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If the seeds are fresh, they don't need ANY soaking. Now you need to decide how you are going to germinate them. Baggie method with moist long fiber moss, community pot, or individual pots or individual peat pellets (jiffy greenhouse 72) as I prefer. Any method is going to require added heat to get them going. I use a heat mat that maintains 90 to 95F degrees. They don't require light to initially sprout. If you don't have a heat mat,look for other suitable warm areas around the house. Tops of water heaters or fish tank lights are some other good sources of heat. If you go the community pot method, you may be able to plant now, leave the pot in the daily sunshine, maintain moisture, and seeds will sprout when they think they have received enough heat and spring is on the way.👍🌴 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Belgium still has winter.

Oh sorry, I was asking if this was similar to Agrifos, like the ingredients, my palm has had a full spear pull and I’ve applied copper fungicide last week so if I got this product I’m unsure if using that product with the existing copper fungicide residue would cause issues. I still don’t know if I’m making sense 😂

Tonight I confirmed for the first time that my property is officially zone 9B. Minimum temperature was -2 C / 28 F. The coldest night so far, accompanied by light frost. Thankfully I have covered most sensitive plants. Frost only at ground level, so it hasn't affected taller plants.

As the sun fell lower in the sky, something red was lit up toward the east. What could it be? Grabbed the phone and went to see. A sight I have never witnessed before, the unveiling of a fresh inflorescence of Loxococcus rupicola -- and wow, was it ever RED! Below you can see what caught my eye. Closer -- evidently I was disturbing a pair of Madagascar geckos -- can you find them? Below you can see the formed seeds on another Loxococcus rupicola. I sometimes have trouble remembering the name of this palm. My trick is to start with Coca-cola and then it falls into place.

Resoaking won't hurt anything but might not be necessary. Removing the thin outer shell does speed things up though. 😊

Patric Schafer is the man! Maybe follow the following thread as to what's going on with him.

Update: new pics taken this morning.

B dulcis has been much better with 20 seedling so far from 100 seeds.

Update: one B salvadorensis germinated out of 40 seeds and one B sarukhani out of 40 seeds.

You've been busy 😁

It looks like our only hope is the bits of rain we get before the cold snaps.

Hi Colin. I can’t help too much here other than to say my B hapala is turning out to have quite a lot of red tomentum. Latest photo I could find was from Sept 2024. It’s just about to produce clean trunk now which will be interesting to see what that looks like. I got this one in 2017 from the old Palms for Brisbane nursery as a seedling. I’m happy it has performed quite well in my climate, it was once accepted that they wouldn’t grow down here. Whatever your red form turns out to be it is an attractive palm. From the photos you’ve posted, to me the inflorescences and fruit seem to be a good match for hapala and similar to what I’ve seen on the ‘green forms’.

La Boca is the state of Nuevo Leon's main dam. We had a very bad drought in 2022-2023 that almost completely made the dam dry. That palm is most likely a volunteer. However, the dam is normally full or almost full most of the time. Tropical Storm Alberto in 2024 ended the drought and filled La Boca more than 100% of its capacity. I also asked myself how it still stands.

Picked mine today, only two slips tho.

I saw 33 this morning also. Caught me off guard since it was still over 40 at midnight when I went to sleep. Had left my potted bottle and foxtails outside. They should be alright but that’s the coldest I’ve ever left them out. They say 36 tonight for me but that’s what they said last night so I brought them in this time.

Not sure on the question you’re asking, do you mean the systemic fungicide, I apply it about every 3 weeks foliar spray. It’s more of a preventative measure which is what it’s all about.

So I had soaked my Pseudophoenix sargentii seeds for two days, but while doing further research I now realize that I had not cracked the shell. Do I just plant the seeds regardless or should I re-soak the seeds for another two days now that the shells are taken off? Thanks!

Might anyone have a recent Patric Schafer palm availability list and pricing. He has never disappointed with his awesome hybrids. I am fortunate to have a few of his less frequently offered now. He is always pushing the envelope with new hybrids so I was just curious. I posted this previously under palms wanted sub-forum section but didn’t have any success, thought someone on forum sub-group might have some info. Thanks in advance.

Would this work, I think it’s the same type of thing? Also if I’ve used copper fungicide last week so if I get this, when would I need to apply this and also how do you apply it?

Okay! Sometimes I like to pop onto iNaturalist to find collection location potentials for native plants and such. So I thought I would do the same for Butia... and lo, I found a B. odorata located near General Pico and also Necochea, Argentina. General Pico is in the Pampas, so has warmer summers but has damp, cool winters. The weather history for General Pico also includes many sub-freezing events. But they have palms in the center of a major boulevard and also just popping up around the city. Not sure of these palms in this second image, except that yes, they are palms... Necochea has a much more maritime, cool and wet climate with cooler summers but less severe freeze events. There was a single Butia odorata palm ID'ed in iNaturalist outside of town, visible in the Google maps aerial view: However, the street view map doesn't get anywere close to this location in the countryside. So I thought: I'll just drop in to Necochea randomly and see what I see. Bam. Feathery palm. and directly across the street, peekaboo and another totally random location, with what appear to be very large and happy Trachycarpus fortunei palms?

Hey, interesting thing I found when searching through iNaturalist for extreme palm trees - a report of a wild Chamaerops humilis growing in the dredged sediment of the Columbia River shipping channel.

That's totally cool, and would love to hear from @matthedlund on the matter. But - where are you all getting these hybrids? Just gotta jump when seeds are available and be successfull in germination?

Checked my baggie of Lanonia yunnanensis seeds yesterday and there are a LOT of sprouts. I didn't want to disturb them yet so I am not sure what the rate is, but it's clearly high based on how many I saw sprouted and how close together they were in the bag. Excellent seeds! Thanks Charway! Matt

THIS IS THE WAY I also think the introcession of genetics from Parajubaea for (cool moisture tolerance) might also have potential for a cassette of traits that, combined, would be very useful. Problem 1) sourcing reliable genetic material Some Butia and some Jubaea are big enough and old enough to prove themselves in the PNW climate, or near it. The Jubaea, especially, take a long time to sexually mature! Other potential source would be mature palms in Chile, or, as you mentioned, B. oderata palms at the furthest limits of its tolerance. Problem 2) combining genetic material Hybridizing the palms - need mature individuals to cross, so that some fraction of viable seed can be generated. This is where pollen sourced from mature individuals at the most extreme ends of the range can jump-start some genetic advances. Problem 3) distributing and testing genetic material The thing about mixing up a bunch of potential genotypes is - the more possibilities, the more growing specimens, the better the chances become of getting a successful outcome. That's why being part of IPS and the palmtalk forum is important, of course. Problem 4) propagation Cloning bombproof specimen palms *is possible* using meristem tissue. However, the process is not foolproof and might result in the death of the donor tree, which - given the amount of time involved and how awesome these trees are - necessarily makes it a difficult decision for any individual tree owner.