How to Tell if Macadamia Nuts Are Ripe
- 1). Keep the area beneath the tree clear of debris beginning in late summer. Rake up fallen leaves and pull weeds from the area. The nuts begin dropping from the tree in fall.
- 2). Rake up fallen nuts weekly. Macadamia nuts fall from the tree on their own once ripe. Rake until the bulk of the nuts have fallen, which occurs regularly from fall until early spring on some tree varieties.
- 3). Inspect the harvested nuts. Most that fall from the tree are fully mature. Mature nuts have a green husk or green-brown husk that is beginning to split open. The shell inside the husk is brown at maturity.
- 4). Pull down ripe clusters in the tree as necessary, using the rake to knock the cluster free. Pull down only those with husks beginning to split. Macadamias typically fall when ripe, but a few clusters may cling to the branch past the mature stage.
- 5). Dispose of nuts with cracked shells, as these have begun to germinate. Ripe macademia husks begin to split, but only overripe macademia shells split.