Golden Rain Tree Seeds, Pride Of India, Varnish Tree CARBBEANGARDENSEED

Golden Rain Tree Seeds, Pride Of India, Varnish Tree

* A decidious Tree growing to 10 m (32ft) by 10 m (32ft) at a fast rate.
* It is in flower from July to August, and the seeds ripen from September to October.
* Foot-long clusters of yellow flowers in midsummer, followed by red or brownish “pods” that persist into fall; Dirr calls it a “beautiful dense tree of regular rounded outline, sparingly branched” 
* It is popularly grown as an ornamental tree in temperate regions all across the world because of the aesthetic appeal of its flowers, leaves and seed pods
Growing Info:
Scarification: Soak in hot tap water, let stand in water for 24 hours.
Stratification: cold stratify for 90 days.
Germination: sow seed 3/8″ deep, tamp the soil, mulch the seed bed.
Other: fall sowing in mulched beds is prefered to artificial stratification , Sporadic germination will occur over a 2-3 year period, if boiling water treatment does not allow seed to imbibe, sulfuric acid treatment is required.

Golden Rain Tree seeds have a very hard, water-impermeable seed coat and require pre-treatment for successful germination to occur. Without pre-treatment it is likely that many of the seeds will not germinate.

Place the seeds in a heat proof container and pour hot (not boiling!) water 70-80 degrees Celsius over them and leave them to soak for between 12-24 hours. Seeds that have been successfully pre-treated will have swollen to around 2-3 times their previous size. Remove all swollen seeds as these will be damaged by further pre-treatments. This hot water treatment can be repeated up to 3 times, making the water a little hotter each time. Seeds that remain small will probably not germinate.

Prepare a free draining substrate into which the seeds are to be mixed, this can be a 50/50 mixture of compost and sharp sand, or perlite, vermiculite. The chosen substrate needs to be moist (but not wet), if you can squeeze water out of it with your hand it is too wet and your seeds may drown and die. Mix the seeds into the substrate, making sure that their is enough volume of material to keep the seeds separated. Place the seed mixture into a clear plastic bag (freezer bags, especially zip-lock bags are very useful for this -provided a little gap is left in the seal for air exchange) If it is not a zip-lock type bag it needs to be loosely tied.

Write the date on the bag so that you know when the pre-treatment was started. 

Following this the seeds require a cold period to break the final part of the dormancy, this is easily achieved by placing the bag in the fridge at (4 Celsius or 39F) for at least 12 weeks. When the dormancy has been broken it is quite possible for the seeds to germinate in the bag at these temperatures, if they do, just remove them from the bag and carefully plant them up.

When the period of pre-treatment has finished the seed should be ready to be planted. Small quantities can be sown in pots or seed trays filled with a good quality compost and cover them with a thin layer of compost no more than 1 cm deep.

Sow in pots or seed trays of good quality compost at a depth of about 1 cm (just less than half an inch) The seed usually germinates in 10-14 days at 15-20°c.

Growth in the first year is quite vigorous, usually between 15 and 40 cm. 

Plant trees out into their permanent positions after 2 or 3 years growth. Container grown trees can be planted at any time if given sufficient water. Bare rooted specimens should only be transplanted when the tree is fully dormant.