BAD PALM SEEDS? HOW CAN YOU TELL?

Many people love to germinate palm seeds and make their plants. But, there are a few things you need to now right from the beginning if you want to successfully germinate.

1. Get fresh seeds. Right off the tree is best.
2. Pick seeds that are mature, often colorful. Green seeds germinate poorly.
3. Remove the fruit from the seeds until you have a clean, often tan colored inner seed. Fruit can contain chemicals that retard germination.
4. Pinch test seeds. Take the picked seeds (with or without fruit) and squeeze hard between two fingers. They should never collapse.
5. Float Test the seeds. Palm seeds almost always sink in water. Floaters are almost always bad. Inner cavities of rot within the seed make them float.
6. Cut open a few seeds. The fruit should be white or light tan, solid and without signs of rot. And, you definitely do not want to see inner cavities.
7. Always soak the cleaned seeds in pure water, especially if you had seeds shipped to you. This rehydrates them. If seeds are right off a tree and the fruit is moist and fresh, soaking is not necessary. But, they would still be cleaned of any fruit.

Photos here show seeds with fruit, the float test with floaters and sinkers and a few seeds cut open showing inner cavities (a bad sign). For techniques on germination, see our article on Palm Seed Germination at this website.

Butia capitata seeds with fresh yellow fruit	Chambeyronia seeds with red fruit Green seeds, not ready to pick	Livistona saribus seeds with blue fruit
Cleaning fruit off Jubaea chilensis	Float test: Note floating seeds	Float test – Astrocaryum seeds floating
Float Test: Note good seeds sink to bottom	Sinking seeds on float test	*Cavity in bad Astrocaryum mexicanum* seeds**
Cavity in Astrocaryum mexicanum	*Cavity in bad Gastrococos crispa* seeds**	Cavity in Gastrococus crispa