MANUKA / TE-TREE

Manuka Seed Tea Tree

The Maori name is 'Kahikatoa' but is commonly called "Tea Tree" because
early colonists used its aromatic foliage as an alternative to tea. A small tree
not too overwhelming in a small garden. A group of them can quickly form
the backbone of s small woodland.

How To Sow: Best sown into a tray of quality seed raising mix. Cover with a dine mix to a
depth of 1/2cm.
Seedling Care: Cover with plastic to conseve moisture. Remove plastic often to allow
ventilation. Keep moist throughout germination period. Germination can be slow & erratic. As
seedlings grow, provide increasing quantities of light and fresh air.
Hints and Tips: Responds well to trim after flowering.
Our seeds are not treated with Neonicitinoids
Leptospermum scoparium/manuka
Manuka is a specialist coloniser of low fertility soils with different forms adapted
to clay hillsides and others to wetlands. The flowers appear in early spring and
the mature seed capsules can stay unopened on the branches for a long time so
there is generally seed available for collection at any time of year. Manuka should
always be ecosourced carefully because it is so variable across the country.

Propagation: Place the capsules in paper bag in a warm dry place until the fine
red seed is released. Sift out the seed and lightly sprinkle over a firm smooth bed
of seed raising mix. Do not cover but water well. The seedlings will come up in
one to four weeks depending on the temperatur

A PICTORIAL STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO GROWING MANUKA TREES FROM SEEDS

COLLECTING SEEDS
Collect seeds off a variety of different manuka trees.

Choose trees that look different to each other and that are in different areas - ours are from regions
100km apart.

This way you will ensure you have diversity, both in terms of individual plant characteristics and in
flowering season time.
It seems that genetics determines flowering time more than just the local microclimate.

LOOK FOR RIPE SEEDS

You want to pick the seed pods when they are ripe. Ripe means they are starting to open.

On any branch there will be ripe ones and not so ripe ones, so my rule of thumb is: if some have
already opened then they are ready.

If none are open yet, try a different branch or different tree. Each tree will be slightly different.

DRYING THE SEEDS

You’ll have a big collection of seed pods, some nearly fully open, some still closed.

Store them somewhere warm and dryish, and the unripe pods will open up with time.

I put them on a little dish on the windowsill in the kitchen so I can keep my eye on them.

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Or when I have picked a lot of seeds, the roasting dish comes into play.

Once they are dry, and you can shake them and the fine seed falls out, store them in a container
that will keep most of the moisture out (and the cat from spilling them all), but is not too air tight,
just in case they still have some moisture. A cardboard box is about right.

SOWING SEEDS
Initially we painstakingly put one seed per tiny pot.

This would have worked well, except the wind caught the lot and blew them all over the show.

If you have a sheltered spot, you could try this though.

SOWING SEEDS TAKE 2

Or you could use seed trays,

Fill the seed tray with seed raising mix.

Sprinkle the fine manuka seeds over the top and pat down a bit.

Keep moist.

WHEN TO SOW

It doesn’t seem to matter much just when you sow.

Mostly the seeds will germinate in spring, although if you do it in early autumn they will sprout up
then too. And this gives you a bit of a head start on the next year.

I figure, do it when you have time, and leave them to it.

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POTTING UP

Once the seedlings start to shoot up and are about 5 – 10 cm tall you need to pot them on.

I’ve tried left over plant centre pots, compostable pots and plastic bags. The plastic bags work the
best, easier to repot later.

These ones are PB 3/4s, about the size of a baked bean can.

So, take your baked bean can

Scoop a can’s worth of compost or potting mix (more expensive) and put into your PB 3⁄4.

Slightly firm down.

Use a fork to prise out a seedling.

And firm in to the mix.

Top up around the seedling to near the top of the bag, and firm down again.

WATER
Keep your seedlings moist.

Put them in a place you will notice them and remember to water frequently.

Our deck furniture became very useful, initially.

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Then production increased so much the sunny patio was called into play.

Spot all our seed trays along the top of the wall.

I found that not all seedlings in the trays were ready to plant out at the same time, it was a matter
of picking out the big ones and potting those, and revisiting every few weeks as the rest grew.

This is where the fork was so useful, to dig them out carefully.

SEEDLINGS JUST POTTED These ones are just getting going.

You can see a variety of sizes, sometimes it’s not possible to leave the tiny ones in the tray.
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READY TO POT UP TO A BIGGER POT

When they look like they are growing vigorously, and if you are not ready to plant out, or it is the
wrong time of year, then it is time to pot up.

Another thing to check is if the roots are spreading out the bottom holes of the bag – also ready to
go up a size.

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POTTING UP

The ones at the back of the row have just been potted into PB 2s.

I stop at PB 2s, although you could just keep going bigger and bigger, as they grow.
But then it is a very big hole to dig later, to plant them all.

WATER WATER WATER

Once they start to get quite large, they will need at least daily watering.

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SHADE IS GOOD

I moved them into dappled shade in the peak of summer, to reduce the stress on the plants from
too much heat, and on me from having to water them twice a day.

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READY TO PLANT
This one is definitely ready to plant out.
PLANTING

Nothing special here, dig a hole, put a bit of compost in the bottom, add plant, firm down, and
water.

FULLY MATURE

And before you know it, a forest!

It takes about 1 – 3 years to start flowering, and 6 years to floral maturity.

How to grow manuka trees from seed

OUR EASIEST-EVER METHOD TO GROW MANUKA TREES

I've mentioned before about how we grew manuka trees for our bees and how we grew them from
seeds when we were starting.
Now we've got our system refined, here is an update on the method we have found to be the
easiest for growing them from seed:

1. Collect seeds off a variety of different manuka trees. Ours were from south Auckland and
Whangarei, and I made sure I picked them from several different looking trees. That way you are
more likely to have genetic diversity, and to extend the flowering season.

2. Pick the pods off when they look dry-ish. These are the bits that the flowers turn into. So
sometime late summer to autumn.

3. We then dried them out, by putting them in a little dish on the kitchen window sill and leaving
them till we were ready for the next bit. Months for some of them, just a month or 2 for others.
Depends what else you have got going on. We just put the whole seed head in the dish, and as
they dry the seeds fall out. But you can also crush them a bit and release the seeds when you are
ready to plant.

4. When you feel like planting them, fill seed trays with seed raising mix, pat it down, and sprinkle
the seeds over the top. They are very fine seeds so you don't need to cover them with mix. I pat
them in a bit so the wind won't blow them away.

5. Gently water so they are moist.

6. Depending on what time of year you have sprinkled them, will depend how much of an eye you
need to keep on them, to keep them moist but not soggy.

Now the magic bit is, that it doesn't really seem to matter what time you sprinkle them around. We
did some in autumn, some in winter, and some in spring. They all basically got growing in spring.
The autumn ones did a bit of a spurt before winter, so this would be my preferred time, to get a
head start.

But it all depends what else you have on your plate. It's better to do them in winter and actually
get it done than to leave it till spring and find you are spending all your time out with the bees and
not get it done at all. In my opinion.

And the whole thing is pretty flexible, when you pick the seeds, how long you dry them, and when
you plant them. They just keep on going. It does affect the speed that they grow at though, and
whether you can gain a year in the cycle. Remember that nature takes it course, there ain't no
rushing it.

To get your free copy of the Pictorial Step-by-Step Guide to Growing Manuka Trees from seed
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