Serenoa repens

[BeyondTheGarden]

This thread is just to document, trial and error.. Got a couple sprouts after about 8 weeks... sitting on a heat mat in a plastic container in peat moss/perlite/hydroton.  A little mold has been picked out by hand and sprayed with hydrogen peroxide. There may be a few more that are buried but I don't want to poke around too much. 

[ando.wsu]

Nice. I used to live in the PNW and hopefully ill be back in a couple of years.  I enjoyed growing tropical looking plants and zone pushing when i was there.  
 

I'm about to grow some Carpentaria palms here in phoenix.  Apparently they do well here and can handle the desert sun and cold. 

[Sabal King]

Sorry to hijack if I am, but I put my first Serenoa Repens Cinerea in the ground last week.  I absolutely am in love with this thing, and want to acquire more to put along the side of my property in a big planting area that separates my property from a neighbors.  Really healthy looking one, and because of it, I picked up 10 beans and are germinating those.  Nice to see others growing these as outside of FL they seem to get absolutely zero love

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Following along to see how long your beans take to pop versus mine. 

[Will]

I am trying to germinate some currently, but they seem to start molding for some reason. Is there need to remove a shell or something?

[Jtee]

45 minutes ago, Will said:

I am trying to germinate some currently, but they seem to start molding for some reason. Is there need to remove a shell or something?

I tried germinating some also and they molded. 

[GoatLockerGuns]

On 3/31/2022 at 11:29 PM, Jesse PNW said:

Got a couple sprouts after about 8 weeks

Do you know if they are the "Silver' or 'Green' varieties?

[BeyondTheGarden]

It wasn't specified, they're from "chill hill farms" on ebay, they look green to me. 

[Alex Zone 5]

10 hours ago, tlow said:

Sorry to hijack if I am, but I put my first Serenoa Repens Cinerea in the ground last week.  I absolutely am in love with this thing, and want to acquire more to put along the side of my property in a big planting area that separates my property from a neighbors.  Really healthy looking one, and because of it, I picked up 10 beans and are germinating those.  Nice to see others growing these as outside of FL they seem to get absolutely zero love

.

Following along to see how long your beans take to pop versus mine. 

Wow and wow, bought one 7 gallon and four 1 gallon at Florida natives. Can wait for them to arrive.

[ShadyDan]

I had no problem germinating these seeds, but all mylittle seedlings languished in my greenhouse this winter and ultimately died a slow death. Seems they don’t like the long, cold, dark winters up here. Even though the greenhouse never really went below 0C, it seems these palms need consistent heat to really thrive. 

[BeyondTheGarden]

I know I should have researched this more, but the silver repens are allegedly more hardy than the green form right?  I thought I had read that somewhere but can't seem to find info now. 

I know @Chester B has at least one and it has been very slow for him.  I believe it was in full shade and he has since pruned the vegetation back to open it up to the sun, so I'm interested to see how his does this growing season.   

These seedlings (I hope) will go into my growbox where it's bright, hot, and humid.  Unless I decide to shut down the growbox for the summer, which may happen, but they'll go back in for the winter.  

@ShadyDan did any survive?  

@Will I normally notate how I process seeds on each container (ie de-fruited, soaked 2 days, etc).  I don't see anything about removing fruit and I've messed with too many seeds to remember.  Hopefully someone can chime in on that.  

First eophyll/cotyledon? emerging 

Edited April 5, 2022 by Jesse PNW

[Sabal King]

Once these germinate they will go outside here and start to see the Texas sun, and feel the heat.  I have a LOT of beans that need to go outside shortly.  It's that time of the year.

[ShadyDan]

@Jesse PNW nope, none survived. It’s funny how my various Sabals and other heat loving palms don’t even blink during the cold dark winter days in my greenhouse but the Seronas completely wimped out. The grow box over winter until they get some size sounds like a great idea. 

[Jtee]

2 hours ago, Alex Zone 5 said:

Wow and wow, bought one 7 gallon and four 1 gallon at Florida natives. Can wait for them to arrive.

I looked on their website and they were out of all palms, this was like 3 days ago

[Chester B]

Long story short they suck for the PNW. I bought three silver ones in 2017. One I stepped on and killed it. My biggest one just up and died last spring for no reason I could determine. 
 

The lone survivor struggled being in the hottest spot in my yard. Maybe the low humidity and cooler nights than in its native range was the difference. 5 years it’s hardly grown, almost the same size I got it. Now all the other plants around it have grown and shaded it out. I haven’t moved it because I think it will be miserable anywhere plus they have a huge tap root like a Sabal so I figure it will die with transplant. It puts out some suckers every year that always get killed by winter. 
 

This is a great palm but not for the PNW in my opinion. Sabals and needles do so much better  

[GoatLockerGuns]

12 hours ago, Jesse PNW said:

I know I should have researched this more, but the silver repens are allegedly more hardy than the green form right?

I had the opposite experience. I have about 10 planted on the property from 1 to 4 years old.  The 'green' form has been a real trooper for me.  I had juveniles at less than 3 years old, and a few less than 2 years old, that survived the 2021 Texas Freeze with very little frond damage and no spear pull.  The 'silver' form experienced spear pull but recovered.  None of them outright died.  They all survived an ice event last February too, with some spear pull on the 'silver' forms and no damage whatsoever on the 'green' forms.  From my own anecdotal experiences, I would say that the hardiness of the 'green' form is on par with Sabal mexicana, and just slightly less hardy than Sabal minor.  You guys may have different experiences with longer, wetter, and cloudier winters, but I still think it would be worth a shot to try them out.  Especially, if you are growing them from seeds that you procured on the cheap.

[BeyondTheGarden]

Well that didn't end well..

 

3 days ago, I pulled one seedling out because it had sent up a cotyledon, and potted it, and moved it into the growbox.  It appears to be doing fine... I'm hoping some of the seeds haven't popped yet and after a good soaking, will still germinate...

Edited April 16, 2022 by Jesse PNW