Jubaea germinating left and right

[Enar]

My Jubaea seeds pop left and right and i have finally got one single pindo palm seed to sprout in a ziplock bag with orchid moss on a heat mat after a month.  I purchased a simple mechanical timer from GE that I run 12/12 on/off. Going to look into upgrading to a heat mat that can get a little bit hotter than 85. What have your methods been?

[fr8train]

Nice! I've never had any luck germinating Jubaea.

[Will]

9 hours ago, fr8train said:

Nice! I've never had any luck germinating Jubaea.

Same...50 fresh seeds collected from the palm itself. 1 germinated...

@enar what's the trick to get them germinated? Haha

[Enar]

9 hours ago, Will said:

Same...50 fresh seeds collected from the palm itself. 1 germinated...

@enar what's the trick to get them germinated? Haha

I dont have any scientific notes on it but I noticed that some germinated being 2-3” above the heat mat in soil and some germinated being very close to the heat mat but still off of it. I’m guessing the temp/moisture combination is perfect a bit away from the heat mat. The closer you get to it stuff tends to dry out. And also lots of time and patience.

[Enar]

[NWpalms@206]

Nice! I got a few hundred seeds popping and maybe 100 6” seedlings on second strap leafs. Collected about 550 fresh seeds from the big Blue Jubaea in Mission Bay San Diego, back in October. 

[Enar]

@NWpalms@206 nice! How do you mix the potting soil when they go in the “next stage” pots? Looks like 100% perlite is that so?

[NWpalms@206]

2 minutes ago, Enar said:

@NWpalms@206 nice! How do you mix the potting soil when they go in the “next stage” pots? Looks like 100% perlite is that so?

It’s about 50% perlite, 25% sunshine #4 soil, and 25% soil booster compost. The first soak kinda makes all the perlite float up and cover the top of soil. Combined its very light well draining mix with enough nutrients to last until the seeds detach. Seems to be working well seedlings are happy. 

[Meangreen94z]

Jubaea are extremely finicky as seedlings. Expect to lose a number over the first couple years, unless  you have magical ideal conditions. I seemed to lose them during a shift in temperatures,  during season changes.

[Enar]

42 minutes ago, Meangreen94z said:

Jubaea are extremely finicky as seedlings. Expect to lose a number over the first couple years, unless  you have magical ideal conditions. I seemed to lose them during a shift in temperatures,  during season changes.

It may be so. The only one of mine that looked bad so far was one that had maybe a little too much fertilizer it turned brown. The rest seem to grow slowly but surely 

[Banana Belt]

Last year I posted a video from you-tube showing a guy who has a large parcel of land in the foothills near Salinas, California, who had 12 years earlier walked around his property tossing out Jubaea nuts from a basket like Johnny Appleseed.  In the video taken 12 years after his "Johnny Jubaea Seed" venture, he showed the various Jubaea plants that had sprouted and grown over the years.  Some spouted and grew within a year after seeding others a year or two later and some that had just sprouted in last year or two.  Conclusion is that Jubaea nuts can sit around for at least a decade or more and then sprout, while others sprout right away.