Congratulations, no you must exercise the patience of Jobe. I have a couple of Sabal Minors I germinated in the summer of 2005. The longest frond is about 23cm and the new spears are the first fronds to be split.

Andy, yes have read they they take their time (after I bought them). The info from the seller said they were UK hardy and that they germinated fast, that's why I was attracted to them, no mention of the painfully slow growth rate afterwards! Oh well, guess I should have done my homework better...lesson learnt!
Gill.

Can you please explain how you germinated these mine have
the fruit on them .. thanks.

greenclaws-
Don't worry about it. Mine are now starting to look attractive. It just takes time. Give them as much direct sun as possible.

Topher, hi there. I am certainly no expert in this palm seeds geminating lark, but I am having some success I guess. Have picked up useful info from here and elsewhere so I hope this may help you too....
My seeds were clean, but if as you say yours still have pulp on them it needs to be cleaned off very thoroughly before you sow them as if left on it will almost certainly go mouldy and rot, not a good start! After cleaning, you could use an old toothbrush/nailbrush to do this, I soaked them in very warm water for 24hrs, it was kept warm during their soaking by the method below and I then placed them in a mix of 50% perlite and cactus mix. It's just my own 'recipe' which I germinate other seeds in. I placed them in a tight lidded plastic take away box which holds around 2inches of compost and buried them about 1/2 inch deep. They then went into the darkness and warmth of the airing cupboard (not sure if you are familiar with this term in the US but it's where the hot water boiler lives, so it has plenty of very warm pipework so is nice and cosy to give washing a final drying before storage if needed, but I use mine for seed sprouting haha!) Anyway the temp varies according to which part I use but it can get up to gets to 35c so I stacked the containers on top of the pipes in order so that the ones needing most heat were on the hot pipes and those needing less were at the top of the stack. The info that came with my Sabal M. seeds said 25-35c no higher than 40c. Have to remember to check on them regularly as they can sprout overnight and then grow spindly and pale due to lack of light.
They have at present around 1/2 inch of root so I intend to let them sprout their other shoot upwards before I remove them from the cupboard. I will then put them on top of the tropical fishtank where they will still get some bottom heat and keep the plastic lid closed for a few days with a regular household lamp over them and they will begin to 'green up'. After a few days with the lid closed I prop open the lids slightly and let them get accustomed to more normal temps, before removing the lids after 3-4days.
This is what I have done to germinate my Washingtonia R seeds, admittedly they popped up much more rapidly though, and it seems to be working agian for me. Hopefully the Trachycarpus F. and the Butia C. seeds will also get going.
I hope this will be of use to you...good luck!
Gill.

Thanks a lot !