Trachycarpus fortunei seed germination

wxman · Post by **wxman** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 5:12 pm

Planted 2,000 trachy seeds in the end of November. Within the last few weeks I'm finally starting to see movement with the seeds. They are pushing radicles out and down into the soil. At first I didn't heat my basement and it was 62-64F during the day and around 59-60F at night. About 3 weeks ago, I put a space heater in the area to heat it up to 70F during the day and right after that is when I started to finally see movement. I have three bins with about 700 seeds in each, so I'm anxiously awaiting to see how many I will get to germinate. Here are some pictures.

Now, when can I start to see movement above ground?

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:39 pm

Hi Tim

You went for the small pack of Tracy seeds?

Boy that's a lot of work. I remember when Kiril sent me 3,000 of his Bulgarian palm seeds back in 2000......my wife did not care for the 10 flats of seedlings in the kitchen. I could not understand.......does't everybody keep seedlings all over the house in winter?

wxman · Post by **wxman** » Sat Feb 04, 2012 10:04 pm

TimMAz6 wrote:Hi Tim

You went for the small pack of Tracy seeds?

Boy that's a lot of work. I remember when Kiril sent me 3,000 of his Bulgarian palm seeds back in 2000......my wife did not care for the 10 flats of seedlings in the kitchen. I could not understand.......does't everybody keep seedlings all over the house in winter?

Yeah I went for the gold on this project. I plan on selling them summer of 2013 to help promote hardy palms in my state. I'm going to be starting a new batch of seeds each winter, so will hopefully be able to keep selling young windmill palms every summer. My grow area in the basement can accommodate approximately 600 4" pots, so if much more than that germinate I will need to come up with another grow area. Should be good until fall though as I don't think I will be potting these up until it's warm enough for them to go right outside this year.

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 5:00 am

Hi Tim

I'd expect 80% or more germ rate.....2000x0.8=1600. Start finding more room!

Cameron_z6a_N.S. · Post by **Cameron_z6a_N.S.** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:51 pm

Great work, wxman! It should not be too long (a couple weeks or less) until the first spears start popping up.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:27 am

Nice, wxTim, I've been wondering about your seeds.

Many people say Trachies, etc. etc. prefer cool germinating temps.
IMO why would anyone want to extend the germination time by not heating them.
You proved the heater is a good idea.

TimMA,

doesn't everybody keep seedlings all over the house in winter?

Yeah, what's the matter with that???

Have you got a pic of those 3,000 Bulgarian trachies?
Barb

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Mon Feb 06, 2012 3:01 pm

Hi Barb,

I'll try to find some of those old photos.....the old fashion ones....those predate digital photos! I got some of the testing photos on my old web site if your interested I scanned in the photos when I did test plots in the yard to see how hardy the bulgarians were. I remember sending 300 of the bulgarians to Ian Barclay too. They may still be alive!

It's a fortunecity site. My Nortons Virus software says to keep away since it's a malicious site!

Type in 'cold hardy plants' and look for the fortune city address.