Im just wondering if anyone here has any experience germinating Betel nut seeds?
I planted them in January but decided to dig them up and now I removed the fibrous layer as well as one more layer to reveal the red hard seed. It turns more brownish color when it is drys. Ive heard betel nuts you buy in indian stores can be planted since the nuts retain viability for at least a year. ( fresh is better but even if they are dried, youd still want them to be as fresh as possible.)
I scarified the seed slightly until I broke yet another layer and then I stopped. It is hard to explain but if youve ever scarified seeds before you know what I mean. I mean scarifiy anymore and you will damage the embryo.
Anyone know if scarification speeds the germination process up for betel palm seeds?
Usually it is true that hardshelled seeds tend to remain viable for a long time even for many tropical species. There are exceptions however such as Camellia sinensis (Tea). It has a hardshelled seed and short viability.
Anyways some hard shelled seeds that arnt scarified ive heard can take 3 years and maybe even more before they germimate.
Palms generally ive heard can take a long time to germinate. Some species take even 12 months.
I am not really sure if betel will grow in Minn.
However, I would like to share some betel data with you and some of my experience with betel in Southeast Asia. I personally found it to be a disgusting habit, worst than
that of chewing tobacco. How any man would want to kiss a woman after she has chewed a wad of this nut would be really strange to me. Interestingly, it is said that 1/10th of the world's population chew betel nut. Woman in the Asian Pacific, Africa, India, Indonesia to Australia and Micronesia, Polynesia and Melanesia, the Philippines and elsewhere, and in Middle Eastern countries uses it.
In Thailand,the working local labor corps of women chew the nut and leaf for stamina and the men chew the leaf of Kratom.
Here is a picture of Betel from Koh Samui Island near Ban Mae Nam.
[attachment=2:2id3meap]betel_johns_image_1.jpg[/attachment:2id3meap]
Scientific classification:
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
(unranked): Commelinids
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Genus: Areca
Species: A. catechu
In 1987, I traveled by train from Surat Thani Province in South Eastern Thailand to Georgetown on the Island of Penang in Malaysia, in the sea from the shores of Kuala Lumpur in the Malaysian capital of Kedah, south across the Thai-Malaysian border.
I had come and traveled to this far and distant land from Koh Samui Island to get a visa because customs accidentally stamped my visa to Thailand for five days instead of the, at the time, three month limit. Now it is jut a one month free visa.. For three and six month visas you have to pay money.
When I arrived off the ferry boat at Georgetown in Penang (pinang), Malaysia, I went to a tourist booth in a large mall and ask about betel nut. The girl working told me that Penang island means Island of betel nut. And it is in the shape of a turtle. Many islands in the Pacific for some Godly unknown reason appear from the air to be in the shape of a turtle.
The Tourist information aide told me to catch a number 18 bus and ride it for about three miles and I would go over a large bridge and on the right after crossing the bridge I would see a large prison. A block on the other side of the prison there would be an open market and many booths there sell betel nut. She then told me that if I were not able to find it that I could come the next day and she would bring me some nut and leaves for chewing. Very nice.
Unfortunately I packed the fresh leaves and mailed a box back to Hawaii by ship and it rotted on the box, even causing mold on some packages of photos I had in box and some clothes I bough to resell.
QuoteAreca catechu is the areca palm or areca nut palm, (Malay: Pinang), a species of palm which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa.
This palm is often erroneously called the betel tree because its fruit, the areca nut, is always chewed along with the betel leaf, a leaf from a vine of the Piperaceae family (Piper mythisticum).
Growth:
It is a medium-sized and graceful palm tree growing straight to 20 m tall, with a trunk 20-30 cm in diameter. The leaves are 1.5-2 m long, pinnate, with numerous, crowded leaflets. It is also known as Puga in Sanskrit, Supari in Marathi.
Characteristics:
Areca catechu is grown for its economically important seed crop, the areca nut. The seed contains alkaloids such as arecaine and arecoline, which when chewed is intoxicating and is also slightly addictive. Areca palms are grown in India, Malaysia, Taiwan and many other Asian countries for their seeds.
Etyomology:
Penang Island, off the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, Fua Mulaku in the Maldives and Guwahati in Assam, India, are some of the places named after a local name for areca nut.
Uses:
The Areca palm is also used as an interior landscaping species. It is often used in large indoor areas such as malls and hotels. It won't fruit or reach full size. Indoors it is a slow growing, low water, high light plant that is sensitive to spider mite and occasionally mealy bug. The areca nut is also popular for chewing throughout some Asian countries such as Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippine, Malaysia, and India. Chewing areca nut is quite popular among working classes in Taiwan. The nut itself can be addictive and has direct link to mouth cancers. Areca nut in Taiwan will usually contain artificial additives such as limestone powder.
The extract of Areca catechu has been shown to have antidepressant properties,[2] but it may be addictive.[3]
References:
"Areca catechu information from NPGS/GRIN". http://www.ars-grin.gov (http://www.ars-grin.gov). Retrieved on 2008-03-02.
"Wiley InterScience: Journal: Abstract". www3.interscience.wiley.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-02.
"The Psychopharmacology of Herbal ... - Google Book Search". books.google.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-03.
1 image of nut from Kolkata, India at wikipedia.com
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Photos taken from the train near Ator Selar, the capital of Kedah in Kuala Lumphur, Malaysia.
[attachment=0:2id3meap]penangtrip1-1.jpg[/attachment:2id3meap]
See below for more images from Penang, Malaysia
boomer2
One more image taken from the train as I pass through Ator Selar, Kuala Lumphur, Malaysia on my way to the ferry docks to go to George Town, on the island of Penang.
There was a violent storm and many of us were thrown form one side of the ferry boat to the other through an opened center seating area. The boat almost overturned. It was pretty scary.
From the train:
[attachment=2:1zctttf2]penangtrip1-2.jpg[/attachment:1zctttf2]
Me in Penang:
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A sing on a major street in George Town:
[attachment=0:1zctttf2]penangtrip1-10.jpg[/attachment:1zctttf2]
boomer2
An Ahka Tribal woman who chews betel nut in northern Thailand near Fang, north of Changmai (City of Roses) once known centuries ago as the Kingdom of Lanna Thai. The land of Lanna Thai is translates as 'land of one billion rice paddies' and it stretched from Burma to North Vietnam.
This ladies mouth is blood-black red from chewing the betel nut:
[attachment=2:2gofb82c]ahkatribe2abc.jpg[/attachment:2gofb82c]
This lady, a friend of mine in Ban Thurian, Koh Samui chews on the leaf and nut of piper mythisticum and betel nut,, while the younger girl is preparing the spreading of chopped tobacco leaves to be placed on the bamboo tray for curing and drying the leaf in the sun. I spent two months in 2005 learning how to cultivate local tobacco similar to buglar. I helped i the planting, the harevesting, rolling the leaves and tying them with vine, then chopping of leaves with a lumpao, then laying them on the bamboo rack for during and drying i the sun:
[attachment=1:2gofb82c]betel_and_tobacco1abc.jpg[/attachment:2gofb82c]
Here in the left background is my lady friend chewing betel nut and the rest of us are resting after chewing a leaf of kratom. I am the fat one
By the way, I have since lost 65 of those pounds on my stomach so I am no longer looking like a pregnant cow in the field:
[attachment=0:2gofb82c]samui_betel_kratom2.JPG[/attachment:2gofb82c]
Boomer2
One more interesting image. This one was taken three months later after the kratom chewing incident.
My large friend in the blue shirt is holding two specimens of termitomyces mushrooms. Sometimes some of this Genus produces shrooms in a termite mound as large as 3 feet in Diameter.
When I first met this man with the shrooms, it was on my friends farm in Ban Thurian ( see above photo where we are enjoying a chaw of betel and Thom, where I find massive collections of Copes and cubes. They also harvest coconuts for the copra. A year later I ran into him at a Buffalo Fight and since I first met my Ban Thurian friends in 2000, I have brought them gifts every time i visit their home and they let me roam their land in search of the sacred shrooms:
[attachment=2:2r0qmt71]termitomyces1tak.jpg[/attachment:2r0qmt71]
I hope this was helpful. And I also want to apologize, I have five rolls of film in a waist pack when I left Malaysia and traveled north to Fang Thailand for a river raft and trekking expedition into the jungles montane regions of Fang to visit the opium hill tribal groups.
While coming down the Fang river in the rapids, you balance the raft with a long bamboo pole. When the boat hits the white water the raft rises in the front and then the back sinks into the water until you go over the rapid where you are rising. I had these five rolls of film in the pack and the pack got soaked.
I lost photos of the betel nut and Piper mythisticum leaves and a box for carrying the betel nut, photos of 12" tall praying mantis' from Malaysia mounted in glass frames, and other beautiful photos and also images from the rafting adventure in Fang, northern Thailand, stilted houses along the river as we slowly descended down the mountain side. They got wet and ruined the film because i did not place them into the plastic canisters which the film came in.
Here are two images of that raft trip.
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[attachment=0:2r0qmt71]fangtrip1-70abc.jpg[/attachment:2r0qmt71]
boomer 2 and have a shroomy day
Actually I find betel nut chewing to be a less nasty habit than smoking cigarettes or chewing tobacco. Some mixes even have ingredients in them that help freshen your breath.
The pictures and info was nice but I wanted to know if anyone has any idea how long the seeds take to germinate and if scarification helps them?
Ive heard they actually might make a good house plant since they can tolerate low light levels.
They arn't a commonly offered palm in the houseplant trade but have potential.
Quote from: "dogbane26"Actually I find betel nut chewing to be a less nasty habit than smoking cigarettes or chewing tobacco. Some mixes even have ingredients in them that help freshen your breath.
The pictures and info was nice but I wanted to know if anyone has any idea how long the seeds take to germinate and if scarification helps them?
Ive heard they actually might make a good house plant since they can tolerate low light levels.
They arn't a commonly offered palm in the houseplant trade but have potential.
I suppose it would benice if your house had an indoor sun roof or if you had a glass house for your plants to grow. Terence McKenna has a large botanical gardens for all kinds of entheogenic plants, both indoors, as well as outdoors, Near Kona, on the big island of Hawaii.
Have a shroomy day,
mjshroomer
Last time i checked, betel nut is one of those palms you can grow indoors as a houseplant since it tolerates low light levels.
Some palms probably don't do so well.
Cyrtostachys renda by far is the most beautiful palm but it probably requires a sun room or a very tropical climate.
That is most definitely a very nice tree you have growing there.
Kudos/
boomer2
I've tried chewing betel a few times, but never really got anything out of it. Perhaps
my technique wasn't good, or perhaps its stimulation is just too subtle for a person who already drinks seven or eight cups of coffee to "feel normal!"