Posted by Tom Broome on 11/18/2005, 10:59 pm, in reply to "Seeds:" --Previous Message--
152.163.100.203
: Can someone please tell me at what age
: do cycas,zamias,macrozamias and
: dioons start producing seeds and
: cones,i would like a detailed
: description please.
:
If you want a detailed explaination, it would probably take an hour to write everything. You can't generalize any genus, and would have to deal with it all on a specis basis. To complicate it all, it isn't how long it takes. Cycads cone when they are healthy, happy, and most important, a certain size. Cycas contain starch. They have to have enough starch mass to handel the strain of holding seeds. If it takes plants twice the time to grow them to a certain size in your area compared to Florida, then I might be able to get seeds on a certain species in 5 years, where you might take 10 years. I can only generalize here. Sagos or Cycas revoluta will produce a female cone when it gets 1 foot of trunk, where a male will produce a cone at 6 inches. Here in Florida it takes about 10 years to get a female and about 7 years for a male. Some rare cycas like debaoensis can produce a female cone in 5 years. Zamias are fast, you can get males in 2 to 3 years and females from 3 to 4 years for the most part. Macrozamias take a long time in Florida. Could be 15 to 20 years or more for macrozamias. Dioon edule can cone in 10 years, but might take a lot longer. D. spinulosum can do it in about 10 years. D. merolae or purpusii, might take 20 to 30 years, or more.
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