Cycas revolutas (cycads)

[leafminer]

I have two impressive specimens of these and they are flowering. Unfortunately they are both female. If I can find a male in a nursery, in flower, does anyone know how to pollinate? I can't move the palms, they are big.

 

[pute]

I am not a breeder but I have seen a friend do it several times. If I remember right here is what he does.


Take the female with either flowers or preflowers into the bathtub.
Bring in the male. Shake his pollen over the female. Let them spend the night together. Then rinse him and kill him and bag him in the bathtub. Then rinse her off. Water kills pollen, but not after 24 hours. Rinse her and let her dry before taking her back to flower room so no pollen is taken back.

I think he bagged the male to prevent more pollen spreading.

I have also heard you can take pollen from a male and use an artist paint brush to spread it on the female flowers.

I am sure more will chime in and give a better description on what I described can be improved on.

Good luck leafminer. Hope it works out well for ya.

 

[WeedHopper]

I pollinate my Dwarf Apple trees by hand with a small artist brush.

 

[ROSTERMAN]

I pollinate my Dwarf Apple trees by hand with a small artist brush.

Oh so thats what we are calling that these days LOL

 

[ROSTERMAN]

I seen what some harvest the pollen from the male and dry it
Then get rid of male , and using a plastic bag place pollen in the bottom and slid it carefully over branch to be pollenated to not spread it to the whole plant.
Once on the branch seal the bag to the bottom stem with tape (so nothing can get out) and shake the bag around the bud.

 

[ROSTERMAN]

Kind of the same idea

 

[ROSTERMAN]

I pollinate my Dwarf Apple trees by hand with a small artist brush.

Hey Mom that strange man next door is painting apples on his tiny trees

 

[Shiloh]

So cool. I have always loved cycads, the dinosaurs of the plant world. In my natural FL gardens, I have never had to worry about pollination. I have males and females and they do their thing. I have classic sagos, cardboards and zamias. If anyone here needs seeds, feel free to PM me.

 

[Bubba]

I am not a breeder but I have seen a friend do it several times. If I remember right here is what he does.


Take the female with either flowers or preflowers into the bathtub.
Bring in the male. Shake his pollen over the female. Let them spend the night together. Then rinse him and kill him and bag him in the bathtub. Then rinse her off. Water kills pollen, but not after 24 hours. Rinse her and let her dry before taking her back to flower room so no pollen is taken back.

I think he bagged the male to prevent more pollen spreading.

I have also heard you can take pollen from a male and use an artist paint brush to spread it on the female flowers.

I am sure more will chime in and give a better description on what I described can be improved on.

Good luck leafminer. Hope it works out well for ya.

I've only done it a few times, but I had hardly any pollen. One tiny scraggly male. I really didn't think I had done it well at all.

Shouldn't have worried, there were tons of seeds!

Bubba

 

[Shiloh]

i offer as a gift classic sago seeds, also zamia seeds and cardboard palm seeds.

 

[Shiloh]

I have two impressive specimens of these and they are flowering. Unfortunately they are both female. If I can find a male in a nursery, in flower, does anyone know how to pollinate? I can't move the palms, they are big.

How are your cycads coming along? I'm in Florida, where they used to be in many landscapes. When scale pests came on strong several years ago, cycads fell out of favor---not in my ysrd, where my cycads have overcome, on their own. As I mentioned earlier, they are the dinosaurs in the plant world.

 

[Shiloh]

@leafminer , just curious, how are your cycads doing? Cycads are a passion for me. I also have staghorns almost as big as a car.

 

[leafminer]

They are doing great. I am a bit concerned though. I have, maybe 5, I think, well-developed small ones at the bases of the two large ones. And I want to remove them and pot them up, but what's the success rate? How's it done?

 

[Shiloh]

You can safely remove the pups, especially if they are showing the bulbous part. Spade or shovel betweem the main plant and pup facing you, and pry or pop with a little pressure. There is good reason cycads are the oldest living plants on earth. They want to live!

 

[Shiloh]

My cardboard cycads__

 

[Shiloh]

We are having torrential rains almost every day. I will post more pics of my cycads when weather permits. The above pic was taken from second story. At ground level they are far more impressive.

 

[leafminer]

You can safely remove the pups, especially if they are showing the bulbous part. Spade or shovel betweem the main plant and pup facing you, and pry or pop with a little pressure. There is good reason cycads are the oldest living plants on earth. They want to live!

Thank you! I'll do that.