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Re: Anyone growing banksias from seed?

>I've just taken posession of 5 Banksia Menseizii seeds. Anyone out there
>with experience propogating
>Banksias? What did you sow them in, did you feed them anything? What are
>you growing them in
>now? What about damping off?
>
>  Samantha
>
>Samantha Lane                          slx@ansto.gov.au
>ANSTO
>PMB1 Menai 2234
>Australia
>
>http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/2218/

Hi Samantha.

I've just tried my first Banksias from seed (B. ericifolia and B.
oreophila).  Got the seeds out of the cones by baking the cones in a 250
deg. oven for an hour -- they looked totally charred when the came out, but
were obviously still viable:  I sowed five of each variety in damp paper
towels (i.e. the Deno method). Got pretty quick germination (I guess it was
a week or two) from B. ericifolia;  transferred the germinated seedlings to
a sterile mix of coco peat and perlite, where they seem to be doing fine.
Six weeks after the fact, I'm just now seeing the first signs of activity
from B. oreophila.  They're still in paper towels at the moment, but will
get moved into soilless mix soon.  I'm not exactly sure what to do about
fertilizing them -- haven't looked them up yet to see if they can tolerate
potassium (or is it phosphorus that some of these Proteaceae have trouble
with?  my brain isn't quite engaged yet this morning).

Hope this is of some use.

Phil Stevens
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