I tried some bagged and some planted outside under some queens and some planted in my indoor palm pots. I cracked open the bagged ones and left the others with the hard shells. I know those will take years!)

Copernicia alba

Copernicia baileyana

chamaedora radicalis (thanks, DoomsDave!)

I've built a shade structure over part of my garden with the irrigation all ready to go. I can't wait to start filling it with all my new potted seedlings! 

 

How did your other seeds do?  It's been a few months since your first germination - hopefully you've had more successes!  Don't give up on the Acrocomia aculeata - mine took nearly 2 years to germinate!  I'm currently trying to germinate some of DoomsDave's Chamaedora radicalis seeds also - thanks again Dave!  Sounds like you've got some seedling challenges with your sun and heat also.  I just planted my Phoenix canariensis seedling (also grown from local seed) in the yard today as well as several Sabal seedlings.  My Acoelorrhaphe wrightii seedlings are doing well, but too young to plant out yet.  I haven't had any luck with Arenga engleri (4 unsuccessful attempts so far) but that was your first!

Jon

[kinzyjr]

Very nice!  I love growing from seed and I am sure that you will find it fulfilling as well.

[Mohsen]

On 15/06/2017, 8:58:50, DesertCoconut said:

Today was an exciting day for me. It's the little things that make me happy. My very first seed germinated! (arenga engleri) I've been collecting palms for several years, but just recently decided to start growing from seed. A few months ago I bought some roystonea regia seeds and probably made a mistake by just planting them in the garden before reading up on germination methods. I still have my fingers crossed for those. Since then, I started using the "baggie method" and bought or collected all of these over the past couple of months:

Arenga engleri (yay! for my first sprout)

Nannorrhops Ritchieana

Phoenix rupicola

Acoelorrhaphe wrightii

Carpentaria acuminata

Phoenix canariensis (collected locally)

Roystonea oleracea

Acrocomia aculeata (This one I tried some bagged and some planted outside under some queens and some planted in my indoor palm pots. I cracked open the bagged ones and left the others with the hard shells. I know those will take years!)

Copernicia alba

Copernicia baileyana

chamaedora radicalis (thanks, DoomsDave!)

I've built a shade structure over part of my garden with the irrigation all ready to go. I can't wait to start filling it with all my new potted seedlings! 

 

Good job

i had 10 Arenga engleri seeds and only two germinated... after 8-9 months it has only one leaf ...picture when it was germinated ...

[palmfriend]

Congratulations!

Something jumps into life and now you are in charge - a wonderful challenge with great pleasure, sometimes great concern and

definitely a source of inspiration!

I am always feeling responsible the most for my seed grown plants, so I am wishing you all the best with your new babies!

best regards -

Lars

 

[The Silent Seed]

Congrats! Let the addiction begin.

Palms are pretty slow to germinate, usually, so it's always satisfying to see them sprout. 

One thing I really enjoy about growing palms from seed, as a whole, is that they are constantly changing - leaf shapes, colors, etc.

[Silas_Sancona]

DC,  

Congrats on your germination successes, like others have said, it will be hard to stop ( wanting to germinate more ) now that you have succeeded with this first batch. As im sure you already know, keep them out of full sun. Learned that the hard way when we first moved here.. All my seedlings have done best under 65-70% shade in the shade house.

Agree w/ others, Arenga engleri are slow to develop after germinating. Have noticed that they are also the first of any of my seedlings to show sunburn, even in the shade house, once we hit June here. 

Curious what part of Phoenix you're located in. 

[DesertCoconut]

Thanks everyone for the kind words of encouragement! It has been 4 months and what fun it has been. I had some rotting problems with some seeds, but others did great! I'm patiently waiting on several others. I think I'm learning how to balance how much water to add to the bag. So far, I've had great success with:

Roystonea (dunlapiana/regia/oleracea -- I'm going to experiment with these 3 to see which ones do best here in the desert. I wanted to try borinquena but could not locate any seeds.)

Arenga Engleri ( 100% germination, but a few never surfaced and the radicles rotted.)

Copernicia Alba ( I got 2 seedlings out of 10 seeds)

Phoenix canariensis (root shot through bottom of a 4" pot in less than 2 weeks! These are the most beautiful weeds in Arizona!)

Chamaerops humilis

Carpentaria Acuminata

Another one I got really excited about was Medemia Argun. These germinated very fast, but the radicles just rotted in the dirt. I learned my lesson with these. Next time, they go in a mix heavy on the sand/pumice side and maybe directly into the ground.

I have attached some photos of my progress. You can see the ollies are winning the race as expected.

Silas_Sancona, I live in South Mountain Village near 19th Ave south of Baseline Rd. So far I've done all of this indoors. Now that the weather is cooling off I'm going to get to work on my shade house and irrigation lines. I have several other seedlings (not grown from seed) in containers and in the ground between my house and a block wall to the east. The area is about 12ft wide and 30 ft long. It makes a good protected garden area that doesn't get the brutal western sun.

Thanks again, everyone!

Darrin

 

[DesertCoconut]

UPDATE:

The chamaedora radicalis I got from DoomsDave sprouted in my garden! I planted them in a new area of the garden back in May. Today I noticed 4 of these little guys poking up!

 

[Alberto]

Congratulations.

I remember my first seeds germinating, the happiness and sense of adventure of seeds from far countries, high mountains germinating in my pots.

 

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

You will need a pot at least 14" deep for those medemia.  The roots are very deep. 

[Than]

May I ask where you got the seeds from? Dunlapiana seems hard to locate.

[DesertCoconut]

3 hours ago, ego said:

May I ask where you got the seeds from? Dunlapiana seems hard to locate.

RPS has them in-stock right now. https://www.rarepalmseeds.com/roystonea-dunlapiana