Monkey Puzzle Tree

[katijah2]

Has anyone tried growing this tree from seed?

I have the seed, tried two got nowhere so  I bought the tree from Ebay later.

 

[David Pilling]

Yes. The seed needs to be really really fresh. Buy it off ebay - presumably sort out the people who are selling fresh seed, about this time of year from anyone base enough to be storing it and selling it.

I've had three lots off ebay and they all germinated around 90%+. I had one lot of quite expensive seed from a seed company which proclaimed it had been kept refrigerated and all that failed.

Keep the seed warm and moist, the old zip seal bag with kitchen towel works even for these big seeds.

I recall the seed made the last SRGC seedex, some remarks about it by Prof. Pawley.

Keeping the trees alive has been more of a problem - they are in the vine weevil top 10 dishes. So gotta dowse with Provado, also extremely slow growing. I did find amongst the seed I grew that some grew bigger and faster than others.

I tend to neglect them, they get pushed to the back of the greenhouse. Even big trees are slow growing. It is the sort of project one should take up as a 10 year old. I have seen 40 years quotes as time from sowing to setting seed.

They come in male and female versions so really one needs a grove of half a dozen.

I've seen lots of single specimens, but never got close to some bearing nuts. These must be common - hence the folk selling them on ebay.

[Hoy]

I have twice planted seed from trees growing here and they have always germinated the following spring.

[Kristl Walek]

It is actually an extremely easy seed to germinate.
The trick is that you have to have fresh nuts that have not dried out.
The nuts have to be plump, or else there is no embryo inside.

Stick the pointed end into the soil in a very deep pot (1/2-3/4 of the way in)
Do not allow soil to dry out.
Keep in a warm spot.
Emergence of a VERY LONG root comes first, long before there is any top growth.
Root emergence can be in a few weeks to many months (I have observed this germinating them inside large zip lock bags).

Eventually top growth begins on the side of the nut.

Growth is very slow.

When I list them in my seed catalogue, I keep the nuts moist packed in vermiculite inside a zip lock & hope they sell fast before they all germinate.

[Martin Tversted]

I agree with Kristl.
It also seems like they start out digging deep, producing a small top for photosynthesis and then spend time digging deeper. Fresh nuts are easy.

Martin

[katijah2]

Thanks everyone!

I bought them from a nursery.

They said fridge them if you can't use right away. They are in a salad container (tight lid) in the salad box at the bottom of the fridge  apart from two, they have been there  since they arrived.

Nothing doing yet..

[David Pilling]

I'd guess the thing is not to let them dry out - cold + damp ==OK, cold + dry ==dead

[Rick R.]

If you didn't put something with moisture in the container with them, like a damp paper towel, or moist sphagnum moss or vermiculite (as Kristl does), then I venture that the seeds will still dry out over time.  If you use sphagnum moss, than you will know when it gets too dry:  the sphagnum will begin to change color (lighter) signaling a drying out.

[Richard Green]

I cannot see a Monkey Puzzle tree without laughing - and thinking about the Scots botanist Archibald Menzies who introduced the tree into the UK in the 1790s.

You have probably heard the story which goes that he was served the seeds as a dessert at a dinner held by the Governor of Chile in Valparaiso.  He pocketed a few of the unfamiliar seeds from the dinner table without causing any diplomatic incident.

Archibald sowed the seeds on board his return voyage, where they germinated before he arrived back in the UK.  So we have known for over 200 years that “fresh, warm and damp” works as far as germination is concerned.

Would any of us have filled their mouths with the seeds rather than their pockets in similar circumstances?

[johnw]

You have probably heard the story which goes that he was served the seeds as a dessert at a dinner held by the Governor of Chile in Valparaiso.  He pocketed a few of the unfamiliar seeds from the dinner table without causing any diplomatic incident.

Richard - Great story, I hadn't heard that one.  Our local society has a great Decemeber meeting where members bring a plate of food and sweets.  Awhile back someone also brought rare seed of Davidia involucrata v. vilmroiniana to pass out to members. Unfortunately the tray was left on the food table and a Dutch friend of mine ate them all.  No one could figure out where the seeds got to until friend commented on the fine food selection aside from those horrid nuts that needed salt or something.

johnw

[Richard Green]

a Dutch friend of mine ate them all

John, your friend was very lucky that they were not some deadly species !

[Lesley Cox]

So for you Richard, they would have been amused monkeys rather than puzzled. I wonder if the seeds are big enough to peel prior to eating and maybe the Gov expected his guests to do that before eating.

I do know someone who brought a seed into NZ stuck between two almost front teeth. It later germinated.

[Richard Green]

The Governor may well have been puzzled !

[johnw]

a Dutch friend of mine ate them all

John, your friend was very lucky that they were not some deadly species !

True. Had they been Laburnum I doubt if she'd have made it to the point of commenting on the salt requirement.

johnw

[fermi de Sousa]

a Dutch friend of mine ate them all

John, your friend was very lucky that they were not some deadly species !

True. Had they been Laburnum I doubt if she'd have made it to the point of commenting on the salt requirement.

johnw

The fact that she them all is a bit disturbing - hadn't she been taught to share?
cheers
fermi