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Re: Arlons Blog: Propagating Cycas revoluta "aurea" by seed

Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2013 6:58 pm
by Arlon Tishmarsh
Propagating Cycas revoluta "aurea" by seed

I've always had a hankerin' for "aurea" but the silly prices of plants and lack of availability has always put me off. Not to be confused with the "variegate" form ,which to me looks like any sickly revoluta, i quite like the yellow tipped form of "aurea" . So i bought in some seed from Italy, which promptly arrived on saturday. The parent plants were both "aurea" so that should increase the chances of "aurea" offspring but its not guaranteed. Neither is germination for that matter, as i understand they can be fairly hit and miss. They've been soaking in warm water since saturday and today i removed the rest of the fruit with my trusty wire toothbrush............

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A quick dip into some hydrogen peroxide just in case there's any nasties lurking................

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all nice and clean and ready for sowing tomorrow after another overnight soak in warm water...............

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I'm out on a bit of limb as i've never attempted cycad seeds before. I've done some reading up and taken advice from "good fellows" like Mike Kenchington. I have my method fairly well drilled in my mind , ready to implement tomorrow.

Re: Arlons Blog: Propagating Cycas revoluta "aurea" by seed

Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2013 7:43 pm
by Yorkshire Kris
Keep us updated, and hopefully you'll be lucky with what sprouts.

Re: Arlons Blog: Propagating Cycas revoluta "aurea" by seed

Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2013 9:01 pm
by miketropic
Arlon Tishmarsh wrote:Propagating Cycas revoluta "aurea" by seed

I've always had a hankerin' for "aurea" but the silly prices of plants and lack of availability has always put me off. Not to be confused with the "variegate" form ,which to me looks like any sickly revoluta, i quite like the yellow tipped form of "aurea" . So i bought in some seed from Italy, which promptly arrived on saturday. The parent plants were both "aurea" so that should increase the chances of "aurea" offspring but its not guaranteed. Neither is germination for that matter, as i understand they can be fairly hit and miss. They've been soaking in warm water since saturday and today i removed the rest of the fruit with my trusty wire toothbrush............

[ Image ]

A quick dip into some hydrogen peroxide just in case there's any nasties lurking................

[ Image ]

all nice and clean and ready for sowing tomorrow after another overnight soak in warm water...............

[ Image ]

I'm out on a bit of limb as i've never attempted cycad seeds before. I've done some reading up and taken advice from "good fellows" like Mike Kenchington. I have my method fairly well drilled in my mind , ready to implement tomorrow.

show off :lol:

Re: Arlons Blog: Propagating Cycas revoluta "aurea" by seed

Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 10:33 am
by Arlon Tishmarsh
Yorkshire Kris wrote:Keep us updated, and hopefully you'll be lucky with what sprouts.
If i get just one viable plant , Kris, i'll be a happy chappy.
miketropic wrote: show off :lol:
My prep probably is a bit OCD ........ :lol:

Last night i put a thermometer in the prop which only gives me 21 deg. Aurea it seems require 25 / 30 deg. So this morning i honed out a bit of old poly packaging and came up with a snug fitting cover for the seed box. Hopefully that'll bump the temp up in the seed box to close to 30deg, a "hotbox" inside a "hot box"

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Onto the seed sowing. I'm using 100% perlite. Hopefully that'll keep the seeds moist but with enough drainage to stop any seeds rotting. They don't need light as a stimulus, just heat and humidity, so the poly box won't / shouldn't hinder germination.

Microwaving the seed box to sterlize / warm up the perlite ........

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in with the Cycas revoluta "aurea" seeds......

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poly box cover on and into the heated prop with some aroids for company..........

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Early indications look good for the poly box as temps under there are 28deg.

Its now in the lap of the gods.

Re: Arlons Blog: Propagating Cycas revoluta "aurea" by seed

Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 4:43 pm
by kata
Have the last pic sprouted from those egg looking seed?

icon_cheers

Re: Arlons Blog: Propagating Cycas revoluta "aurea" by seed

Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 6:09 pm
by Arlon Tishmarsh
Only went in the propagator today, Kata. It'll be a while yet before they germinate.

Re: Arlons Blog: Propagating Cycas revoluta "aurea" by seed

Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 6:34 pm
by pdid
So it's you whose been nicking my Tupperware boxes. I want them back! :lol:

Good look with the seeds Mark, I don't think you could give them much more TLC.

Re: Arlons Blog: Propagating Cycas revoluta "aurea" by seed

Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 6:43 pm
by DiCasS
They look nice and cosy in there Arlon :D I germinate mine in the same way, lid the container and pop them into my prop. I have the same problem as you, my prop only rises to 27 degrees and have to raise the temperature as best I can during Winter with some seeds, but generally have good results with the Cycads I've tried.

Hope your revs turn out to be the image of their parents icon_thumleft

Di

Re: Propagating Cycas revoluta 'aurea' by seed

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 7:11 am
by Arlon Tishmarsh
Propagating Cycas revoluta "aurea" ..SUCCESS !

A quick update on the topic started here...........

http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk/forum/v ... start=1305

A little over four months later and with just four cycas revoluta "aurea" seeds left of the original ten.......some success at last drunken_smilie1 . All four have now split the seed casing and one is putting out a shoot/root.

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The shooter..............

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This little fella needs to be taken out of the seedbox as it now needs light as well as warmth. So, once again i'm using the split pop bottle / mini greenhouse method. It's in pure moist perlite at the moment until i can pop out and get some cactus mix.

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Back on with the bottle top and then back into the heated prop...........

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Although there's no guarantee it'll have the "aurea" traits, despite both parents being "aurea" themselves, at least its a step in the right direction. Hopefully the other three remaining seeds will shoot soon, although i'm told there's no guarantee of that either just because the casing has split.

Happy days...........