With most palms, a firm moist white embryo is indicative of good seed. As time passes, the embryo will pull away from the seed coat and turn yellow and calcify. We recommend floating off any light seed, then soaking the remaining seed overnight. We float all of the palm seed we harvest during cleaning. There are a few varieties that all float, so it is good to check with us if you have a batch with a lot of floating seed.
Most palm seeds germinate well in a sand, peat and perlite germinating media.
Scarification and other means of accelerating germination are possible for some species. In most commercial facilities though, special treatments are too labor intensive and expensive to do. Although this column is too short to delve into the requirements of many species, I will try to summarize some of the main genera that we handle. I highly recommend reviewing articles in the Palm Society Journal and the International Plant Propagators Society on seed germination and storage. If you have any questions, please call.