Desert Gardens

» Robert Dailey - How do I prepare Texas Ebony Seeds?

You have indeed found a gem. Texas ebony (Pithecellobium flexicaule), also called Mexican ebony or false acacia, is a beautiful evergreen used by many as a shade tree or even as a windbreak.
It has several other valuable characteristics.
The hard, dark brown wood is much sought after by artists and artisans for woodcarvings. It is also a great tree to bonsai. The seeds are edible, and the dried pods have been roasted and used as a coffee substitute. Because of its thick foliage and zigzag pattern of its branches, it provides places to roost and hiding places for birds.
Deer love to graze its lower branches. Rodents will carry away and hide the seeds, to be eaten later.
Texas ebony is cold hardy into the high teens (read 19 degrees or warmer).
The seeds are very hard and need to be scarified before they can germinate. Here's how you do it:
1. Rub the seeds vigorously with sandpaper until you have "scarred" the surface enough to let water into the embryonic tissue.
2. Alternately, you can use a file to scar the surface or even a very sharp pair of concave pruners to snip a tiny (very tiny) piece of the seed coating off.
3. Before you scar it, you may want to soak the seeds for 24 hours, just to soften the seed coating.
4. After you scarify the seeds, soak them in water for 24 hours.
5. Then place them on the SURFACE of a rooting medium and allow to germinate. Keep watered. Like many drought-tolerant plants, these seeds need light to germinate.
6. The seeds could take as long as a month to germinate. The seed will may even send its taproot out before sending up the cotyledons.
7. Don't expect a bountiful harvest from the seeds. In fact, if you get a better rate than two out of 10 to germinate, consider yourself either very lucky or a very good gardener.
8. While the seedlings are establishing themselves, set them in bright sun for half the day and in partial shade for half.
9. Don't let the seedlings dry out, but do not over water either. Ideal temperatures for the plants are from 50 to 80 degrees F.
10. After the seedlings have established themselves, transplant them into larger pots or directly into the ground. Remember that they have a very long taproot, so make sure you plant the whole plant. If you cut even a small part of the taproot, chances are slim that the plant will survive transplanting. (Few of the plants, which are harvested from the wild, actually survive because the taproot was cut.)
11. After the seedlings are established (about a year), they require much less water. If you like xeriscaping, they should be considered an arid zone tree, or perhaps on the outer edges of the transition zone.
Texas ebony is very drought-tolerant. Although it is very slow growing, it will eventually reach a height of 20-25 feet.
The flowers have a vanilla-like fragrance.
I hope this helps.
Good gardening. Let me know how these plants are doing