Can you grow a macadamia tree in a suburban back yard? If you don’t have winter frosts and can devote some partial to full sunny space, sure. Here are some tips.
I live in WA and up until end of March lived in an inner city suburb of Perth where I grew 3 macadamia trees. One was an A4 variety, one a G6 or pinkalicious and one HAES 816 variety. The HAES 816 according to The Australian Macadamia handbook has the best tasting nut. Of the 3 nuts I would rate the 816 as noticeably better than the A4 and a bit better than the pinkalicious which was also very good fresh or roasted. I found that by roasting the nuts, the taste differences are lessened. The A4 fresh nut was noticeably inferior tasting to the other 2. There were also other macadamia trees of considerable age, 2 in the grounds of the University of WA, one integrifolia variety and one tetraphylla variety and one at the base of King's park. The one at the base of King's park I thought produced a better tasting nut than my A4 variety. The trees were not attacked by any birds, black cockatoos or insects, aphids and I got thousands of nuts over the 15 years I had been growing them. I now live in the SW of WA and I am planting several different macadamia varieties. I will have to net the trees because of predator black cockatoos. The varieties I planted most recently have been different to what I had growing in Perth because a big range of numbered Hawaiian macadamia varieties are harder to source or not available. I have one HAES 246 and might get another advanced HAES 246 tree, one Daddow, 2 Beaumont, 1 lotsanuts and 2 seedling HAES 816, but hopefully can get one or more grafted HAES 816 and HAES 849. I am preferencing spreading rather than non upright or tall growing trees, so HAES 741 or HAES 344 are not on my wanted list. I think I have a good range of trees that will cross pollinate. The other disadvantage is that when I lived in Perth the soil was sand with no silt / clay component, that can be good for rapid tree growth, but the downside is it's too porous. It will be interesting to follow the growth of all these macadamia trees because the climate in Bridgetown where I now live is rather cool for growing macadamia trees and in various locations there appears to be a good amount of clay less than 1/2 metre depth from the ground surface.
That's great information - thank you John. A while ago I did a video on the best tasting macadamia varieties - th-cam.com/video/jwJP4Wb4wcg/w-d-xo.html . Ian McConachie, one of the macadamia industry's founding fathers, later spoke to me about it. It's a pity the latest varieties aren't measured by taste. The 816 and 849 are tasty - so are the H2 and 344, according to my agronomist. Good luck with your experiments. The quarantine rules for plants in WA make things a bit hard for you!
@@nutkinfarm There used to be a major macadamia farmer in WA, Macnuts who sold different macadamia varieties but they are no longer retailers but wholesalers since about 2008. I bought my HAES 816 from Macnuts in 2007 and the tag on the tree was Gray plantations, NSW. Had Macnuts still sold macadamia trees, I would have just sourced different A or Hawaiian macadamia trees from them. Another reason why I have preferenced particular trees apart from their mostly sprawling non upright growth habit is that some particular varieties have larger size nuts which I prefer, so A4, HAES 246, 816, 849, Daddow and Beaumont will have large size nuts and perhaps apart from the 816 tree will have more of a sprawling habit which will be easier to net should I have predator black cockatoos going for the nuts. Regarding taste, I haven’t really tried a bad macadamia nut unless it is stale in which case you can usually tell quite easily. But from my limited tasting with just 3 varieties that I grew in Perth, the 816 and pinkalicious G6, both excellent with the A4 still being very good, but definitely not as good as the G6 or 816. Once roasted I found less of a difference in flavour. I’m just repeating myself from what I said before. It’s interesting in that even though I like roasted macadamias a lot and once you start eating them, it’s hard to stop. It’s not my favourite nut to eat, but is in my top 5 list of favourite nuts, excluding peanuts which are not nuts.
@@mattikelby3967 Hi, I lived in Leederville the same street as Leederville TAFE but towards the freeway end. Where I lived the soil was just sand. I didn’t really improve it very much. I had 3 macadamia trees growing there. An A4 variety planted in 2006, next I planted an HAES 816 in 2007 and in 2009 a pinkalicious planted. I moved to Bridgetown at the end of March and am intending to plant a dozen or so different varieties, however, I won’t be letting them grow to 6m as I will probably need to net them if black cockatoos are a problem. I got over 3000 nuts in 2019 from the A4 and over 2400 nuts from the 816 and over 800 nuts from the pinkalicious variety also in 2019. I never had black cockatoos going for the nuts except for 1 year but I was able to harvest the nuts before many were damaged.
My 5 acre property in Bridgetown will be a bit experimental as I bought it with a view to grow some of the other nut and fruit trees that are here. There are several cooler climate large nut trees eg pecan, pistachio and chestnut but predator birds take most of the nuts. There were no macadamia trees on this property but I want to see how they perform. I won’t be letting them grow too big. There are several very big pecan trees perhaps over 30 years old, but as they’re not fertilised and irrigated what nuts result are very small. There is a small pistachio orchard with about 40 trees, again non irrigated and because of this the nut kernels usually haven’t formed properly inside the shell. So I’m retired but I’ll be pleased if I can get the macadamia trees producing nuts in a few years and get some of the pistachio trees successfully producing nut kernels. I don’t have to much information regarding who originally planted the nut trees, but my property was part of an original 20 acre property. There is also pistachio trees on the adjoining property.
@@mattikelby3967 I remember seeing some macadamia trees in gidegannup years ago, at several locations but the black cockatoos had greatly reduced the nut crops on them. Macnuts were the largest WA macadamia grower with 3000 trees, but I don’t know if they still are. Regarding manjimup as your probably know that’s the truffle growing centre. There they have oak and hazelnut trees inoculated with the truffle spores. If the ground is calcareous where your friend lives in Manjimup then that could mean less site preparation as far as getting the soil slightly alkaline. I have a good acre of land on my property that might be suitable for growing truffles but I don’t know if light is required as the adjoining property has tall trees that greatly shade this acre.
We had a bad rat problem few years ago they were eating the nuts off the trees from October, pre made baits weren't working so we got some racumin powder and coated cracked corn with it. It worked but didn't get them under control until just before harvest. Probably didn't help plowing up the paddocks to prepare for next planting. Thanks Trent
High rat numbers right now here. We inherited a bucket of racumin in the shed when we bought our farm, i find it quite effective as when the rat walks through it and licks it’s fur it will ingest the powder.
@@kdegraa I hear a lot of mopoke owls and I see tawny frogmouths around, but it’s the barn owls I really want. Definitely a few around but can always use more.
What about a cutting from a macadamia that has been put in rooting hormone and grown that way? I have two trees grown this way, called ‘lotsa nuts’ which are only a few months old. What is your thoughts on these?
Hi ehonda. When you grow from a cutting you'll absolutely get a pure duplicate of the tree you're cutting from. The question is how well that particular variety grows on its own roots. Testing done on a lot of commercial cultivars found that most of them did pretty poorly, producing a weak tree that did not thrive. A268 and A4 were notable exceptions. So maybe your 'lotsa nuts' is worth a try? The other thing to bear in mind when growing from a seed or cutting is that the time to fruiting tends to be longer, compared to grafted trees. The vigour of a graft can shorten the time to initial cropping by 2 to 4 years. But again that depends on the variety. Good luck with your experiment!
I have a Pinkalitious growing in my yard near Adelaide , 8 years old. Stunning flower , number , length and scent for weeks , but disappointed with the nut set so far . Lots of babies that drop at pea size and not sure if i am watering enough . Quite a dry state so i may try double water this year .👍
If they are getting to pea size will either be lack of water they do like to be moist but not wet or insect damage. Trees will naturally Shead to suit a crop it can handle. Thanks Trent
I had about 450 nuts from my pinkalicious tree at year 8 and then the following year 9 about 850 nuts. The tree grew in sandy soil but I had a good layer of mulch on it. I think if you increase the water amount particularly over summer
Good video Daniel. I'm in an urban block 800sqm so not a lot of space to play with. I have just 4 plants - which I currently have in big pots (I'm probably going to regret that). I'll be moving to acreage in next few years and will plant them then. But didn't want to wait to start my macadamia journey. I have an A38, Daddow, 660, and Pinkalicious. I'll take an update video to show their growth over last 1.5 years. Here's a video of them when I bought them 1.5 years ago from a nursery on north side of Brisbane. th-cam.com/video/O19BjWzbnjk/w-d-xo.html
Hi Aaron! I remember your previous comments although I don’t think I knew your trees were in pots. I reckon they should be OK although you’ll need to water them a fair bit. There should be nice cross pollination once you reach that stage. All the best on your journey.
This is a great video. Its very informative. Thank you for taking the time to provide this information to us.
Thanks Marcus. If it helped you, I’m glad!
I live in WA and up until end of March lived in an inner city suburb of Perth where I grew 3 macadamia trees. One was an A4 variety, one a G6 or pinkalicious and one HAES 816 variety. The HAES 816 according to The Australian Macadamia handbook has the best tasting nut. Of the 3 nuts I would rate the 816 as noticeably better than the A4 and a bit better than the pinkalicious which was also very good fresh or roasted. I found that by roasting the nuts, the taste differences are lessened. The A4 fresh nut was noticeably inferior tasting to the other 2. There were also other macadamia trees of considerable age, 2 in the grounds of the University of WA, one integrifolia variety and one tetraphylla variety and one at the base of King's park. The one at the base of King's park I thought produced a better tasting nut than my A4 variety. The trees were not attacked by any birds, black cockatoos or insects, aphids and I got thousands of nuts over the 15 years I had been growing them.
I now live in the SW of WA and I am planting several different macadamia varieties. I will have to net the trees because of predator black cockatoos. The varieties I planted most recently have been different to what I had growing in Perth because a big range of numbered Hawaiian macadamia varieties are harder to source or not available. I have one HAES 246 and might get another advanced HAES 246 tree, one Daddow, 2 Beaumont, 1 lotsanuts and 2 seedling HAES 816, but hopefully can get one or more grafted HAES 816 and HAES 849. I am preferencing spreading rather than non upright or tall growing trees, so HAES 741 or HAES 344 are not on my wanted list. I think I have a good range of trees that will cross pollinate. The other disadvantage is that when I lived in Perth the soil was sand with no silt / clay component, that can be good for rapid tree growth, but the downside is it's too porous. It will be interesting to follow the growth of all these macadamia trees because the climate in Bridgetown where I now live is rather cool for growing macadamia trees and in various locations there appears to be a good amount of clay less than 1/2 metre depth from the ground surface.
That's great information - thank you John. A while ago I did a video on the best tasting macadamia varieties - th-cam.com/video/jwJP4Wb4wcg/w-d-xo.html . Ian McConachie, one of the macadamia industry's founding fathers, later spoke to me about it. It's a pity the latest varieties aren't measured by taste. The 816 and 849 are tasty - so are the H2 and 344, according to my agronomist.
Good luck with your experiments. The quarantine rules for plants in WA make things a bit hard for you!
@@nutkinfarm There used to be a major macadamia farmer in WA, Macnuts who sold different macadamia varieties but they are no longer retailers but wholesalers since about 2008. I bought my HAES 816 from Macnuts in 2007 and the tag on the tree was Gray plantations, NSW. Had Macnuts still sold macadamia trees, I would have just sourced different A or Hawaiian macadamia trees from them. Another reason why I have preferenced particular trees apart from their mostly sprawling non upright growth habit is that some particular varieties have larger size nuts which I prefer, so A4, HAES 246, 816, 849, Daddow and Beaumont will have large size nuts and perhaps apart from the 816 tree will have more of a sprawling habit which will be easier to net should I have predator black cockatoos going for the nuts. Regarding taste, I haven’t really tried a bad macadamia nut unless it is stale in which case you can usually tell quite easily. But from my limited tasting with just 3 varieties that I grew in Perth, the 816 and pinkalicious G6, both excellent with the A4 still being very good, but definitely not as good as the G6 or 816. Once roasted I found less of a difference in flavour. I’m just repeating myself from what I said before. It’s interesting in that even though I like roasted macadamias a lot and once you start eating them, it’s hard to stop. It’s not my favourite nut to eat, but is in my top 5 list of favourite nuts, excluding peanuts which are not nuts.
@@mattikelby3967 Hi, I lived in Leederville the same street as Leederville TAFE but towards the freeway end. Where I lived the soil was just sand. I didn’t really improve it very much. I had 3 macadamia trees growing there. An A4 variety planted in 2006, next I planted an HAES 816 in 2007 and in 2009 a pinkalicious planted. I moved to Bridgetown at the end of March and am intending to plant a dozen or so different varieties, however, I won’t be letting them grow to 6m as I will probably need to net them if black cockatoos are a problem. I got over 3000 nuts in 2019 from the A4 and over 2400 nuts from the 816 and over 800 nuts from the pinkalicious variety also in 2019. I never had black cockatoos going for the nuts except for 1 year but I was able to harvest the nuts before many were damaged.
My 5 acre property in Bridgetown will be a bit experimental as I bought it with a view to grow some of the other nut and fruit trees that are here. There are several cooler climate large nut trees eg pecan, pistachio and chestnut but predator birds take most of the nuts. There were no macadamia trees on this property but I want to see how they perform. I won’t be letting them grow too big. There are several very big pecan trees perhaps over 30 years old, but as they’re not fertilised and irrigated what nuts result are very small. There is a small pistachio orchard with about 40 trees, again non irrigated and because of this the nut kernels usually haven’t formed properly inside the shell. So I’m retired but I’ll be pleased if I can get the macadamia trees producing nuts in a few years and get some of the pistachio trees successfully producing nut kernels. I don’t have to much information regarding who originally planted the nut trees, but my property was part of an original 20 acre property. There is also pistachio trees on the adjoining property.
@@mattikelby3967 I remember seeing some macadamia trees in gidegannup years ago, at several locations but the black cockatoos had greatly reduced the nut crops on them. Macnuts were the largest WA macadamia grower with 3000 trees, but I don’t know if they still are. Regarding manjimup as your probably know that’s the truffle growing centre. There they have oak and hazelnut trees inoculated with the truffle spores. If the ground is calcareous where your friend lives in Manjimup then that could mean less site preparation as far as getting the soil slightly alkaline. I have a good acre of land on my property that might be suitable for growing truffles but I don’t know if light is required as the adjoining property has tall trees that greatly shade this acre.
Good to hear that the roots are not invasive
Hi Mpho. Sometimes farmers wish the macadamia’s roots were a little stronger! But for backyard growing it’s good news.
Neutrog bush tucker for native plants is great for fertilising backyard Macadamia trees.
I agree Jason - it's a low phosphorus formulation that would be good for a lot of soils.
Very informative!
Thanks for the feedback Kathleen.
We had a bad rat problem few years ago they were eating the nuts off the trees from October, pre made baits weren't working so we got some racumin powder and coated cracked corn with it. It worked but didn't get them under control until just before harvest. Probably didn't help plowing up the paddocks to prepare for next planting.
Thanks Trent
High rat numbers right now here. We inherited a bucket of racumin in the shed when we bought our farm, i find it quite effective as when the rat walks through it and licks it’s fur it will ingest the powder.
The owls seem to be keeping rats on the run in my area. Not the problem I was expecting them to be this season.
@@nutkinfarm do you hear the hooting of the owls? There are owls around my farm too.
@@kdegraa I hear a lot of mopoke owls and I see tawny frogmouths around, but it’s the barn owls I really want. Definitely a few around but can always use more.
rất hay
The first maca trees I planted I bought from a Bunnings nursery. One died but the other is going strong. Another growers identified it as an A16.
Bunnings in Qld had A203
I’ve never seen a macadamia for sale in bunnings brisbane south region
What about a cutting from a macadamia that has been put in rooting hormone and grown that way? I have two trees grown this way, called ‘lotsa nuts’ which are only a few months old. What is your thoughts on these?
Hi ehonda. When you grow from a cutting you'll absolutely get a pure duplicate of the tree you're cutting from. The question is how well that particular variety grows on its own roots. Testing done on a lot of commercial cultivars found that most of them did pretty poorly, producing a weak tree that did not thrive. A268 and A4 were notable exceptions. So maybe your 'lotsa nuts' is worth a try?
The other thing to bear in mind when growing from a seed or cutting is that the time to fruiting tends to be longer, compared to grafted trees. The vigour of a graft can shorten the time to initial cropping by 2 to 4 years. But again that depends on the variety.
Good luck with your experiment!
I have a Pinkalitious growing in my yard near Adelaide , 8 years old. Stunning flower , number , length and scent for weeks , but disappointed with the nut set so far . Lots of babies that drop at pea size and not sure if i am watering enough . Quite a dry state so i may try double water this year .👍
Maybe the tree needs a friend to cross pollinate.
If they are getting to pea size will either be lack of water they do like to be moist but not wet or insect damage. Trees will naturally Shead to suit a crop it can handle.
Thanks Trent
I had about 450 nuts from my pinkalicious tree at year 8 and then the following year 9 about 850 nuts. The tree grew in sandy soil but I had a good layer of mulch on it. I think if you increase the water amount particularly over summer
@@trentneumann5788 Thanks trent.
@@johnmanera4097 Thanks John. Good result , encouraging .
Im from Indonesia,,, java, island, makadamia good👍
That’s great - thank you for watching.
makadamia Australia is the best👍
Good video Daniel. I'm in an urban block 800sqm so not a lot of space to play with. I have just 4 plants - which I currently have in big pots (I'm probably going to regret that). I'll be moving to acreage in next few years and will plant them then. But didn't want to wait to start my macadamia journey. I have an A38, Daddow, 660, and Pinkalicious. I'll take an update video to show their growth over last 1.5 years. Here's a video of them when I bought them 1.5 years ago from a nursery on north side of Brisbane. th-cam.com/video/O19BjWzbnjk/w-d-xo.html
Hi Aaron! I remember your previous comments although I don’t think I knew your trees were in pots. I reckon they should be OK although you’ll need to water them a fair bit. There should be nice cross pollination once you reach that stage. All the best on your journey.