Travellers Palm - Germination
 

Ravenala madagascariensis - Travellers Palm

Anyone has experience in germinating the seeds of this plan? I'm not planning to germinate outside coz the temperature is not in high 80s or 90s here. After germination, I'm planning to grow this plant as indoor during winter and outdoor during summer.

I definitely need some help to germinate these seeds. Please help. Thanks.

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

I soaked them in water for about two days. Then I put the container of dampened seedstarting mix on top of my Bunn coffeemaker for about two weeks and they started to germinate. Keep a cover on the pot to keep it from drying out. I had 4/5 germination in about a month. I'd say the temp on top of the coffeemaker is about 95 degrees.So a regular seedstarting mat would work too.

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

nice plants but there a bit big to grow inside the house you know they get to be over 20ft tall some have been known do gorw over 30ft

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

thanks for the germination advice. i will buy a seed starting heating mat and soil mix.

yeah, they grow big, once its not manageable, we can always throw them away and start a new one. i'm jus growing them from seeds so i wont be wasting lot of money either.

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

Ravenala, like a lot of other tropicals, can take a short, medium, or long time to germinate. So whatever you do don't toss the seeds.

Size is more manageable than you think. They can survive fairly terrible light, they just don't grow fast. I have one eleven years old only five feet tall. I keep it cool in winter, too, about sixty degrees. Ravenala and Strelitzia handle the cool better than Musa and Ensete.

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

Travelers Trees are such unique and amazing-looking plants! I really want to have one someday when I have more space. I just can't justify it right now, but eventually I plan to have a good place to grow one indoors (my planned home is a geodesic dome with 30 foot ceilings, so it may be possible eventually (crazy, I know...LOL)). So with any luck, in the next 10 years I'll start growing one...but until then, I'll just ogle at photographs! :ha:

MMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm!

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

you are right llaverboi..! blessed are those people who have a big garden and home living anywhere in south florida who can grow this monster tree and make their neighbors to have 'wooow'' on their face..!!

if i can germinate and if it grows little big, i will plant it outside atleast one summer to get passers/neighbors attention

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

Yeah, if you've got such a thing, you just HAVE to show it off!! I'm sure people in Ontario don't see Travelers trees very often (aka ever). Best of luck with yours!

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

thanks folks. the seeds (travellers palm and windmill palm) came today from seedman. prompt delivery and neat packing. they put additional 5 seeds at free of cost. dont know why?

I bought seed starting kit (lot of trays with provision for bulk at the bottom and lid to cover the entire unit) and agro seed starting mix today from local nursery. The seed starting mat wasnt there, but I hope this will do the job. May be i will buy a high watt bulb (15 watt was recommended) to sustain high temperature.


Soaked seeds today and will place it in the kit after 2 days. the period of guessing and waiting starts from now.........

will keep u all posted

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

Dang...this discussion is making me really want to get one now! I found some really cheap ones on Ebay....bid is at $.99 and shipping is $7 for a 6-10 inch live plant!! PLEASE someone talk me out of this!!!! I have no space!!!! Damn my addiction!

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

I got one of those. It's in a half gallon pot. The first few leaves promptly turned brown and died. It's now sending up a big healthy one. They seem to be fairly slow growing when young and I'd guess take several years potted = in a temperate climate to reach a good impressive size. Stunning when a little larger though. You wouldn't want one anyway. There's probably a lot of other things you could use that 8 bucks for (1 cocktail out somewhere).
Hope this talked you out of a silly purchase.:ha:

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

LOL...thanks for your support against my affliction, Bob! I want one, but I really really don't need one for a few reasons. 1) I have limited space here which is already MORE than spoken for and 2) I'll be going on clinical rotations in a couple years and will not be around to take care of things so they'd have to be left with my mother at home. And to give you an estimate of how well she treats my plants...I used to have 15 very nice bonsai trees and now have ONE...if you even consider that one a full tree cause it looks terrible. It'd be much to hard on me to grow something so beautiful just to see it die a terrible death :ha: My mother even killed a lucky bamboo! How is that even done? I mean, you put it in a bowl of water and it grows! Yet she manages to have certain plants she's had for 20+ years that are doing wonderfully. Basically, if it doesn't run on the 'water once every two weeks' schedule, it probably won't last long in her care. And we all know that schedule does not work with bananas/tropicals.

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

Bryan, I understand about new doctors hours and crazy sleep deprived life so fair enough. No clue how you could actually kill lucky bamboo though! ....... With that kind of determination on her part I bet you were very well behaved as a kid!

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

LMFAO!!! :ha::ha::ha: Nah, actually I spent most of my time outside....playing with bugs, gardening or saving tiny field corn plants that got hoed up to put in our garden and growing them up to have 6 ears per plant (true story!). Yeah, still no clue on the bamboo...you have to TRY to do that! I watered the poor thing whenever I was home and that's probably the only way it survived as long as it did. LOL.

PS...mark up one more point for thread derailments! :ha:

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

PS...mark up one more point for thread derailments!
Funny how that works!:nanerwaveytrain:

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

Germination these seeds is very easy, just give them warmth. These seedlings are 5-6 months old.

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

To germinate, I used a heat mat and germination tray with clear dome. When sprouted, moved to aquarium with glass top. Kept them at about 90 degrees with high humidity. They then were moved into a greenhouse for a few months. Did EXTREMELY well there. Then moved to Las Vegas and they ended up on a covered patio. They were dead within a few months.

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

Awww....that's too bad! Sorry to hear that. Maybe if you get a greenhouse going you can control the conditions better than having them outside.

PS..seems like I was just talking to you on YouTube! LOL.

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

thanks folks for all of your comments.

I'm trying 2 methods:
1. after soaking for 2 days in warm water (bowl with water and seeds kept inside over and light turned on), i put the seeds in a container with agro seed starting mix and kept the container inside a zip log bag

2. after soakig for 3 days (same method), i put the seeds in the seed starting kit.

Lessons Learned:
I became over enthusiastic and used a 60W bulb. the bulb was so powerful that i melted some of the plastic seed starting tray and the molten plastic destroyed spot of my carpet (right now, there is a small hole in the carpet)

then i read the instructions and found that bulb has to be less than 15W. anyway, i'm now using a limited watts bulb and the temperature inside the kit is around 93F.

Re: Travellers Palm - Germination
 

Well, I finally broke down and bought a Traveler's Tree. Here's a picture of the little guy:

It's very small right now, but I'm sure in a few months or a year it'll look pretty nice. Just figured I'd share.