I ordered 10 Chusan Palm or Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) seeds Saturday night and will be getting them by mail soon and I want to know in as much detail and advice as you can of how to germinate them with a high success rate. I’ve never tried to germinate a palm seed before but I’ve read a little information on germinating them on the internet such as this site: http://www.rarepalmseeds.com/pix/TraFor.shtml Thanks very much, it will be great if I can get many or all of them to germinate. I'm in N. Alabama zone 7a (0 to 5 degrees)
Start them fresh in a damp starter mix at room temperature. No extra heat is needed for Trachycarpus fortunei (Windmill palm). "Chusan" is a term mainly used in Europe or maybe even Australia / New Zealand. You can place them in a zip-lock bag with the mix or in seed flats. Just ensure they don't dry out during the germination period. They're really quite easy. Cheers, LPN.
Thanks very much! There is a guy at this site: http://www.personal.u-net.com/~treetops/germinat.html And he said: "I tried several batches of seed or, rather, as I discovered later, batches of fruit - since Trachy seeds are covered with a thin, hard layer of dark flesh which, when dry, is virtually impossible to remove." He said he did solve his Trachy germination problem by ordering from someone that removed the thin hard fruit layer for him and that he could not solve how they removed it because the fruit was so hard. I hope they maybe removed it for me. What if the fruit is still on there, do you know of a way to remove the fruit without harming the seed so it will not mold like his did? Also, Will it help to soak the seeds in a bowl of water for about 3 days to help it germinate.
Stick to what LPN said, you'll just recieve seeds themselves. I have six year olds at school that germinate the same seeds, they are very easy. You will need one really important thing though, patience.
If your seeds are fresh, there's really no need for a pre-soak for Trachycarpus. Fresh seed is easy to come by this time of year. Don't concern yourself with the thin papery outer layer. It has no bearing on germination and you'd be wasting your time trying to remove it. Just plant 'em the way you get 'em. Cheers, LPN.
