We have always had a lot of squirrels in our yard. They would burry their nuts and then come back to get them once they were ready. The squirrels brought my husband and I a lot of joy during quarantine because we would sit at the breakfast table and watch them come down from the tree, burry nuts then search for nuts and chase other squirrels for trying to steal their food. When you are stuck in the house with only the two of you, simple pleasures like squirrels playing become quite the way to pass time and get a few giggles. However in October 2020 we got a puppy!! This puppy quickly made the yard her own and rather enjoys chasing the squirrels. Because of this the squirrels have not been able to fetch their nuts as usual and some of the nuts have started to sprout!
In Spring of 2022 I was wandering around the back yard and noticed a bunch of little plants popping up. I didn't think much of it until I found this one that had been dug up by one of the dogs or maybe a squirrel. That is a sprouted macadamia nut!
I did a little research and discovered that I could plant these and grow macadamia nut trees!! This became my new adventure! I wandered around the yard and found a whole bunch more buried in the ground. Using my new favorite phone app that helps me identify plants
If you haven't checked out this app yet, I highly recommend it! They are not sponsoring this post but I absolutely love it! It identifies plants, birds, bugs, trees, if something is toxic to pets, allergens, and weeds. It is really just an awesome app if you are a fan of the outdoors!
Anyways... After reading about the best way to pull up the plants I learned that the root grows straight down. So it was very easy to just stick the shovel in there straight down, loosen the dirt and pull out the nut and plant. I had a few loose their nut while being removed from the ground but for the most part they stayed in tact. I was a bit worried that the few that lost the nut would not fair so well because the plant was getting its nutrients from it however they seem to be doing ok.
I ordered some pots on Amazon and started my macadamia nut tree garden. By the time I was done scavenging my yard, I found over 14 started seedlings. I bought some potting soil, dug up the seeds and repotted them. Figured we would see what happens
We are now at March 2023 and I have given some of the plats away but the rest are growing strong. I think I am about to the point where i will need to re-pot them so they can continue to grow big and strong. I'm excited to see if any of them ever product nuts. It can take 12-15 years for a macadamia nut tree to mature so we are in it for the long haul. https://gardenerspath.com/plants/nut-trees/grow-macadamia/ has been a great reference site for me as I have been learning about the next steps.
Check out how the plants look today!
They are getting big! Some bigger than others but I will be repotting them all this spring/summer and see what happens going forward. 
No comments:
Post a Comment