Dont feel bad; I dig up all my germinating seeds every week or so just to check on progress and they all still come out OK.

waiting for a seed to break the soil is probably one of the most frustrating parts of growing your own palms. for instance, I have Piririma Coconut seeds growing right now (Syagrus pseudococos), that have been in the ground for about 2 1/2 months now. I have checked it every week, and i know its tap root came out about 3 weeks into it, and now, a month after that, there is still not even the slighest sign on a sprout coming up.... it takes a long time.. as much as i know you dont want to be... be patient (im not either!)

Hey guys check this out! I repotted my foxyail seed and look at its progress:
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Sorry about the blurr but my camera wouldnt focus. You can see the top is growing and the root has gotten longer and there is a second root. Im wondering when I should be able to see it above ground.

Glad its growing! Definitely dont touch it anymore because the roots are extremely fragile at this stage so if you break a little piece off, then it may never come up. But with roots like that, you should be seeing it poke above the soil in about a month or so the most!
-Alex

Hunter,

Like Alex says....leave it alone....in nature, the trees dont have anyone pulling them up and looking at them...LOL

Plant them and leave them be....

Hard to do, but neccessary!!!

Take care..

Laura in VB

Yeah, I hate doing it,too. I needed to repot it and I thought I would take a picture in the process.

Hunter-
I have some true date seeds in the same boat, they have roots coming out but no leaf yet. It's getting harder as the days get shorted and cooler. You may want to move indoors and put in a window. It's been dropping into the 50s here at night and if you move it indoors it's going the soil is going to stay warmer at night. We are suppsed to have a warm up this week so I'm leaving mine out until the next cool off. I have a a couple of heat mats so I will set the pots on them and place in the window.

Just a word of advice for impatient palm seed growers...Plant your seeds/seedlings in clear plastic cups so you can see the root growth. That way, you don't have to dig them up periodically to check on them. I did this with my Date seeds and it worked great. Same thing with rooting cacti pads and washingtonia seeds.

Thanks for the advice,andy. That is a good point.
islandbreeze: That is a very good idea. The only problem is the foxtail roots are huge. They would probably outgrow the cup before it even sprouts. That is just the foxtails, I dont know about other seeds.
-Hunter