I need some instructions on how to germinate/sow SEA GRAPE seeds that I will be receiving in about a week from now.

The plants will be grown indoors, in full sun, throughout the winter months, and then, moved outdoors for the summer months.

Should I just sow in a seed-starting mix, and keep warm, or are there special methods that must be followed?

Please advise.

Frank from Da-Bronx

So I imagine simply planting them an inch or more deep in a seed-staring medium & keeping them moist & warm should do the trick.....

Thank-you so much for the quick response. I'll sow as you suggested in your post.

Are these fast growers? My plan is to grow a number of seedlings in the same large pot and train them into a standard patio-type tree/houseplant. I want to try to braid/twist the individual stems together into one "trunk" just like the do with Hibiscus/Benjamin Fig. My hope is that the stems will eventually fuse together.

Again, thanks.

Frank

I recently found a source for cleaned seeds and I ordered 500, thinking that germination failure would be very high, since all sources of information notes that these seeds are "difficult", and quickly lose viability if not sown directly after ripening.

The seed was delivered, and when I cracked open a few shells, I discovered that the seed was dry, and not fleshy. I thought that these seed kernels would look like a fresh Ginkgo seed, but instead were as dry as an ordinary Almond, and, just as crumbly. Anyway, I carefully and gently cracked away the shells on about 400 seeds, and soaked the dryish kernels in warm water overnight. The kernels swelled to twice their original size, and I then sowed them in coconut coir fiber. After 4 days, roots started growing from the tips of most of the seeds, and in a few weeks, I'll have hundreds of "Sea-Grapes" sprouting. I would bet that separating the kernels from the thin, outer shells helped get the seeds to germinate much more quickly. I hope that damping-off disease doesn't strike my crop of new treelets. The end of my "success story".

Seeds were purchased from "Banana Tree" in Easton, PA.

BronxFigs/Frank