Post-Germination Blues

[Estiva]

I've had little success growing palms from seed. Not that I've had any problem with getting the palms to germinate--I've had near 100% with Washingtonias, about 80% with Sabals, and about 40% with Rhapidophyllum Hystrix (which is about average for them). I have better luck outside!!! (Currently, 1 Takil, 1 Fortunei, 3 Hystrix)

My trouble is that they seem to shoot up to a couple of inches with maybe a couple of strap leaves, then slowly wither. Ironocally, my best success so far is a Trachycarpus Fortunei "Bulgaria" that I got from Kiril Donov www.polarpalm.net. One of the Bulgarias has four leaves.

Also, I have a reoccuring issue about watering--too much? Too little? Some of my seedlings have the yellow/brown tip. I assume this is overwatering, but I'm not sure. The rest of the palm will look great.

Then I have some that seem to just dry up, those getting generally the same amount of moisture. I give all my palms good drainage, with a mix of peat and perlite.

I have transplanted all of these to plastic cups since germinating in a peat mixture.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Knnn]

I was using the plastic cups for a while but found they were taking way too long to dry out, switched to the 20oz styrofoam ones which seems to help. They dry out a lot quicker and there has been no problem with roots " sticking" to the material.

I tend to overwater, to compensate, I have been using a good quality "off the shelf" mix with about 30% Perlite added. A lot of these mixes have fertiler incorporated into them which can be bad thing for seedlings, ( burns the roots ) Unless you can find a straight mix its always a good idea to flush the containers with water several times when potting up small seedlings. It is hard to overwater a Palm when its 80*F+ ambient, but as the temps drop so should the moisture content in your medium.

Bright filtered sunlight usually seems to work out the best as far as seedlings go, direct sun will burn foliage until they get bigger.

Just some thoughts......


Steve

[tropicman]

I to have been using the clear plastic 16 oz,cups,and haven't had any problems with them.
After the plant has put on a few true leaves,or several strap leaves I move them up into a folger plastic
2 gallon coffee cans(drink lots of coffee,and want to do my part in the recycle of plastic products),besides that there cheap,and have lots of them!!!
But always looking for something better,so I might give the styafoam cups a try as well,just that with the clear ones I can see the roots,and can tell how there doing.
I just switched from using mircle grow potting mix,to sta-green shrub and tree planting hole potting soil,I think it might have a little fertilizer in it too,but they say after the true leaves,which is any leaves after three,you should start a little feeding,and buy using this mix,I'm hoping it will help jump start my seedlings.
I've not had too much damping off problem with any of my palm seedlings as of yet,but in the past my papayas seedlings have all bit the dust after reaching a foot tall,with the miracle grow,and know I just have a bunch of new red carribean seedlings a couple inches tall now,and will transplanting them in the sta-green mix,to see if I can get them to make it more than a foot of growth.
So it's a wait and see program before I can tell any difference in the soil mixes.
Don

[oppalm]

Estiva - you might try misting the seedlings a little more and running fan 8-10 hours every day in the room they are in. A fan creates air movement so stagnant air is not a problem. Don't get carried away in misting so much the water drips off the plant, but a light misting seems to help my palms alot. Plus you don't have to water as often with the extra humidity. I also stick to a strict watering schedule of Wednesays and Saturdays for my seedlings in small containers. In my opinion the palms are better off being a little dry as to a little wet. Just my thoughts.

[Kansas]

Weird thing on my seedlings, I used to water about once a week or so and I was lossing seedlings left and right.
I got tired of lossing seedlings and got tired of wasting water on trees that would die so I stopped watering. Ever since then my seedlings have never looked better and it's been weeks since I had to throw away a dead one.

[oppalm]

Kansas (Wes) - good point. I reread my post and I have to agree that less is better. I should point out that I never drench my seedlings to the point that water is coming out the bottom. I use the 16oz Silo plastic cups for seedlings. I have experimented with the amount of watering I do and know just how much to use to wet the medium without draing out the bottom, which for a seedling you don't want the medium to be a sloppy mess. I also use a very small watering can (maybe 1/2 gallon) so I don't overwater.