Monkey Puzzle - Seeds

Hey everyone.

My parents have been growing a monkey puzzle tree in there garden coming up to 40 years now and its massive, even tho you can easily see its spikey people still want a touch, while walking off sucking there finger haha.

Anyway i would like to try and grow some babies from it but im not sure where to find the seeds. There are these pods on the tree that do fall off but when ive opened them up it just looks like a dead root.

Are the green pods the seeds and the brown ones when they die? (see pics)

Thanks

Mark

 

Take a look here and you'll see pics of them :thumb:

monkey puzzle seed | eBay

 

They aint cheap !!!! things people sell on ebay , loads in my one in my mums village I will go hunting for seeds !!
Brooke you might have a male tree you get both male and female just like yew trees .

Spruce

 

I've heard differing reports about monkey puzzle seed.
I have tried germinating seed from a local tree with no luck.

As I understand it you need to have both male and female trees growing fairly close together to get viable seed.
The seed forms in a large cone which breaks up on the tree.

The female tree near me produces seed every year but they appear to be infertile.

What I do know is that bought seed needs to be sown quickly as it very soon looses viability.

 

i havent seen anything like that on the tree. where abouts do i find them? within the pods?

I know they go for good money.....reason why im asking :D

 

I did manage to get 10 seeds from Ebay earlier this year for about £3, I sowed them as per info I found on the internet; half in the compost and half out (pointed end in the compost) and they have all germinated over a period of a couple of months, the biggest now a 7" seedling, the smallest only just shedding the outer case :thumb:

 

Brooke, on female trees the cone breaks up on the tree, I'm looking at your pics and thinking its a male.

 

So that means? does it have seeds? or will i have to go down the cuttings route?

Plus the pod things are like 50ft high at the top

Mark

 

The brown things in your pic look like dead male flowers to me, they produce pollen and then die.
The female plant forms cones, which initially appear similar, but once fertilized by the male pollen go on to form much larger cones.

I think monkey puzzle cutting are quite difficult to root.

 

Once the seeds have formed you can't miss them, they are about 1-2", like giant pine nuts, and they are edible. I don't think the female trees produce seed every year, maybe because of climate. My daughter lives in Birmingham and a few years ago she noticed many trees producing large cones with seeds in, but hasn't seen them since. They fall from the tree like other pine cones.