When I first started growing cycads, I heard all kinds of ways to germinate them. Pepper seeds are simple compared to cycad seeds. As I taught myself exactly the way cycad seed germination works, I could then see what was correct and what was totally BS. Sure, you expect some things on the internet to be not totally correct, but you would hope that when you pay $150 for a book, they might have their act together.
I have to tell you a funny, unrelated story. This one book by a guy in Australia showed a picture of " the special yellow form of Zamia furfuracea". It looked neat, but I had never heard of it. Years later I was talking to a guy from down there named Stan Walkley. He is a good grower and a pretty funny guy too. He told me this guy cam out to his place and wanted to take all kinds of pictures. He had this plant that was really deficient in fertilizer and when the guy asked him what that was, you guessed it! In another book, a REAL cycad expert wrote in his book that cycads can't tolerate higher levels of phosphate. I found out years later that another guy in Australia was telling him this certain species in Western Aus. couldn't handle phosphate, bit when the book came out, it was all species.
Anyway, whenever I hear things like this I at least try to think what happens in nature. Peppers fall on top of the ground and degrade. The peppers dry up and the seeds fall on top of the ground. They may fall between some organic material, but it isn't really ever dark. This spring when I cut back a row of Bhut Jolokia plants I noticed half the pots were filled with accidental seedlings just from the peppers that had fallen during the winter. I'm watering the pots every day anyway and they came out all over the place. Didn't someone say Bhut Jolokia is hard to germinate and need extra heat? Sure, my greenhouse was real hot during the winter, wasn't it? Just saying. Tom
