Poor Success w/ Butia Germination

[buffy]

Hi Folks: What's the secret with these? I have very little success. Everything else I've tried has done well. I rarely get a Butia to germinate.

[PalmatierMeg]

Buffy, I'd like to know too. I've never gotten any to germinate for me either.

[merrill]

Hi, Fellows:

Butia is normally slowto germinate. Alternating strong heat and lesser heat has worked, as has alternating moisture level.

Best Wishes,

merrill

[freakypalmguy]

I've had very good luck with Butia and Butia hybrids using plastic tubs with slightly moist Sunshine Mix #3, placing the seeds on top of the soil and gently pushing them in apx. 1/2 way. Seeds germinate in six months without supplemental heat placed in my greenhouse or start sprouting in 3 to 4 months when placed on a heat mat in my garage keeping the temp around 85 to 95F.

I've had very poor luck with Butia using the baggie method for some reason.

Hope this helps,

Matt

[gyuseppe]

Butia species sprout very easily here, I have a garden full of small Butia, seeds that fall from my Butia capitata

[chris.oz]

Butia species sprout very easily here, I have a garden full of small Butia, seeds that fall from my Butia capitata

Interesting.

I found that Butia are hard to germinate. Maybe thats because I gave up too early.

My Butia capitata has not flowered for 4 years. The seeds that were trapped in the boots are still germinating.

Study of the bases of locally grown B. capitata show very few germinated seeds in spite of massive piles of fallen seed.

Go figure !

[Nigel]

I cant germinate them at times either. Yet at other times they germiante well. I have some lallamentii seeds that wouldnt germinate, took them out of the incubator and they started germinating at 20C, go figure.

In general I cant germinate any butia with too much moisture. They seem to like to be almost dry with only humidity in the air to germiante them.

[Jonathan]

The first batch of B. capitata (from Utopia - thanks Clayton and Teresa) that I germinated ten years ago came up thick and fast, and gave me a totally false impression that they were easy. Since then, like everyone else, I've had a running pie fight with them.

I used to think that the seeds needed to be very fresh - but even that dosnt seem to make a huge difference.

I've tried constant high temps, variation from hot to cool, drier, moister....I think luck plays a big part.

One thing is for sure - dont ever throw the seeds out before 5 years is up.

Next time I'm going to click my heels and think of Kansas!

Cheers,

Jonathan

[Kailua_Krish]

Butia species sprout very easily here, I have a garden full of small Butia, seeds that fall from my Butia capitata

They germinate readily outdoors here also but for the life of me I can't seem to get them to sprout from seeds that I try to sprout. What would they have me do, throw them under another Butia

-Krishna

P.S. Nigel has a nice short blurb on this if you search the internet, I think it was written for the EPS or something.

[ErikSJI]

I've had very good luck with Butia and Butia hybrids using plastic tubs with slightly moist Sunshine Mix #3, placing the seeds on top of the soil and gently pushing them in apx. 1/2 way. Seeds germinate in six months without supplemental heat placed in my greenhouse or start sprouting in 3 to 4 months when placed on a heat mat in my garage keeping the temp around 85 to 95F.

I've had very poor luck with Butia using the baggie method for some reason.

Hope this helps,

Matt

We have had good sucess rate doing the same using heated beds between 85F and 95F with the Butia.