golden canes ?

[dzcook]

anyone out there know how to gerimate golden canes seeds have trees thaht have heaps of seed pods? each year but never seem to be able to grown them have planted the pods etc but nothing happens

[ozwinner]

What is a golden cane?

Al

[Gra]

ooow ooow, can I answer, hmm better not

{leaves before he gets kicked out}

[watson]

Might be a bit slow....2 -6 months to germinate.
My books reckon they can be grown from shoots at the base.
Or there's this
http://www.floridata.com/ref/C/chry_lut.cfm
Ours hasn't seeded yet.
Regards,
Noel

[chromis]

You could try to remove the hilum cover and then soak the seed in water for a couple of days before putting it in potting mix and keep it moist.

I havnt actually seen golden cane palm seeds but I imagine they might turn red or brown when mature. Leave them on the palm until they do or pick them up when they have ripened and dropped to the ground. Dont pick up the ones that have been there for days. Get the fresh ones.

Pick off all the fleshy fruit cover..

You can then pick of the hilum cover. Probally will look like an oval long shape on the top or side of the seed. If you look at it under a microscope you might see a small opening.

Anyway you can pick that off to allow the seed to absorb water and prompt germination. If it has a really hard seed coat you can scarify the coat with sand paper.

Maybe do 5 batches.

1. Seed soaked for two days
2. Seed with hilum removed, scarification and soaked for 2 days
3. Hilum removed only and soaked
4 Scarification only and soaked
5 Ripened fruit with no treatment

Make sure you keep a record in case one method worked better.

Pot them up ASAP after soaking

Even so yeah they still may take ages to germinate.

Palm societies may be able to help you. I belong to the W.A one and if I can find any info in past newsletter issues I'll post it up.

[journeyman Mick]

Don't know if it's just the tropical conditions up here, but they grow like weeds and people just hack a clump out of the bunch and plant that.

(Al, they're a type of palm, or at least they look like a palm but I've been told they're not a true palm.)

Mick

[Bleedin Thumb]

Some palms require the fruit to ferment to make the seed viable, I don't know about golden canes except what other have said about division at the roots.

[chromis]

Don't know if it's just the tropical conditions up here, but they grow like weeds and people just hack a clump out of the bunch and plant that.

(Al, they're a type of palm, or at least they look like a palm but I've been told they're not a true palm.)

Mick

Mick the person told you wrong. They definitely are a palm from the Dypsis genus.

[dzcook]

sorry they are so common up here just took it for granted everyone would know what they where

when seperating them at the base do you need roots or will they grow from the sucker and if so what would you do to them ie trim back leaves etc?

have tried to grow before from sucker but just died after a few weeks

have some very big ones in yard 16ft high and would like to have them moved but been told that it would cost hundreds to do so and survival rate would be low so thought i would try the seeds and then just cut down the clumps that arent needed

will try the seed methods suggested and see what happens
thanks to all

[Bleedin Thumb]

I'd try dividing them first. dig a wide trench around the root ball, pick a good clump shape with some young suckers and get an axe and hack the clump off without cutting too much root off.
a backhoe is the tool for this job really.
Once you have relocated the clump water in with some root hormone such as auximone? not sure of spelling. cut of as many old fronds as you can to reduce transpiration and keep the water up.

Edit The hormone is Auxinone

[rod1949]

You must have some pretty mature GC's to be producing seeds. I recently transplanted (potted into 400lt bags) a couple of 12yr old GC's by hand (a lot of grunt and sweat), they didn't look back and as yet no seeds.

[chromis]

Rod

It might be the conditions in perth and the fact you transplanted them..

I've seen them get a white flower sets but no seed. Maybe I just havnt noticed.

[MAPLEMAN]

Put the seeds in a concrete mixer with some coarse sand to remove the seed coating. Then place seeds in a mixture of fulvic acid and seasol for a day. then plant in styraphome boxes in a mix of 1 part coarse sand, 1 part potting mix 1 part peat. Spray soil with seaweed solution prior to and after sprouting, always keep moist. Another way is to put it in a clear plastic bag with some rotting leaf litter in a dark place keep moisture up. You can find fulvic acid at Nutritech Solutions company. Look them up on the internet, they are the best fertilizer producers in the southern hemisphere. Good Luck.