It's a beautifu day in the Texas Hill Country.

I'm Billy Garza her with Crane Valley Growers.

And I'm going to talk to yo today about propagating the beautiful Texas mountain laurel tree.

I know everybody has seen these red seeds laying all over sidewalks all through town.

This is how the trees are grown.

A lot of referenc will show you different methods of propagating the tree.

Some use sandpaper, some use a hammer.

Some use sulfuric acid to soak these in.

And I though some of those were pretty crazy.

So I met with somebody many, many years ago, and he showed me the easiest method and the fastest method that Ive found.

You get your pruners and you grab a seed, and all you do is little piece of the red seed coat.

That's it.

And you put it in a good compost, so it has a good environment to grow.

The reason I use a one gallon pot is because of their long roots.

Some people will tr and grow them in four inch pots and it will work but not as good as a deeper pot.

It takes about 6 to 8 week for them to start, where you'll see actuall growth coming out of the ground.

And I usually do 6 to 8 seeds because there is about a 60% propagation rate.

You can put eight seeds in there, but 3 to 5 of them are going to start growing.

When you walk by the Texas mountain laurel tree, you'll see the pods hanging down.

In the spring after the blooms have finished blooming, you'll see the pods green.

Now, I haven't tried it, but people say you can take the seed po when it's green and still ripe.

And open it up.

And the seeds are easily accessible.

And just plant those seeds in a pot or in the ground.

Now, later in the fall or the summer after the seed pods have turned brown, they get real rigid, real hard, and you have to get some pruners or something to crack it open to get the seeds.

It's a little more difficult, but the seeds have already hardened and they've become red within a few months.

So after I started growing the mountain laurels, and I see good growth coming out, and they've established a root system in about 6 to 8 months in my nursery, I'll wait til I've got that root system going.

And in my nursery I will bump them up from a one gallon to a three gallon, s they have a bigger area to grow.

If your objective is to take the Texas mountain laurel after it started growing in a pot and put it in your garden, we'll do it in the fall, but make sure you don't grab the mountain laurel by the trunk.

Don't grab it by the leaves.

You want to lay it on its side and slowly squeeze it to get it out of the pot and lay it next to the hol that you're going to put it in, and just slide it in there gently.

The Texas mountai laurels are very temperamental.

If you disturb the root system too much, it'll go into shock and you'll lose your everything you work for.

That's it.

Basically cover them.

I usually use seaweed extract as my main fertilizer.

And in and about 6 to 8 months they should be where you can plant them.

But make sure you plant them in late fall.

That wa they adjust to the environment through the winte and they establish their roots.

And when I grow them in my nursery, I water three times a week, and I fertilize them once a month with the seaweed extract and Superthrive.

It seems to be working great for me.

But as far as watering in th garden, once it's in the garden and it's a year old, it's going to be on its own.

You don't need to do anything.

They don't have any problems at all.

They're easy to propagate.

They're easy to grow.

They do great in the Hill Country.

So for Backyard Basics, I'm Billy Garza with Crane Valley Growers.

Hoping you have fun growing the Texas mountain laurel.