Carob Tree

[cc_sb]

I am looking for advice growing a carob tree that produces carob. I would ideally like to have a single self-pollinating carob tree that produces carob, though I have not been able to find any of these varieties for sale. From what I have read there are a few varieties like this. For example, Clifford, Santa Fe, and Tantillo. Anyone know of where I can get a self pollinating carob tree?

My second option is to buy carob seeds from one of the varieties that do not self-pollinate, grow them and hopefully get both a male and female tree, and then graft one of the male branches onto the female tree. Has anyone had any luck with that?

I live on the California central coast in climate zone 9b with a strong maritime influence. I think this is okay for growing carob trees, but if anyone has any experience growing carob trees in this area I would be interested to hear about it.

 

[Marck]

Greetings, welcome to the Forums.

Carobs grow well in central California and one sometimes sees plants in residential setting. Many of these were planted primarily for ornamental landscaping reasons, rather than for a fruit crop. I have collected and grown Carob from seeds from such trees. Soaking the seed for a day, worked well for overcoming seed coat dormancy.

Grafting is certainly possible with Carob and is considered easier than cuttings, as is layering.

Another option for growing both sexes would be to plant one male tree and one or more female trees in close proximity, even in the same planting hole. Such plantings often produce a root-grafted thicket that functionally performs like a single tree.

Carob (Ceratonia siliqua), also known as (true) Locust and St. John's Bread, is an evergreen tree or large shrub, in the Pea Family (Fabaceae), native to southern Europe, northern Africa, Somalia, southern Arabia, and southwestern Asia. The seed can be ground into an edible floured used in numerous recipes, including ones that make a substitute for chocolate. The terms used for both the measure of a gemstone's weight (carat) and gold's purity (karat) originated from carob seeds, which were often used as a standard measurement in the ancient world due to their relatively uniform size and weight. Ceratonia siliqua is a mostly dioecious species, though monoecious individuals are also known to occur. The plant produces reduced flowers that for on the main trunk (cauliflory). Pollination may occur due to wind or insect transport.

 

[cc_sb]

Thank you Marck, a lot of great information in your post. Given the information you provided, I think my best option is to grow carob trees from seed and graft or root-graft them as you described. When you grew carob from seeds how long until you were able to tell which trees were male and which were female? I assume once they start flowering it is easy to tell.

 

[Marck]

Short of some type of laboratory test, flowers are the only way to determine the sex of the plants. My carob trees are still in containers and have not yet flowered. Of course, grafted trees will flower at a smaller size than seed-grown trees.