Queen palm seed

[Adam Halford 3]

I’ve just come back from Portugal and gathered loads of seeds whilst there.. I couldn’t get up to the pods on the tree so I took some queen palm seeds from the base of the tree.. I soaked straight away and removed the outer pul and left in soak the remainder of the holiday, also wrapped in damp paper towel when I bought them home. Will these germinate as I’ve read they need to be picked when half ripe or else the ripening inhibits the germination??

 

cheers

[kinzyjr 3,688]

2 minutes ago, Adam Halford said:

I’ve just come back from Portugal and gathered loads of seeds whilst there.. I couldn’t get up to the pods on the tree so I took some queen palm seeds from the base of the tree.. I soaked straight away and removed the outer pul and left in soak the remainder of the holiday, also wrapped in damp paper towel when I bought them home. Will these germinate as I’ve read they need to be picked when half ripe or else the ripening inhibits the germination??

cheers

I've germinated them fully ripe and picked up off the ground after a 28F advective freeze.  Hopefully you'll have similar luck.

[Adam Halford 3]

1 minute ago, kinzyjr said:

I've germinated them fully ripe and picked up off the ground after a 28F advective freeze.  Hopefully you'll have similar luck.

Ok pal nice one, u use bag method or pots? Living in uk so cold now but got a heat mat set around 80

[kinzyjr 3,688]

@Adam Halford

I used an open container (solo cup with 50/50 potting soil/perlite mix) and bottom heat at around 90F.

[aztropic 2,046]

 

6 minutes ago, Adam Halford said:

 I’ve read they need to be picked when half ripe or else the ripening inhibits the germination??

 

cheers

Not true... Ripe seed has a much better chance of sprouting.I'm still having queen volunteers occasionally pop up from a tree that was removed 3 years ago.

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

[NOT A TA 965]

I had a large queen I cut down and fallen seed kept sprouting for 2-3 years afterward like @aztropic is experiencing.  Fully mature seed that fell should sprout fine.

[Adam Halford 3]

32 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

@Adam Halford

I used an open container (solo cup with 50/50 potting soil/perlite mix) and bottom heat at around 90F.

How long u rekon they need a soak? Gathered them Tuesday and soaked overnight, peeled then soaked again till I left then I wrapped in moist towel

[kinzyjr 3,688]

5 minutes ago, Adam Halford said:

How long u rekon they need a soak? Gathered them Tuesday and soaked overnight, peeled then soaked again till I left then I wrapped in moist towel

What you did as far as soaking and peeling mirrors what I did.  Germination started at about the 2 month mark in my case.

[Fusca 1,543]

42 minutes ago, Adam Halford said:

I’ve read they need to be picked when half ripe or else the ripening inhibits the germination??

I've read something similar, but agree with @aztropic.  As long as the fruit is removed or decomposed they germinate just fine.  I did a small experiment last year - collected green semi-ripe fruit and orange fully-ripe fruits that had fallen from the tree.  Cleaned all the seeds and planted them in the same medium and gave them the same growing conditions.  100% of the seeds from ripe fruit germinated while 0% of the seeds from the semi-ripe fruit germinated.

[NOT A TA 965]

3 hours ago, Fusca said:

100% of the seeds from ripe fruit germinated while 0% of the seeds from the semi-ripe fruit germinated.

I love experiments like this ^^^.  Thanks for sharing!

[redant 1,043]

They are weeds, toss them anywhere they will sprout.

 

[Jim in Los Altos 2,310]

7 hours ago, Adam Halford said:

I’ve just come back from Portugal and gathered loads of seeds whilst there.. I couldn’t get up to the pods on the tree so I took some queen palm seeds from the base of the tree.. I soaked straight away and removed the outer pul and left in soak the remainder of the holiday, also wrapped in damp paper towel when I bought them home. Will these germinate as I’ve read they need to be picked when half ripe or else the ripening inhibits the germination??

 

cheers

 I wish that were true. I get thousands of Queen seedlings every year from fallen fruit that doesn’t get cleaned up out of the garden. As long as the seed is fresh, it’s likely to germinate. 

Edited October 1, 2020 by Jim in Los Altos