Ethics Trading

How to Grow a Soap nut Tree

First find some seeds. I often find them in my deliveries of soap nuts but I try to take them out so my customers are only paying for the weight of shells. The seeds contain no saponin and are therefore not what my customers want. I do sell soap nut tree seeds, as a novelty, fun item but I don’t guarantee any level of success rate and I don’t recommend growing a soap nut tree in the ground. Please put them in pots as first I don’t know what environmental havoc they might wreak in the UK and second they don’t survive the British winter.

Then put your seed in the freezer. Yes, in the freezer. The seeds seem to need a cold snap before they germinate. Leave them in there for a couple of weeks.

When you get them out pop them into some basic potting compost and leave it on a warm window sill.

In a few weeks (yes it takes ages) you’ll find a spike of green leaves.

The soap nut tree forms gorgeous pale green pinnate leaves and is a beautiful plant. But I caution you all against growing a non native tree in you own soil. Firstly the soap nut tree doesn’t seem to withstand English winters when young, and secondly who knows what ecological havoc they could wreak!

From my own experience, and my own small tree, they like warmth, enjoy sun and cope with short periods of drying out, but hate being waterlogged. While they can cope with cold to an extent and despite needing to be frozen before germination, I’ve managed to kill 3 by leaving them out over the winter, so last years tree had its roots clipped in a partial bonsai and was brought indoors.

They also don’t seem to suffer with greenfly! Actually, that makes a lot of sense, seeing as the liquid cooked out of the berry shells does act as an excellent greenfly preventative - but don’t make it too strong or your plants get all frothy!

Happy planting.