I ordered a ton of these last week for Ron, Chad and I. I am keeping my fingers crossed for viability as I spent a fortune on them. I had good luck with both Araucaria angustifolia and A. araucana x angustifolia (F2) I got from them. I can't believe they have Dacrydium araucarioides and Neocallitropsis too! I wish they had some Agathis. Surely this will have been the first time Araucaria scopulorum was offered commercially outside of NC. None of these will be hardy for the vast majority of people on this forum. Even here, I can't keep A. columnaris alive through winter, so I am doubtful about most of these too.

I was under the impression that most Araucareacea could be grown indoors, at least?

....hope it isn't an April fools joke.

Is Strybing going to plant out A rulei and other Araucariae?

Eric
Orlando,FL

I recall seeing a big A. angustifolia at Strybing. Is it not still there?

Jason

....I ordered just one packet of N. pancheri.

....time to find out what, if anything, comes out of them.

(doesn't NC still ban seed exports ??)

Resin

F

Interesting note on the Araucarias - 2 phenotypes were observed for all but 1 species. Some were totally purple and some green. There were also a few with only 2 or 3 cotyledons (vs. normal 4). I have observed purple color in A. rulei from another source, so this must be normal for sect Eutacta.

Thanks for the other updates -- sounds rather encouraging !

.....so far the only seed that has sprouted !

Too early to say for definite, but could well be. Do the cast-off seed shells look like what you sowed?

Resin

Neo may still be in the Matrix :O)

Do you folks have any luck germinating Araucaria rulei? It is a very very incredible plant with almost plastic like scale foliage.

Arida - I had good germination of A. rulei. Just soaked them overnight in water, then planted them narrow end down halfway into the medium. They were germinating in 10 days. I think I had 60-70% succes with this species. A. montana was even better. I also had good success with A. laubenfelsii and A. scopulorum - less for nemorosa and luxurians.

...we're FAR from home-free !! ...a single germination can be lost like that !

Good questions though -- would like to know the answer myself !

Joey - Glad to hear you had such good germination. You have immediately increased the diversity of southern hemisphere conifers for Strybing.

Eric
Orlando,FL

Any updates on Retrophyllum minor germination?

A. laubenfelsii 10 out of 10
A scopulorum 7 out of 10
A montana 20 out of 43
A rulei 3 out of 10
A luxurians 3 out of 10
A nemerosa 4 out of 10
I am still fairly optimistic that I will get a few more up as from my experiences, most seed of this genus will give results for up to 12 weeks once sown.

Got my 10 araucauria rulei seeds. This is a plant i wanted for a very very long time. After sowing in 7 - 10 days, i have about 6 out of 10 germinating. I can see another "crack" so the tally could be 7/10. However, there are some seedlings that are tan in color vs green. Any idea why?

Temp: 26-30 C
Singapore

Yes I would be interested in those seeds
please Email me.

A. laubenfelsii 6 of 10
A. montana 7 of 11
A. rulei 8 of 10

I was nervous because I got the seed pretty late compared to you all. Now to carry them happily through the cool to cold winter of southern Japan...

Two A. laubenfelsii showing the purple and green forms:

It should be interesting to see how they develop as they age. I know I'm excited!

following on from my previous listing no further germination occured.

My A. laubenfelsii out performed your result with 100% success, however your older A. rulei seed out perormed mine easily as I only had 4/10 germinate. I am happy just the same as to have these species at all.
The first true leaves have formed and all are looking remarkably healthy and with spring having arrived I expect they will take off any minute now. If I had any idea of how to put some photos up I would.
Cheers
Tasmanii

Jason, if RPS has any of those in the future, I'll jump at them, especially the muelleri.

What ticks me off is that the relatively common A. araucana can't be shipped to Japan - silly, silly given that breeding populations are established all over the world and the seed they offer isn't from the wild. International law can be very unbalanced sometimes. Ah well...

G'Day plantfreak,
Unfortunately the CITES legislation doesn't discriminate between wild and cultivated populations of A araucana seed which probably makes sense when you think about it, I mean it would be too easy for unscrupulous traders to list wild collected seed as being from cultivated plants, its the only thing that would make sense to me.
Good luck with your seedlings
Cheers
Tasmanii

Can I have your Email address please

Resin

It is rather complicated!!

Click on your 'My Page', go to the yellow bottom row, and near the right end, click on 'Member Pages'.

At that page, click on the 2nd line 'Edit Your Personal Information, Page, and Preferences'. It'll throw up your member login page; click on the 'Login' button.

This will give you an editable version of your member page; go to near the bottom of this, on a pale yellowish background, put a tick in the box next to 'Allow other users to send you email via forms at our site'.

Then click on 'Save Your Member Profile' at the end.

It should work! (I think!!)

Resin

http://www.rarepalmseeds.com/de/small.shtml#conifers

just got my order from RPS this week (Retrophyllum, Neocallitropsis, Agathis) ... Retrophyllum was growing already in the envelope

http://groovy-garden.blogspot.com/2011/03/retrophyllum-minor.html

Agathis ovata started sprouting after after few days ... so far 4 seeds only

Groovy

thanks. here is the agathis ... another 3 started sprouting today
http://groovy-garden.blogspot.com/2011/04/agathis-ovata.html
now waiting for Neocallitropsis ;-)

Groovy

I use a proprietry mix, both for seed raising and for potting on.Basically both are composted bark and coarse river sand of roughly equal proportions. I pricked out the seedlings into the growing media once they were around 25mm high and fertilise regularly with a seaweeed extract liquid plant tonic and fertiliser, applied fortnightly. I currently have the seedlings sitting on a heat mat at 28C over winter and will remove outside once spring arrives in September. Once they establish a bit they should handle our climate but as young seedlings I think our winter frosts and cool ambient winter temperatures may pose a bit of a problem. Araucaria biramulata, A. columnaris, A. montana, A rulei and Agathis ovata all do well here outdoors. I will update their progress from time to time.

You can count me in, would be very interested in exchange, I do have a few rarer bits and pieces that may be of interest. The New Caledonian stuff always gets me excited. I will email you a list of what I have going including seeds of some interesting conifers.
cheers
Tasmanii

The following info is only of a very general nature but if you have a question regarding a particular Genus or species there are many knowledgable folk on the forum that will be able to help you out.

Germination strategies can differ from species to species but personally, I would be forgetting about wet tissue paper, cotton wool etc etc,. Get yourself a quality seed raising mix that is moisture retentive but well drained and put your seed in that cause thats where home is going to be for the next 3-24 months.

There are many factors that may assist with germination,too many to mention here but a few include, some seed benefit by soaking in water overnight before sowing followed by a period of cold stratification of 28- 120 days so as to simulate normal exposure to Winter conditions, some require exposure to high light levels and others not, some that need to be sown within a short time of collection because of a short seed viability period, some that need to pass through an animal's/bird's digestive system and some that require no special treatment at all.

The general idea is to try and mimic what the seed of a specific species would go through in nature and when it is more likely to germinate. The one thing that doesn't change is that fresh seed is always best. So you see it can really depend on what you are wanting to grow.

Heat mats can be beneficial for "extending" the growing season in cooler climates but are generally unnecessary for the amateur gardener until they get a little more "serious" about propagating. Having said that, there are some very good, relatively cheap small units available and there are a few different styles of heat mats to choose from but its best to get one with a thermostat to give you more effective control over the temperatures as some seed will not germinate if the temperature remains constant. A reasonable quality 4 tray heatmat with thermostat will set you back around AU$230.00 (150 GBP), and there are a lot worse places than eBay to look for one, after all you can shop around and have one delivered to your door without leaving home.

Once you sow your seed, keep it constantly moist but not wet and never let the seed raising mix dry out, especially once the seed has germinated.
Good luck!