Posted by Tom Broome on 7/15/2011, 10:42 pm, in reply to "Macrozamia communis"
205.188.117.67
--Previous Message--
: Tom, I have a 15 year old Burrawang
: palm that has had three cones. Two
: have broken apart and the seeds are
: scattering. I have read your
: germination articles. I have removed
: the red fruit from some and have set
: them up in a small aquarium
: /greenhouse on a sand base to
: experiment with germination. I have
: left them on their side rather than
: insert them into the medium( not
: quite sure which way should be up?)
: and have placed some hessian/burlap
: over them and placed them under the
: cycad. I have also set some aside
: with the fruit on and placed them in
: a cooler location out of the sun for
: the future. It seems not all the
: seeds are the plump and grape like
: fertilsed ones and I have discarded
: the empty hollow seeds. I have
: noticed that on cutting open a few
: of the grape like fertilised seeds
: to check, some are dark brown rather
: than clear-grey. Is this a normal
: condition or do these dark brown
: ones show a problem. They as yet
: have not shown any embryonic hollow
: and development which I assume is
: normal. This will develop over time
: (some months). Any comments would be
: welcome.
:
: Alan (Sydney Australia)
:
The middle of the seed is not supposed to be dark brown for any reason. That is almost always rotting of that tube area, or rotting of the embryo, depending on the current development. From my experience, by the time the female falls apart, a decent sized embryo should already be visible. Are you sure your seeds have been fertilized? Just becasue some are alrger than others does not mean for sure that they are fertile. Did you pollinate your plant, or are you in an area where they are growing and could have been pollinated by the natural pollinating insects?
Message Thread 
« Back to index