How do you seperate palmseeds from their fruits?

[Plant it!]

Hi all,

I'm new here on this forum from the Netherlands.

I wondered what kind of methods other palm enthousiasts use to remove fruits and pulp from their seeds before planting.

Of course different kind of seeds require different methods but it would be nice to see what the most effective manners are to do it.

At the moment I'm experimenting with mealworms to eat the fruit remnants of South American palms like Butia and Syagrus.

For these species it's going quite well because they seem to like the sweet pulp, but for example a CIDP fruit I tossed in took way longer and I can imagine that there are palmfruits they will simply not eat or are even harmfull to them.

The other ways I use are soaking and grinding on a grate which works particulary well for Archontophoenix seeds. 

But there are species like Chamaerops humilis which stay a pain in the ass to clean because I haven't found anything better than to remove the pulp by hand 

I still have a few thousand of these fruits laying here so any advice would be much appreciated 

 

Kind regards Robin!

[The Silent Seed]

Welcome! 

Awesome idea on using the mealworms! (They're fun to keep, too.) 

Personally, I just wait until the fruit is soft enough to squeeze the seeds out, in a bucket of water. (I do not keep the fruit in the water until then.) I let them "ripen" in a bucket, or in a bag. 

[Butch]

I tried this with veitchia seeds... It kinda worked... But it left a little of the fruit on the bottom end of the seed... I was afraid to do any more brushing, because of damaging the seed...

Butch

[PalmatierMeg]

I have used Frito's drill and bucket method to remove fruit from species like Adonidia, Veitchia, Syagrus or species with with caustic fruit/juices like Arenga and Caryota. If the seed is hairy, I pull off most of the fibers by hand. Species like Areca don't germinate well if seeds retain a lot of fibers. I tried drill/bucket on Chambeyronia but found seeds had no fruit, only a leathery skin that was the devil to get off, so I wouldn't bother trying with that. With Coccothrinax and Sabals, which are harmless, I remove the juicy fruit and skins by rubbing them in a metal strainer with a wooden spoon, then rinsing in a colander. And I always start by soaking the fruit in a container of water for a 2-3 days, changing water daily.

[Plant it!]

5 hours ago, Butch said:

I tried this with veitchia seeds... It kinda worked... But it left a little of the fruit on the bottom end of the seed... I was afraid to do any more brushing, because of damaging the seed...

Butch

Thanks a lot!

That drill and bucket method is the most economical method I have seen yet.
I'm definitly gonna try that.

4 hours ago, PalmatierMeg said:

I have used Frito's drill and bucket method to remove fruit from species like Adonidia, Veitchia, Syagrus or species with with caustic fruit/juices like Arenga and Caryota. If the seed is hairy, I pull off most of the fibers by hand. Species like Areca don't germinate well if seeds retain a lot of fibers. I tried drill/bucket on Chambeyronia but found seeds had no fruit, only a leathery skin that was the devil to get off, so I wouldn't bother trying with that. With Coccothrinax and Sabals, which are harmless, I remove the juicy fruit and skins by rubbing them in a metal strainer with a wooden spoon, then rinsing in a colander. And I always start by soaking the fruit in a container of water for a 2-3 days, changing water daily.

Good one!

I have some Caryota fruits laying around here.

Was already wondering how I would clean those guys.

 

[realarch]

Areca and Pritchardia seeds have so much fiber, they are hard to clean, so I don't anymore. I just stick them in a pot and they all germinate. 

The easy stuff, like Kerriodoxa and some Dypsis seeds you just squeeze the seed out of the skin and pulp. I do use screen material from time to time, rubbing the seeds in between the material. 

Really nowadays, I don't clean too many seeds as I get good germination just potting things up in a community pot. 

Tim

[sgvcns]

Try soaking in pectinase as it softens/dissolves the seed covering on hard to clean species.

Cheers

steve

[www.dadluvsu.com]

I like to add a couple wire wheels to my contraption to get higher up in the water column...

One day I'm gonna build me a fancy bucket with bearing and wheels that spin opposite direction of each other!