Cracking your (palm) seeds ?

[Mercutio1973]

On another forum, I was advised by another poster that they had had a lot of success with the rapid germination of Parajubaea seeds by cracking them to expose the endosperm.  Including a low mortality rate thereafter....

I tried to seek clarification as to whether you just cracked the very hard endocarp and then ‘planted' the cracked ‘nut' - or what was advisable, before or after cracking the nut.  EG do you try to remove the endosperm entirely ?  Do you pre-soak ?  Post-soak ? Do you need to use a bleach solution before or after ?  Etc etc.

Unfortunately, they didn't respond - I don't think they were a regular poster, but I did have the strong impression that they knew what they were talking about in respect of successfully germinating the seeds....which was frustrating.

Does anyone have any advice / knowledge of this process please ?

Many thanks, Woo

[Fallen Munk]

I do that with Jubaea chiliensis and get germination in about two months.  A few tricks:  The nut should rattle inside the shell before cracking, use a bench vise, incubation medium should be sterile.  I use coco/perlite.  I use normal room temperature only, same way I do Trachycarpus.  I put them in those divided Jiffy trays with the clear top.  The ones that pop a root push their way out of the individual cell and then I move them to a normal pot.

After I started doing it this way, Jubaea went from the most difficult seed to germinate to the easiest.  Just don't try it on seeds that have already been in potting medium.  The nut will be so well hydrated that the vise will rupture it when the shell cracks.  I think that's where most people screw up when they get impatient with seeds they have been sitting on.  They have to rattle or don't even try.  Meaning, do not presoak or you will fail!  

 

Edited November 16, 2020 by Fallen Munk