Growing macadamias from a sapling
Macadamia saplings can be found in native nurseries and buying one locally ensures you will select the variety that is right for your area.
These saplings have often been grafted onto root stock that is more disease resistant and will give your backyard tree the best chance of success.
A step by step guide to planting your macadamia sapling
- Select the right site: Choose a frost-free location, with enough space for the tree to grow. Macadamias can grow up to 10 metres wide.
- Dig your hole and plant your tree: Make your hole twice the size of the root ball of the tree you are planting. If you have sandy soil in your garden, incorporate plenty of organic matter into the hole.
- Backfill the hole and water well: Macadamias require 1000mm on average per year, most of it in the summer months.
- Plant bee-friendly plants: It takes around five to seven years for a macadamia tree to start producing nuts, but during that time you can be busy planting some other flowering plants. Macadamias are pollinated by insect activity, so surrounding your macadamia tree with insect-attracting plants will help it produce more nuts.
- Water regularly and mulch well: Macadamias are subtropical rainforest trees. You can give your tree the best chance of producing nuts if you recreate those kinds of conditions with regular water and lots of mulch on the ground around the tree.
- Prune the trees to size: If your tree gets too large, you can prune it to any size. After harvest is best, but pruning can take place at any time.
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