Sometimes I learn things the hard way, and learning about totara falls into that category.
Last autumn I discovered quite by accident that native totara trees are either male or female, and fruit. Unlike the kahikatea, which has bright orange berries easily seen that hold its seeds, we'd never noticed totara berries before. So I went around to the female trees here at Struan Farm and gathered as many as I could to see if I could grow them on into trees. (Please note I may not be using proper botanic terms.)
I popped the seeds into soil on seed trays and waited. I've done this with other types of natives with some success, including kowhai, kahikatea, tawa and flax. But with these I had no luck whatsoever, no sign of growth. I ended up emptying out the seed trays, figuring I needed to do more research about temperature, water and light to be able to grow totara.
The plot thickens. Recently John and I were over at Smart Plants in Te Kuiti to pick up some natives and potting soil. I queried Charlie, who knows and grows his native trees and plants, about what I did wrong. It seems I'd tossed out the seed trays prematurely: I hadn't had enough PATIENCE. It takes 3-4 months for totara to germinate!
I will try again next season, when hopefully other female trees fruit. They fruit every two years, so these will be different trees to this past year unless they all fruit the same year and it's a two year exercise. In the meantime, John discovered a virtual forest of totara seedlings under one of the female trees this week. We'll cultivate these seedlings.
I'm thankful Mother Nature stepped in to help.
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