PalmsNorth.com

My daughter has a disability that prevents her from working or going to school. I have a good crop of Trachycarpus wagnerianus seed this year and I have given her the chance to make some money by selling them. She has a web site: http://waggieseeds.webs.com/

The seed is outstanding this year. All of it large and uniform. This surprised me after last winters long cold spell. The warm summer must have helped.

Hey Jeff,

Bought 50 seeds last year and had 0% germination. Just thought you should know.

I'm sorry to hear that. I managed to sprout some myself, from the same batch.

How about if you send me postage I will send you another 50. Postage is $2.50.

Thank you for the offer, but I had to put my palm hobby on hold for awhile. I lost my greenhouse in a wind storm last year and have no room to grow anything at this time. I will give them another try when I get my setup back up.

Well, time to tell the results of germination. I ordered big enough quantity of your waggie seeds and found them quite unusual.
At first, I placed a small test batch (~40-50 seeds) for germination, as usual. I soaked seeds for 3 days in warm water, then placed them in moist moss at +20-23C. None had sprouted in a month or so. However, seeds looked well.
Then I placed all those seeds (including those from the test batch) in the ice water for more than two months (almost 2.5 months, to be exact) and kept them at room temperature. Water was replaced with fresh ice water (again, not cold but room temperature) twice per day. After that, I treated seeds with a plant hormone solution and fungicide, and placed them in a moist moss.
Several seeds sprouted in two weeks. Another ones sprouted in three weeks. Germination rate was 2-3% but I kept seeds in their place. Every week new and new seeds germinated.
The most interesting is that new seeds keep sprouting. After almost four months total germination rate has reached 30% and they still sprout. Never seen waggie seeds sprouting so long and so sporadic.

Also, these waggies are extremely sensitive to fungus, even more than regular waggies.
Will test them for cold hardiness here in our zone 6.

I ordered some (50) seeds too and so far more than 25 sprouted. All I did was to put some soil in one of those transparent plastic shoes boxes. I soaked the seeds in water for two days, then I placed them in the box, with just a little soil on top. I put the lid on and checked every other week to be sure that the soil was always moist.
The first one cam out in two weeks and some are still sprouting now. I consider it a success, I don't need 25 palms anyway. (once it got hot outside and I put the box in a warmer place, more of them came out)

If anybody from Toronto area needs a waggie seedling, let me know.
Tavi