Germination in water

[zimm]

My wife has been germinating seeds for her garden in little bowls of water.  Wait til the sprout, then plant.  Most recently she’s suggested I use this for my Candlestick plant seeds and it has worked great.  Just got some new banana plant seeds and they are sprouting after a day.  I know a lot of palm seeds have thicker shells and such, but is there a reason I shouldn’t leave palm seeds submerged in water until they start germinating?

[tim_brissy_13]

From experience, some species may germinate in water (Archontophoenix sp. for example) but most wont. In addition, the risk of fungal rot increases and regular changing of water and fungicide treatment would be necessary. Probably also more difficult to keep the temperature in the preferred range. 

[Fusca]

I normally soak my palm seeds for a day or two before sowing in community pots or baggies for germinating but like Tim said even with daily water changes I still occasionally get fungus started.  I've had Washingtonia seeds and de-lidded Caryota seeds start germinating while still soaking but that's not the norm.

[Bill Nanaimo]

On 5/31/2020 at 7:02 PM, zimm said:

My wife has been germinating seeds for her garden in little bowls of water.  Wait til the sprout, then plant.  Most recently she’s suggested I use this for my Candlestick plant seeds and it has worked great.  Just got some new banana plant seeds and they are sprouting after a day.  I know a lot of palm seeds have thicker shells and such, but is there a reason I shouldn’t leave palm seeds submerged in water until they start germinating?

I got some windmill palm seeds soaking in water to get ready to germinate I think I might try leaving 4-5 in a cup of water to see if they germinate, I'm new to planting my own seeds 

[zimm]

I still have not had the patience to do this, but did soak some palm seeds for about a week changing water daily (before planting).  No activity but I hardly expected any in such a short time period.  Good luck with the windmills.  I always had mine mold on me when germinating in perlite.  I had better luck in peat pellets but still not fabulous.  I went to just putting them in a community pot and waiting.  Moisture control is my big challenge and so a larger pot (I use big 4” x 14” tree pots with 9-30ish seeds) and at least that seems to take longer to dry out, provided I can resist overwatering!!