Growing Seafoam For Inexpensive Realistic Trees
What’s In This Page
Full information about growing seafoam for inexpensive realistic trees and then making the trees themselves.
If you are using a phone, at the bottom of the page there are links to many supplies for modelers. Otherwise those links are in the sidebar to the right. You can also find other information by using the search function that is in the navigation bar above.
The Latest Information
Anything new and page updates are posted on X (formerly Twitter), Rumble and Facebook.
It is easy to keep up with the latest by following us on either of them.
Free Help
If you need help or guidance with your seafoam, contact me using the WhatsApp button. WhatsApp is a FANTASTIC, FREE communications system. If you do not have it, click on the button and you can install it on your phone. If you are unfamiliar wit WhatsApp, read about it here. Click on About WhatsApp.
If You Can’t Or Don’t Want To Grow It Or Need It Now
We grow a few hundred plants each year for sale. They sell out fast. It is available here. Click Here.
About Seafoam
Seafoam is a tumbleweed that is native to the Gobi Desert.
It is used in floral arrangements and by architects and other modelers to make realistic trees, bushes and flowers for their scenic renditions.
The plant, having spread naturally or through intentional introduction, is now well established throughout Europe and temperate parts of Asia. It also grows in North America, Japan, and Italy.
It is of the Genus TELOXYS and Species Aristata
It grows well in worn out, dry, sandy soil. The initial growth rate is slow. But as it approaches maturity it grows explosively.
The plants generally grow to 35 cm, sometimes shorter and sometimes as tall as 40 cm.
When mature (after growing for 4 to 5 months) the plants turn a red to reddish brown and are covered with many hundreds of minute seeds. On gram of seeds is made up of about 9,000 seeds.
As a tumbleweed it is a prolific and aggressive self-seeder. It is considered a pernicious weed and is banned in many regions.
Twelve well grown plants will provide armatures for several hundred fine trees, scrub trees, bushes, flowering weeds.
Is It Difficult To Grow Seafoam?
No. It is a naturally growing, naturally self-seeding and self-spreading weed. It spreads so fast and easily that in some areas it is banned.
All that one has to do is duplicate what is done in nature.
If you have a small area in a garden, in the fall or early spring, you need only spread seed on a garden area and let nature take its course.
You can also, very easily grow it on a patio, balcony, or indoors.
When And In What Regions Can Seafoam Be Grown?
Anywhere any time of the year.
Planning
First, how many trees do you need?
How Many
Twelve well grown plants will provide armatures for several hundred fine trees, scrub trees, bushes, flowering weeds.
I like making trees so all year round I have 6 to 12 plants growing on my window sill.
Containers Or Not
As far as I am concerned, it is not whether or not I use a container, but what type container do I use.
When I grow it for a cash crop, I grow outdoors in my garden. (I live in Poland – temperate climate). I don’t waste my time with raised beds. Each plant grows in a 3 gallon fiber grow bag. Maintenance is super easy.
Grow bag seafoam also grows well on a patio. And it is rather decorative.
In all other cases, I use plastic containers
Acceptable Temperature Zones
Seafoam grows well in temperate zones. This plant thrives in USDA hardiness zones 8 through 10. It prefers warm climates and is typically cultivated in regions where the temperatures are mild to warm throughout the growing season.
You can plant outdoors in these zones and grow an annual crop. Winter passes, you can plant again.
DIY Temperature Zones
A DIY Temperature Zone is a place that you can control the temperature.
So if you either live in areas other than8, 9,0r 10, or want to grow seafoam all year round, grow it indoors.
As a matter of fact, I live in zone 9 and grow it indoors. And I grow it all year round.
Rather than making this page too long, I have a separate, detailed tutorial on growing seafoam all year round under this link. Click Here.
What Is Needed To Have A Successful Crop
Sun or Grow Light.
Starting Your Batch Of Seafoam.
Germination
Seeds are surface germinators.
In the wild, seeds lay on the soil surface over the winter and germinate without having to have been covered.
Some growers germinate seafoam seeds on paper. Others in seed trays on potting soil.
Best germination occurs when the seeds have been subjected to freezing temperatures for at least one month.
They germinate anywhere between 1 and 7 days when kept in the dark at 15 degrees Centigrade.
If the seed tray used for germination is covered, after germination, the cover should be removed. Keeping the seedlings covered in sunlight will cause them to get “leggy”.
Such trays make it easy to control humidity, temperature and light.
Tray plugs can be removed using a fork without damaging the root system. So when the seedlings grow to about 2 inches tall, the plugs can be moved to plastic cups for further development.
When the plants develop their first true leaves you can start the hardening off process. (See Below)
Keep the plants in the cups until they are about three inches tall. By that time the root systems should be developed enough that you can transplant the seafoam without damage to the system.
Moving the plants to their permanent growing location requires care. A hole sized larger than the cup should be dug. The cup should be cut away from the dirt within. The entire clump of dirt should be inserted undisturbed into the hole no deeper than the top of the dirt that was in the cup.
Cut cups and plant entire cup contents without disturbing root system.
Water and let nature take its course. If the weather is particularly dry, water occasionally.
The Process
What To Use
I get my best results by using the cheap seed trays
They are filled with a cheap potting medium or sandy soil. Note that it is best to sterilize your planting medium by putting it into the oven at 180 degrees C for 1/2 hour.
Once the seeds are added, I put them on a window sill.
In a couple days I have seedlings.
As soon as the seeds germinate, uncover them and put them in full sunlight. Keep the soil moist.
Moving From Seed Tray
What you do next depends on where you intend to grow the plants them.
If the plants will be grown outside, remove the plugs and put in plastic cups that have drainage holes in the bottom. Grow them to about three inches tall. Following the procedure below, harden them. After hardening, transplant to a container.
Even if you are going to use a spot in your garden, containers make maintenance very easy. You may, of course, direct plant in soil.
To grow the plants indoors, transplant directly to their containers.
Hardening Seafoam Seedlings
When plants grow in their natural habitat, they grow a film that protects them from UV light.
When grown indoors, that film does not develop. So before these plants can survive outdoors, they must be slowly introduced to UV light which introduction process is called hardening off.
The process is:
Day 0: Start hardening off seedlings when they’re a couple inches tall with their first set of true leaves.
Every day, as soon as your seeds germinate, brush your hand back and forth across the seedlings. Brushing seedlings with your hand helps them develop stronger stems.
Day 1: If temperature above 60 F and little or no breeze, set the seedlings outside in partial sun for 2 to 3 hours.
Day 2: Set the seedlings outside in partial to full sun for 3 hours.
Day 3: Set your seedlings outside in full sun for 4 hours.
Day 4: Set your seedlings outside in full sun for 5 to 6 hours.
Day 5: Set your seedlings outside in full sun all day.
Day 6: Set your seedlings outside all day and all night.
Your seedlings are hardened off and can be transplanted to their permanent location.
Post-Harvest Processing
The mature seafoam plant will be a jumble of branches that are covered with hundreds of seeds and some leaves.
Start by carefully cutting the main branches from the root.
Examine each of those main branches and further separate into smaller branches that themselves will be trimmed and fashioned into trees, bushes and flowers.
Gently rub each piece to remove seeds. Don’t crush the plant. When the piece is put to its final use, the remaining seeds will be removed.
Gather all the seeds and chaff and put into a container to dry. The seeds and chaff will be separated after the mixture is thoroughly dry.
At this point to preserve the seafoam, some people spray (submerge) each of the branches with glycerin and hang them to dry.
Others simply put the branches aside to dry. When they finally fashion the branch, they use a coating of solvent based paint to both color and add a preservation coat of paint.
Finally, some spray (submerge) each branch with a mixture of pva and water instead of glycerin and then spray with solvent based paint.
How To Save Seafoam Seeds
When seeds are removed from seafoam branches, chaff comes along for the ride.
Everything should be put into a container and allowed to thoroughly dry. This eliminates the weight that any moisture adds to chaff and makes it easier to remove the chaff.
There are two methods that work well.
Method one entails putting the dry mixture into a tray.
Blow air across the top of the tray. The chaff will lift and blow away from the tray. Tilting the tray so the seeds roll to one edge helps. And be careful that airflow is not so high that it lifts seeds as well.
Method two entails putting the mixture into a bowl and blowing down into the bowl.
About Growing Teloxis Aristata / Seafoam
The branches of Teloxis Aristata aka seafoam make incredibly beautiful model trees. Beyond that, they are very easy to make.
You can uses seafoam to make many types of trees and bushes. Our seafoam series of pages and videos will show how to make different bushes and trees as well as how to use it in other ways.
Though in some places in the world it is a pernicious weed, to buy Teloxis Aristata branches for hobby and architectural use in horribly expensive.
Growing your own is easy and inexpensive.
Where To Grow
Since plants should be spaced about 7 inches apart you can grow enough for a small home layout in a couple of planters that you keep inside on a window sill or outside on a balcony. A 2 meter by 2 meter patch in a garden will yield a huge crop. You can see how this is done in the videos above.
The plants like full, all day sun. In the winter, you can grow them either on a window sill that faces the South or under a grow light.
They are native to the Gobi desert where they get little rain and grow in a worn out sandy soil. They end their growing season as a tumbleweed that spreads the thousands of seeds each plant develops.
They will grow well in potting soil.
Getting Started With Teloxis Aristata
We recommend growing seedlings and transplanting them.
Seedlings are best started indoors in a simple seed tray.
Click to read a complete guide to Germinating Seafoam Seeds
The Growing Period
Plants take about 5 months to mature. That means if you grow them outdoors, typically from May to September.
But if you grow them indoors, you can grow them all year round.
As they mature you will see black seeds develop. The plants will turn various shades of red.
When they stop growing, they are ready.
Pull them out by the roots. Seeds will fall off in the process. so to save the seeds immediately put them in a nearby box. Those that make it to the ground will provide you with next year’s crop. They must not be turned under. Just let the soil be as it is, except for any necessary weeding.
Here is more information on Harvesting And Preserving Seafoam
If You Can’t Or Don’t Want To Grow It Or Need It Now
We grow a few hundred plants each year for sale. They sell out fast. It is available here. Click Here.
If You Want To Grow It
Get a half gram of the seeds that we have used in this series here.
And a detailed germination guide is here.
This link will take you to a step by step guide on making seafoam trees. How To Make Seafoam Trees.
Feedback
Your questions and comments help us clarify and upgrade the information presented. Even if you find this helpful, please tell us.
Please let us know if this page has been helpful And if you have questions or suggestions, use this spam free system.
Or use the green WhatsApp button that is to the right.
Free Help
If you need help or guidance with your seafoam, contact me using the WhatsApp button. WhatsApp is a FANTASTIC, FREE communications system. If you do not have it, click on the button and you can install it on your phone. If you are unfamiliar wit WhatsApp, read about it here. Click on About WhatsApp.