Trees from Seed

I am about to plant a few tree seeds, acacias, carob, tagasaste and any other ones I find in my stash!
I am curious as to which moon phase to plant them.
Germinating them is no problem, I've done it before but I'd like to get the timing right this time.

What will you be doing with these trees afterwards Scarecrow??? Are they for your place or elsewhere??

The trees you've mentioned are leguminous ones. Plant under an air moon - Libra, Gemini or Aquarius and plant before full moon during the waxing gibbous phase. Set the seeds to germinate under an earth moon to encourage strong root development.

Cheers for that Cosmic...Exactly what I needed.

Lucky they are for 'fill ins' around the place. After all this dry weather that never seems to be ending I've about given up on ornamentals up here. At least these shrubs/trees are useful and once they are established don't need much water at all. I also grow them in the chook runs for forage.

We've had some branches come off the gum trees up here and that's opened up some new planting areas.

I grow local saltbushes in the chook runs too, they love the berries, and I love the fact that these plants don't need water. I've even grown a saltbush hedge out the front and am planning more.

It's so much easier to stick with local or proven hardy species than battle to try and water things that don't really want to be here. Lets me save the water for the vegetables and fruit gardens. For my FOOD!

Is tasagate tree lucerne? and how do you propogate from seed? I have heard that they can be difficult.

Shell Bell wrote:Is tasagate tree lucerne? and how do you propogate from seed? I have heard that they can be difficult.

Hi Shell Bell
Tagasaste - Chamaecytisus palmensis is called tree lucerne around here. It's not that hard to grow from seed as long as you soak the seeds in water (just off the boil) overnight! I usually just dig up seedlings that volunteer after rain but we haven't had a decent rain for about four months here!

In fact it's become quite a pest weed in wet areas (maybe like yours by the sound of that bog in your front yard ) but up here where it's very dry it does well.

You might be better off trying some indigenous acacias in your climate, there should be some that are just as useful as Tagasaste.
This site here is the acacia study groups page on the Association of Societies for Growing Australian Plants (ASGAP) web page and might be of some help. Your local Landcare group (if you know where they are) could give more ideas on the local species.

I would hate to suggest that you plant something on your block that may end up being more of a pest than good.

Thanks Scarecrow, I am looking for a good fodder tree and have a packet of tree lucerne seeds.

I am planning that there wont be any trouble with weeds, I think a hungry mob of goats will sort that out. Would the acasias suit this kind of use, I have enough room to plant a fodder polyculture.

Hi Shell Bell
I'm not that familiar with Queensland but a search on the QLD dpi site brought up these results with a couple of mentions of a Prickly Acacia so I'll let you have a look at the site and see what you find.

One point with the Tagasaste is that it doesn't like 'wet feet' so keep that in mind when deciding where to plant it.
Fodder tree search

Hope this will help you and good luck with the new block!

For all those lurkers out there, I did a little research and found almost nothing.

Scarecrow, the Qld DPI mostly talks about plants that have been used as fodder and have become invasive weeds. It was certainly an eye opener and gave me some pause.

I have decided on sticking with the Tasagate, the tried and true Old Man Salt Bush and a newy to me Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala). There is nothing on the internet about the Lecucaena, do any of you clever people out there have a clue you would like to share with me?

I don't know Leucaena but I've read that it's a very fast grower. Brachychitons are good fodder trees. They are harvested as feed for giraffes in zoos for example. Brachychiton rupestris, the Queensland Bottle Tree and Brachychiton populneus, the Kurrajong, are two native species you could grow. Both are largish trees though.
I agree with Scarecrow about the acacias. The World Wide Acacia group web site has information about acacias as fodder. Your local landcare group should be able to help with species as should the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. To find your local landcare group go to the QWaLC web site and select 'Find a group'.
Hope this helps.

Shell Bell wrote:
I have decided on sticking with the Tasagate, the tried and true Old Man Salt Bush and a newy to me Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala). There is nothing on the internet about the Lecucaena, do any of you clever people out there have a clue you would like to share with me?

Hi Shell Bell
I put "Leucaena leucocephala" into google and the first link that came up was
this one about it's weed potential in Queensland.
There are links there to PDF's as well.

This site has another warning about it.

On the other hand The Better Pastures for the Tropics site Here has this information Here

So maybe with that bit of reading I'll leave you to make up your own mind and choose the plants best for your area, keeping in mind the weed problems that you may or may not need to deal with.

Thankyou for that, strange how I didnt get those sites Scarecrow. My google must have been having a bad day.