After 30 years in the ground my Macadamia tree has produced long strings of
flowers
What do I do?
Do I feed it?
I live in melbourne its pretty cool here
Is it too much to expect Fruit/nuts this far south?

I have a Macadamia growing in Sydney.
Even that is too far south.
It will flower prolifically, and some years a bumper crop
of big nuts if enough water.
BUT. Harvesting nuts you are supposed to wait for them to
dry out and start rattling.
In Sydney they never do. Too humid or not enough baking sun.
The only trick is to pick them when big, or possibly the husk splitting
open,
and dry them out yourself. Slowly. I put mine in a big sieve, over a garbage
bin,
with a light bulb in the bottom. After a few weeks, it is still best to
roast
them well before eating, and still don't come away from the shell very well.
Good luck.

"Wanstall" wrote in message
...
After 30 years in the ground my Macadamia tree has produced long strings
of
flowers
What do I do?
Do I feed it?
I live in melbourne its pretty cool here
Is it too much to expect Fruit/nuts this far south?

"Ian Hook" writes:
I have a Macadamia growing in Sydney.
Even that is too far south.
It will flower prolifically, and some years a bumper crop
of big nuts if enough water.
BUT. Harvesting nuts you are supposed to wait for them to
dry out and start rattling.
In Sydney they never do. Too humid or not enough baking sun.
The only trick is to pick them when big, or possibly the husk splitting
open,
and dry them out yourself. Slowly. I put mine in a big sieve, over a garbage
bin,
with a light bulb in the bottom. After a few weeks, it is still best to
roast
them well before eating, and still don't come away from the shell very well.
Good luck.

Some areas of Sydney do have success with macadamias. There are two trees
near me and they supply me and plenty of others with all we can eat! One
has just finished flowering now, and bears for a couple of months from
Feb onwards. The other seems to be 6 months behind, and is dropping its
nuts now. I don't understand your problem with the nuts not drying. Give
them a couple of weeks in the open air and the kernels easily come out in
one piece when you crack them. I'm eating some right now that I've saved
since earlier this year. It might not be widely known, but if you crack
the shell within a day or two of the nut falling, the kernel has a flavour
that hints of coconut. Yum. Double yum. The drawback is that the kernel
does not come away from the shell unless you let it dry out for a week or
more, but then you lose this unique early flavour.

All I can suggest to the OP is that s/he makes sure the tree receives
adequate water from now on. It is a rainforest tree, so it follows that it
would be expecting a regular rainfall.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)