Germinating Saw Palmetto - What Are Some Requirements?

[PalmTreeDude]

I have some Serenoa repens seeds and am wondering if there are any requirements for germinating them that I should know. I have them in a plastic baggy with damp peat moss and perlite. How long do they general take to germinate? 

[kurt decker]

I've grown that plant for 25 years and here's what I know about growing it from seed. It does not like to go through a seed cleaner. Seems to damage the seed. I just spread them out outside in the shade and let the bugs eat the fruit off of them.  Cleaned that way they have a hard shell that's probably watertight. Leave that shell on. Plant them in something that's not mucky. You'll get some sporadic germination pretty quickly, but not much. About June they will come up like grass. I think that hard shell has to break down. But that seed does not want to germinate in the winter months. Removing that shell leads to a lot of failure due to rot. Just let nature do its thing and it's pretty simple.