Hello Karin,

it is improbable that spores germinate when fronds died. But, try it....it is easy to test..... do the fertile fronds in an envelope and look after few days. Sometimes are spores very long in the sporecases. When fronds get dry they fall out and you can see a brown powder at the bottom of the envelope. You can sow that in a small plastic beaker with 2 cm peat. Do a cover at this beaker and wait ca. 4 to 8 weeks.
with a little luck you can see first protalli after this time.
regards
Athyriana
www.farngarten.de

Most spores have already left the leaf. Some probably remain, but there may not be enough. In addition to trying to grow them yourself, another thing to keep in mind is that the spores that fell are probably on the ground nearby or in the pot--I've found that so long as you keep things moist, you can often get "volunteer" plants in pots & ground where good numbers of spores have fallen.

Patrick Alexander

Thanks folks. One of the reasons I left the poor thing alone for so long was in case some stray spore did decide to germinate, but I'm guessing it would have happened within the season. Also I need to move the pot as we are redoing that part of the yard. But I will give the material I have retrieved a try; it can't hurt.