FREE: Joshua Tree Seeds

The listing, Joshua Tree Seeds has ended.

The Joshua tree adds character of the American Southwest. It sculpts the landscape and provides habitat and food for numerous species. The plant is a yucca and native to the Mojave Desert. It is an can tolerate USDA plant hardiness zones 6a to 8b.

The Joshua tree is the largest of the yuccas. It is an evergreen perennial plant that starts out as a stem-less rosette and gradually grows a thick trunk decorated by sword-like leaves. The leaves grow in clumps off a scaffold of open ranging branches. Leaves are up to 14 inches long, sharply tipped and bluish green. The plants may live for 100 years and grow 40 feet tall. Joshua tree care is simple, provided they are installed in appropriate climates, soil and light situations.

The seeds are typically slow to germinate. Because it is endemic to the Mojave Desert, it’s important to mimic Joshua tree’s native habitat, both when germinating the seed and as the plant grows.

Fill a 4-inch planting pot, to within 1 inch of the rim, with a sterile, soilless seed starting mix. Avoid using any mix that contains soil or compost, which impedes drainage.

Moisten the potted mix slowly until excess water drains from the bottom of the pot. Set the pot aside to drain. The mix should be slightly moist, not wet.

Lay the Joshua tree seed in the center of the pot on top of the mix.

Lightly sprinkle a 1/8-inch layer of the mix over the seed.

Spray the top layer of mix with water from a misting bottle until it is slightly moist.

Place on a heat mat in a west-facing window, and set the thermostat to 72 degrees F.

Keep the soil slightly moist at all times during germination.

Reduce the heat mat’s temperature, gradually over the course of one week, after the seed sprouts, which typically within 30 days. Allow the temperature to remain at 65 F.

Transplant the seedling into the next sized larger pot, filled with a gritty cactus mix, when it reaches 4 to 5 inches tall.