Germinating Indian Bean Tree Seeds

First off: What a wonderful tree this is. The Indian Bean Tree (Catalpa Bignonioides) is one of my favourites right now. That's why I bought some seeds! The leaves are beautiful. I have a few baby plants coming up and the thing that stands out about these plants to me so far is it's leaf quality. The colour and texture is so rich and intense. Looking on Google Images at the full sized trees, the flowers look nice too. Anyways, you came here to read about how to germinate Indian Bean Tree Seeds so lets get on with it.

Indian Bean Tree Seeds

Fill a small tub / container with water. I use a small lunch box type container. Anything will do. You could even use a cup or a glass if you have no tubs available. Get some of your seeds and put them into the container that has the water in.

Now leave them in the water for at least 24 hours. This is to soften the outer shell / skin that the seeds are concealed in so it can be pulled off to reveal the seeds. I left mine in water for about 36 hours and found that was just about the right amount of time for easy-ish shell / coat removal. During the time period that they are in the water check to see if any of the seeds are floating. If they are just push them under the water with your fingers until they remain submerged on there own. This will help with softening the outer skin that covers the seeds.

When the time is up take the seeds out of the water and remove them from their protective skins. Hold one end with one hand and peel or pull at the skin with the other hand to release the seeds. Some skins may be a little stubborn but they will come off eventually. Then after this step the process for germinating these seeds is basically the same as germinating Paulownia Tomentosa Seeds. Fill a tub / container with a decent level of soil. The container should be see-through so that light can get in. A sealable lid is also ideal. If you don't have the lid just cover the top of the container with some cling film.

We have lift off. Indian Bean Tree Germination

Sow seeds on the surface as they need light in order to germinate. Water the soil and also give the container a spray with water to aid with humidity. Close the container so that it's air tight and leave in a location that will get sunlight like a window sill, or put the container under an artificial light source. Personally I use CFL lights to germinate these seeds and it works fine.

Leave the seeds in the air tight container for anything from a few days up to a week. After this time you should see signs of germination taking place. If not re-water the soil and spray the container again, then leave for a few days, or up to a week. Check periodically to see what's happening. After this time you should see some seeds sprouting. Once they are up and looking lively you can reduce the amount of humidity by leaving the top of the container off for long periods of time so that the plants get used to normal temperatures. Once they start to develop the first few sets of leaves move them into small individual plant pots. And that's it.

Summary

1. Soak seeds in water for a least 24 hours

2. Peel seeds from protective skins

3. Sow seeds on the surface of the soil

4. Water soil - Spray container

5. Close container so it's air tight

6. Put container where there's good lighting

7. Leave for around 1 week

Repeat from step 4 to step 7 if there are no signs of germination after one week.