GERMINATION


The way we find best for most species of palms and also cycads is as follows:

Firstly you will need a foam box [used for fish or vegetables] with a lid! You will then need some perlite and vermiculite mix these 50/50.

Place vermiculite perlite in box - only fill box to around ½ full to this add 2 litres of water and mix through. This should be enough moisture to germinate most seed. Seeds should be clean of all flesh and also soaked in water for 6 to 12 hours. When soaking seeds if water shows discolouration seed should be cleaned once more you can also add fungicide and insecticide to the water for soaking.

With 90% of insects [borer, fly, worms etc] we would take out infected seeds place in plastic bag and destroy.
Spray the insecticide on remain seeds in box a light mist is all that is required and place lid on box. It makes like a mini gas chamber. This should not affect the other seeds and or germination.

With fungus a light dusting of fungicide will stop most problems. Also when soaking seed a fungicide can be used.

Once lid has been on box for 48 hours come back to check underside of the lid, there should be an even moisture over the top of the lid for the best results, if not even the box requires a little more water in the corresponding spot. [under dry section]

Once seeds are cleaned and have been soaked plant the seed on top of the mix in box. Do not cover with mix. With the seed on top of the mix any fungal and insect problems can be addressed and bad seeds removed [ bad seed can be seen dy darking of colour and sometime wet look, saw dust around seed insect on seed, fungicus growing on seed etc etc……]


To speed things up you can place boxes on top of an electric blanket set on high.

As seeds germinate simply remove and place in required pot size tube etc…..

Seed taking over 6 months to germinate check once every 2-3 weeks, sometimes they will require another mist of water [check the lid]

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