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RE: Anyone growing banksias from seed?

Banksias are not tolerant of phosphate fertilizers!
You can kill them with even a moderate application especially seedlings!
They grow mainly in extremely well drained sandy soils, I mean real sand
here! gutless deep white or yellow sand that goes down seemingly
forever.
The soils in their native habitat are extremely impoverished and the
plants roots can actually (through a process I've forgotten from my
Plant Physiology days) actively provide phosphates for plant growth, can
someone take this further? (a bit like a legume nodulates and provides
Nitrogen for growth).
So use fertilizers sparingly with no phosphate and they will do fine,
they generally do not like being transplanted (the root systems are
fragile, so transplant before they get to big), I have always put the
freshly germinated seed straight into the ground and protected it
carefully from snails, dogs, cars etc.
You can also get seed from cones by putting them on a BBQ coals and
watch them flare up! real  good fun! the valves open up and I use a
skewer like tool to prise the seed out.
Most seed will germinate within a week or two at about 15-25° Celcius.
There is no real seed dormancy once they are out of the cone, that would
be self defeating as they have, useually a nice fresh ash seed bed to
germinate in as soon as the first rains come along.
It really is quite something to see all the baby Banksia and Dryandra
seedlings popping up after the first rain after a fire.

Cheers, Rod

> ----------
> From: 	Philip Stevens
> Sent: 	Tuesday, 6 May 1997 12:45 AM
> To: 	slx@ansto.gov.au
> Cc: 	Mediterranean Plants; Seeds List
> Subject: 	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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