Rewilding My Lot

A couple of years ago I discovered a reliable way to germinate Texas Mountain Laurel seeds using a process that involved removing the tips of the seeds with pet claw clippers. I describe the procedure more in this post.

While reliable, that way of germinating Texas Mountain Laurel seeds is rather labor-intensive, so when I learned of a more lazy method, I wanted to try that. The only materials needed are a clay pot, nutcrackers, and patience.

I was gifted some Texas Mountain Laurel seed pods from the ground under a friend’s tree. I cracked open the seed pods with a nutcracker and put the resulting seeds and pod fragments in a clay pot. Then I placed the pot in a shady spot under the drip line of the roof (there are no gutters here).

Then I left it.

Texas Mountain Laurel seeds germinating naturally can take years to do so — the seeds and their pods are very hard. So if humans wish to accelerate this process, then they need to intervene by scarifying the seeds (for instance, by snipping off the tips with pet clippers!).

With this clay pot method, however, one simply needs to wait until the seeds are ready to germinate, and each year, new seeds can be added to the pot.

I was prepared to wait years for seeds to germinate, since I have no immediate need for Texas Mountain Laurel saplings. So I was very surprised to find one sprouting just weeks later! I have no idea how long this seed was waiting on the ground before it ended up in my pot.

A few days later I moved the germinated seed into a quart pot with some mycorrhizae.

And here it is looking quite happy a week later.