Macadamia Nuts

[Livinginexile]

I have a few rai spare in Kanchanaburi I want to plant with something.

The land is very fertile and connects to the river Kwai so water is not a problem.

I love macadamia nuts and the going market price seems to be 155 bht per 100g! not bad coin if one has a few rai of trees.

Has anyone got experience growing them?

Thanks in advance

[samsiam]

Not sure, but thought they needed a cooler locale...tropical, but cooler winters like some areas in Oz where they grow a lot....Kanchan is stinking hot all the time.

[nitecm]

Not sure, but thought they needed a cooler locale...tropical, but cooler winters like some areas in Oz where they grow a lot....Kanchan is stinking hot all the time.

Growth at the mountain of the north

The temp at these areas can as low as 3 C at night during Dec and Jan

[xen]

Macadammias are not the quickest growing trees so you may wait a while for decent returns. A few years ago in Australia, there were some large scale plantations planted out - 400 ha of macadammias size plantations , in Northern NSW. They are native to that semi-tropical region . From what i hear the farms do okay but they are highly mechanized with harvesting done with tree shakers that shake all the nuts into catchers. One person using a machines costing big big dollars. The difficult part is then cracking the outside of the nut to get to the inner kernal and then roasting , so for you it will be very labour intensive and once you get that taste for maccadamias hard not to eat the profits. Maybe you will have to get all your workers to whistle whilst cracking the nuts just like my mother tried to make me do when shelling peas.

North of Chaing Mai there are some good macadamias grown so maybe take a trip up there and have a look. Part of the King's Projects for Hill People i believe .

[Scoop1]

I think it takes 15 years for maturity

scoop

[nitecm]

I think it takes 15 years for maturity

scoop

A well take care plant should take about four or five years to bear fruit if you plant the tree from grafting

[wdrk7]

We have it here in the north . Starts to fruit after 4 - 5 years . Big tree . Good shade but the fallen leafs are hard to get rid off ( thorny )

[trivo]

I have grown them in Australia and looked at planting them on our land near Nong Khai. There is a research facility "Pakchong Research Station" that will be able to give you advice on varieties that grow in Thailand. You can get them in Chang Mai but make sure they are grafted or you may die of old age buy the time they fruit.

Things to remember. they don't like wet feet but like to be kept moist as they have shallow roots, they need to be watered in the dry season, they get sunburnt so protection is required when young and the trunks need to be painted with white water base paint every year to stop burning, be careful of fungus from humidity prune to keep the tree open, A little fertiliser around the drip line every month is beneficial over fertilising will result in fruit drop, Mulch eg: rice husks good fresh animal poo bad. well worth a try they are strong plants and the area you are in should be good. When flowering if it is windy you will get very little crop so wind brakes may be required for the 2 or 3 weeks of flower

I had one in Perth that grew over 40 foot tall and i got 4 brickie barrows of it in one year

Best of luck

[canuckamuck]

They prefer to be at 700 meters+ in Thailand (so I have been told). I think that is a temperature related thing and not that the trees need this altitude in other climates. I will be planting some this year, But it will be quite a while before I have any useful observations.

[TooBigToFit]

It's been a while since this topic was discussed. Is anyone growing them? Any success? What part of Thailand are you doing it in?