Macadamia
Macadamia integrifolia
Australia's gift to the nut bowl.
Hardiness: zones 10 to 11
Light: full sun to part shade
Size: about 35 ft tall, 30 ft wide
Harvest: September to March
From: E. Australia
Here: Too tender to overwinter outdoors on the Lake Erie shore (zone 6b to 7a): grow it in a pot and bring it in, or treat it as an annual.
Good for: food.
Native to: Australia. Hardy in zones 10 to 11.
The story
Macadamia is the one food plant Australia gave the world: Aboriginal people of the Queensland rainforest, the Gubbi Gubbi among them, gathered the nuts they called bauple for millennia. A Hawaiian sugar planter imported seed in the 1880s and Hawaiʻi made it famous.
Planting
Full sun or part shade, rich drained soil, warmth and no hard frost; shelter from wind, which the brittle limbs hate. Plant a grafted variety; seedlings take a decade.
Growing
Water steadily, feed lightly with low-phosphorus fertilizer, and mulch thickly. Prune young trees to a strong framework.
Harvest and use
Nuts drop in their husks over several months from late summer; gather weekly, husk, and dry slowly for weeks before cracking. The shell needs a vise or a proper cracker.
What to watch for
Rats, macadamia nut borer, and limb breakage in storms; frost on young trees.
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General guidance, not professional advice. Conditions vary by yard and year; for local specifics ask your county extension office. Never eat a wild plant you cannot identify with certainty. Traditional uses are shared as history, not medical advice. © 2026 Sean Priest · Irie Orchard. Terms & credits · Privacy · Home