I recently picked up some unknown to me fruits from a tree in Venice. The PlanetNet app told me it’s probably Melia azedarach. Here is a picture of the fruits hanging on the tree.

There is only a thin layer of fruit around the pit. Most parts of the trees are said to be poisonous, so are the fruits and seeds. I could wash off most of the fruit residue with hot water. At first I planned to sow the pits as is. Some sources recommend to score them with sandpaper or a file. Instead I decided to crack them open in a vise. The pits I opened so far contained 3 seeds each. Here are pictures of the pits and then individual seeds inside.

The seeds were sowed in some moist vermiculte because in the past I had problems with other soils developing mold. I put the container in the same “indoor green house” I used for the Ficus macrophylla. As a heat (and light) source I use a piece of 12V LED strip. It doesn’t have much power so I insulated it with some card board. The temperature stabilizes at around 25°C which should be fine for germination.

The first seeds germinated after only 10 days. Here’s a picture: