Royal palm germination

[Danielkoske]

Currently working with some royal palm seeds that I found under a local royal palm. Out of 250+ seeds doing the “squeeze test” to test viability, only about 50 passed. So many of them just are not developed and just pop bettween your fingers! Not sure why so many seeds are duds. Picked up mostly fully ripe red seeds, soaked them for 2 days (75-80% floated.) Then peeled them and skinned all by hand only to come up with about 50 darn seeds! 
 

it’s been pretty cold here in Florida lowest 38F-40F over the last month 

Im trying to gather about 250 viable seeds to plant for when it warms up. For now these are going on a heat mat. Looks like I have a lot more seeds to gather 😂 some of mine have been sitting on a heat mat for 2 months and nothing yet  Im struggling 🥹 
 

my main question is: do Royals normally have this low of viability? 

 Do you thing this is due to the cold?
 
It’s a little difficulty to find information on royal palm germination so any advice would be greatly appreciated!! 
 

I’ve seen royals near in the keys and the ground is literally covered in sprouts. I’m thinking maybe they are just having trouble germination because of the cold snaps. The trees I’m finding seeds under have absolutely no sprouts anywhere near them!!! Sad…..

 

Ive seen @chocolatethunda post where he had insane results and germinated hundreds of royals in under 30 days!!!! Must be because he’s in Aruba!! 

[PalmatierMeg]

Royal seeds are black when ripe. I suspect the seeds you collected are not fully ripe so are nonviable. You need to look in earnest when temps have risen in spring. My large royal does not produce ripe seeds in the middle of winter - nor do nearly all of the multiple species of palms I grow. From the lows you gave us I know you are surely located well north of me, i.e., Tampa? So far this winter I’ve had one night in January where the low was 44.8F. Up until a couple weeks ago my lowest temp was 51.8F.

Royals are prolific when seeds are ripe and fresh, temps are warm/hot. In FL the saying goes, “If royal palms weren’t so beautiful they would be considered weeds.”

I’ve composted many 1,000s of royal seedlings over the past 30 years.

[Johnny Palmseed]

Most likely some of those seeds will germinate. Is there some specific reason why you want to plant 250?

[Bkue]

Interested as well. Tried several times as well from multiple sources with no luck. Done queens, foxtails, bismarcks, sabals, adonidias, coconuts, but have yet to succeed with Royal.