Kentucky Coffee Tree Seeds
(Gymnocladus dioicus) Deciduous. Zones 3-8.
The Kentucky Coffee tree is a standout performer and tough as nails! This low maintenance tree makes an enduring and elegant addition to a landscape. With its bold, contorted branches and unique scaly grey-brown bark, the Kentucky Coffee Tree becomes almost sculptural as it ages, reaching up to 60 feet at maturity.
The Meskwaki people taught early European Settlers how to roast and grind the seed to brew a coffee-like (though caffeine free) beverage. *Unroasted, the seeds are toxic.*
This tree has the largest leaves of any native tree in Canada! Its unique leaves are actually made up of about 70 leaflets, which make a beautiful and interesting silhouette. Its lacy foliage and large canopy casts dappled shade in summer, providing ideal filtered light for understory companion plants.
The Kentucky Coffee Tree blooms in late Spring with clusters of sweetly fragrant greenish-white flowers, which give way to long and leathery reddish brown pods. The gorgeous leaves transform from a striking pink-bronze in Spring to a blue-green in summer and finally fade to yellow in early Fall.
The exceptional beauty of the Kentucky Coffee Tree persists well into winter, with its unique twisted figure against the winter sky and decorative clusters of long, thick pods that rattle in the wind.
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Cold Hardiness: Zones 3 - 8
Edible: Yes, but only when roasted.
Size: Medium Tree
Growth Rate: Medium
Nitrogen Fixer: Yes
Native Plant: Yes
Germination: 70 - 90%
Sun requirements: Full Sun
Soil Requirements: Well draining, loamy soil. Tolerates acidity, but avoid heavy clays.
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GROWING INSTRUCTIONS
- Kentucky Coffee seeds require scarification. Gently scratch the seed surface with sand paper. For more information on scarification, check out our article "How To Stratify Tree Seeds".
- After scarification, soak seeds for 24 hrs.
- Plant stratified seeds in pots or a nursery bed using standard potting soil. Heat mats are NOT required & can hinder germination!
- Protect young tree seedlings from slugs, cutworms & rodents. Slugs especially can eat primary leaves as soon as they come up, so be vigilant!
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Available direct from Incredible Seeds, a Canadian Heirloom and Heritage Seed Company, offering only the best natural, non-GMO, open pollinated and untreated seeds, located in Mi'kma'ki / Nova Scotia.
