Hi Kao,

Good ideas to try cold palms. Are you in the mountains of NM? European fan palms will like some of the dryness of NM but need to be covered in a 5b zone and given some heating source like lights. Same with tracky. Grow seedlings in pots for the first 2-3 years and plant in the warm Spring on southern exposure. Sorry I don't know germ times.

Here's my track - they need some space.

I havent started windmill palms from seed, but I have started them from very small seedlings about 3-5 months old. They are very slow growers when young and they continue to grow slow unless repotted. Mine are too big for their one gallon pots now, but they are 4 years old. If I put them in the ground a few years back, they would be a much nicer size, but in comparison to Washingtonias, they are slow growers!
I never had much patience for growing palms from seed, but if you dont mind waiting about 10 years for a nice sized palm, I would highly recommend planting seeds! It also gives you an opportunity to plant a lot of them very cheaply.

Good luck!
-Alex

Clean,then soak them in water for a few days to a week.
Make sure you keep the water fresh/clean.

I germinate mine in sterile sphagnum moss or perlite,slightly moist.

They will take anywhere from a few days to 1-2 years to germinate....
shorter time is for fresh seeds.

I like to have palms at various stages of growth,that way
you don't turn into a nutter waiting for your seeds to sprout!

Hey thanks!
@ Greg thanks for advise yeah I live in the NW NM platue so have like part forest and on the western side of town like desert with mesas lol its weird im like 15 miles from the arizona border so surrounded by beautiful mesas and get hot in summer but cold in winters. Yeah i was planning on keepping all the palms in pots utill they mature a bit. but thanks nice pictures of your windmill palm what do you do to protech from the winter weather?

@ Alex 10 Years? omg wow thats a long time lol but i think i have the patience to wait that long geez ill be 40 by then uggh... lol yup i got these windmill seeds for cheap but ill give it a try if not ill just by one somewhere. haha thanks for the info though.

@ Jimhardy
hello there, yeah i think ill do what i did with my w. robustas that i have i think you told me to do what your telling me with the w. robustas when i was getting started with palm planting. But i dont know about 1 to 2 years to germanate thats crazy. but i guess thats how some palms are. lol hahah well thank you once again

Thanks guys for the info you guys are a great help im new to palm planting and stuff so this site is a great site.
thank you
kelly

I sprouted both Mediterranean Fan and Windmill seeds this spring. The Med Fans sprouted fairly quickly and with a better percentage compared to the Windmills. Med Fans took a few weeks; Windmills a few extra weeks to two months. Only a few Windmill seeds germinated and I only am left with three growing seedlings that are an inch or two tall with ovalish leaves, they but are getting a second leaf. The Med Fans are about 8" tall with long straight leaves, but none have produced a second leaf yet.

Sounds like you're in Farmington.

@ Wetsuiter
oh cool where did you get the Med Fan seeds? cool ill try out med fan palms also and the windmill palm also see how they do. Thanks for commentting and no im not in Farmington im in Zuni NM. its was raining last night and it is currently 60 degrees mostly cloudy scarered showers and chilly feels like fall. lol it might snow soon uggh.

I collected the Med Fan seeds in Balboa Park, San Diego. I sprouted them indoors, but planted them in the garden in protected spots. In theory the will grow here. I have several larger ones that I planted in the spring.

Interestingly, the windmill seeds were locally (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware) grown on a friend's mature palm that produces viable seeds every year. His palms have been in the ground unprotected for about 13 years and are between 10 and 15 feet tall.

oh wow thats cool how many med fans do you have in your yard?

I have one medium sized (10 gal pot) one that has multiple pups. It was a bargain from Home Depot in early spring. It's really beautiful and nearly doubled in size since I planted it. I deliberately placed it in a microclimate in front of the front porch and tucked between two large camellias that will block the wind in the winter. I will do some added winter protection since is the first year.

I later found two smaller Med fans (3 gal) at another HD farther north and farther inland. I figured it was my duty to adopt them since people farther from the beach wouldn't realize what they were or know how to take care of them in their slightly colder zone. They've done very well too and also put out quite a few fronds. I think one may be a silver variety due to its noticeable silver tinge compared to the other one.

Then I have the five seedlings that I sprouted indoors. Purely as an experiment, I planted them just as they started to get a root sprout and they all did great. We'll see if they can take winter. I had one "backup" in a pot, but a squirrel found the palm nut to be irresistible and ate it. Tossed aside the green leaves and the fine mesh from the peat pod it was started in and left the empty pot. One of these days that squirrel will end up in a stewing pot.

lol oh wow scared of you mr green thumb