This is Matthew of Another World, Terraria, where I teach and inspire you on the topics of rare plants and artistic nature displays. I'm super excited because a rare palm tree seed I planted, which I thought had died a long time ago, has recently germinated after over a year. In this video I'll share a bit of info and show the special process I use to prepare and plant the seed.


I got the seed from a berry my friend sent me. The species is Dypsis minuta, which is endemic to Madagascar. It's one of the smallest palm species which is fully mature at a maximum of 20 inches, but often less. I've never tried to grow a palm from seed, so I had no idea what to do with it. But I did a few hours of research and then decided to go for it.


First I squeezed the berry to get the seed out. Then I wiped the seed off with paper towels to remove some of the pulp. And I know this sounds a little crazy, but the next step was to use sandpaper to remove the hard outer surface from the seed. I used relatively fine grit and was careful not to sand off too much and damage the inside of the seed.


Next, I sterilized the seed to reduce the chance of fungal and bacterial issues. To do that, I mixed up a solution of 2.5% sodium hypochlorite and soaked the seed for about 10 minutes. Then I rinsed it off in distilled water. I mixed up a moisture retentive substrate for the seed containing fir bark fines, fine sphagnum moss particles, peat moss and fine crushed perlite.


I put a layer of perlite at the bottom of the pot to avoid the substrate from soaking up excess water and condensation, then filled the rest with the mix. Then I moistened the substrate thoroughly with distilled water. Next I placed the seed lengthwise in a hole in the soil and covered it, so it was just beneath the surface.


I printed a label with the species, date sown, and other important info, then sealed the pot inside a deli container. Then I placed it in a warm and bright location on one of my plant racks. At about six months, I started having doubts and thought about digging the seed up to see if it was still alive, but I didn't want to take the chance of disturbing it if it was still growing.


The suspense continued for months and months until eventually I just assumed the seed was dead, but I left the pot and container there anyway. Finally, one day I noticed a seedling popping up, which was so surprising I almost couldn't believe it. It'd been so long I had to check the label to see when the seed was planted, and realized it took 13 months for it to germinate.


It took me a few minutes to get over the shock and excitement of this while I sent the news to some of my plant friends. Then I decided to open the container and add some Nutricote fertilizer pellets, CalMag Complete, and TPS Root Boost. I left the lid open a bit for some airflow, and thought about maybe moving the pot to one of my grow tents, but I decided to wait a while on that.


By the way, I use clear pots for my plants, and during the painfully slow process of germinating this seed, I realized it would have been awesome if I'd placed the seed against the side of the pot so I could visually see it the entire time. If I ever plant another palm seed or another really slow species, I'll definitely give that a try.


Most palms are very slow growing, so it might be a while before I have any more updates on this plant, but we'll see. If you enjoy my videos, please consider giving them a like, and join Team Terraria by subscribing now. Remember to click the bell so you'll get notified when I post new content.