How to germinate RPS seeds?

[Kennybenjamin]

Hi Everyone,

Many thanks for all the input, positive as well as negative. First of all, don't worry, I am used to a fair bit of criticism, that comes with the business. I don't get (or would want) preferential treatment here as a sponsor or as a director and certainly don't have any influence whatsoever on threads being deleted as suggested somewhere above.

Yes, it is probably correct in most cases that seeds you collected somewhere yourself and sown right away will produce better results than what we can supply. When collecting yourself is possible, I encourage anyone to do so. However, with a lot of rare species that is usually not possible, and many of our seeds have traveled a very long and complicated way to get to you.

No, freshness is certainly not the only major issue that decides over the success or failure of palm seeds. Many things influence the results. To mention just a few that come to mind: Ripeness at time of collection, cleaning process, drying process if applicable, packing, moisture content of packaging material, shipping conditions, weather, storage conditions, type of palm and specific behavior, reprocessing, repackaging and remailing conditions, and so forth. I could go into detail on any of these but assume you get the gist. Many of these conditions are out of our immediate control, even though we try hard to optimize them with our collectors and suppliers. To some extent, it is simply the nature of the beast. If you want to buy rare seeds at a reasonable price, you can not expect all of them to be successful, and it is mostly not because we are not trying hard enough. This is why the price of a seedling is a lot higher than that of a seed. Just ask some of the old-timers how difficult or impossible it used to be to access most really rare seeds. Today you have so many things easily and immediately available at your fingertips, conveniently delivered to your home within a few days or weeks.

Anyway, I am not complaining, just trying to make you aware that things are usually more complex than the seem.

Best, TOBY

Well said!

[Tyrone]

I think the biggest problem for Australian seed importers is AQIS. There is nothing wrong with quarantine, in fact it is vital. But when you are told by a dyslexic AQIS officer by mail two weeks after the event that they have your parcel and that Bismarckia nobilis is not an approved species and therefore has been detained (simply because they inputted a wrong spelling into the computer - Bismarckia nobilis has been imported for decades) and then after countless phone calls to this branch and that branch of AQIS all over the country (AQIS branches don't like dealing with each other and all do things differently to every other state) that they are now going to charge you $70 plus GST for simply incorrectly entering a name into the ICON database and sending you a letter from the Sydney Plant Facility after removing it from the Australia Post gateway facility in Sydney for nothing, your seed may have aged too much to be fresh any more. You can see I have done this a few times and dealing with AQIS is infuriating and they think they are above everybody. I hope you're reading this AQIS.

Like I said quarantine is vital, but has to be done efficiently and transparently. Maybe a private quarantine provider would give the government a run for it's money. They'd have to lift their game with a bit of competition.

Obviously getting the seed onto the plane as quick as possible is necessary for us to get good results down here in Oz, but as Toby said there is more too it than just picking a fresh seed. Don't even start me on fungicide treatments and AQIS.

Rant over.

Red wine kicking in now.

[JT in Japan]

Bumping this rich thread, with direct feedback from Toby at RPS. Good read.

I recently bought a lot of RPS seeds and have had amazing germination results. Quite different from last year's experience. Things change. Time to buy more seed perhaps...

JT

[Pip]

So far with my inexperience I've had a good germination rate with the seeds I've bought from RPS. I've also only had to wait a few weeks. One of the local nursery owners told me that the bulk seed packets take up to three months to reach him, while small packets are not economical for his purposes.

[Yort]

Try pre soaking them in a gibberellin solution, I've tried this for a research project at my university. Pre soaking Archontophoenix alexandrea seeds in a 1mg/l GA3 solution for 48 hours improved germination by 8%. It also reduced average germination time by 2 weeks.

[Pal Meir]

As for Howea belmoreana, I had ordered 2 portions in 2006 from RPS. After soaking the seeds for 12 hours I put them into a box with Kokohum. Within 1 month germinated 4/20, within the 1st year 11/20.

But I would like to tell a totally different story. In September 2002 I ordered also from RPS 2 portions of Sabal minor var louisiana and got 26 seeds. I soaked them for 1 day and used then the baggy method with Kokohum. Within 10 weeks only 4/26 had germinated. Frustrated I put the remaining 22 seeds into the refrigerator and left them there for 5 weeks at ca. 5°C. Afterwards I soaked them in hot water and placed them in Kokohum. Within only 1 week all remaining 22 seeds had sprouted.

[Kai]

Yes Pal, some seeds need to be scarified with a period of colder temperatures, while others need dayly temperature fluctuations. Other seeds need very constant temperatures...it all depends on the species. There is alot of information to be found on the website of RPS, on of the best references in my opinion for finding germination specifics on palmspecies and not just palmseeds in general.

I love the idea of everybody being able to place his germination experiences on the RPS website and I have done this many times. I even won 50 euro's worth of seeds once for doing so.

[richnorm]

Yes Pal, some seeds need to be scarified with a period of colder temperatures, while others need dayly temperature fluctuations. Other seeds need very constant temperatures...it all depends on the species. There is alot of information to be found on the website of RPS, on of the best references in my opinion for finding germination specifics on palmspecies and not just palmseeds in general.

I love the idea of everybody being able to place his germination experiences on the RPS website and I have done this many times. I even won 50 euro's worth of seeds once for doing so.

Your English is superb but the word is "stratify". To scarify is to rub through the seed coat to let moisiture in - that's yet another method which sometimes helps!

[Kai]

Thank you Richnorm, we learn every day!

[JT in Japan]

Yes Pal, some seeds need to be scarified with a period of colder temperatures, while others need dayly temperature fluctuations. Other seeds need very constant temperatures...it all depends on the species. There is alot of information to be found on the website of RPS, on of the best references in my opinion for finding germination specifics on palmspecies and not just palmseeds in general.

I love the idea of everybody being able to place his germination experiences on the RPS website and I have done this many times. I even won 50 euro's worth of seeds once for doing so.

Your English is superb but the word is "stratify". To scarify is to rub through the seed coat to let moisiture in - that's yet another method which sometimes helps!

Hmm, I've always used "scarify" as well. "Stratify" implies orderliness (3rd defn below), whereas I thought "scarify" meant "scarring" through cold temperatures. Interesting.

stratify

verb

1. form or arrange into strata.

   "socially stratified cities"

   • arrange or classify.

     "stratifying patients into well-defined risk groups"
   • place (seeds) close together in layers in moist sand or peat to preserve them or to help them germinate.

     "rose seeds stratified in November may be sown outdoors"

scarify

Verb

1.

to make scratches or superficial incisions in (the skin, a wound, etc.),as in vaccination.

2.

to lacerate by severe criticism.

3.

to loosen (the soil) with a type of cultivator.

4.

to hasten the sprouting of (hard-covered seeds) by making incisions in the seed coats.

5.

to break up (a road surface).

[Pal Meir]

Here an example for 10 seeds of Lytocaryum insigne I received from RPS on 29 January 2014 on a frosty day (below 0°C). After soaking them for 1 day in warm water I put them in a box with Kokohum® which I placed on a radiator for 10 days (in the daytime ca. 30°C, at night ca. 20°C). The first seed germinated on February 14, the last on March 21.

The box with Kokohum® on a radiator:

The result: All 10 seeds have germinated:

[chayote]

It's all about seed freshness. Make sure you order from the new listed stock. Some species don't matter (desert species) too much on freshness, but Pinangas and wet tropics species need to be real fresh to do well.

Right, just like phoenix dactylifera, some seeds still germinate after thousands of the years

But for euterpe , cyrtostachys, archontophoenix, dypsis etc are recalcitrant seeds

So it is headache to store some economic palm tree seeds like acai (Euterpe oleracea), oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) etc