Due to their small size and germination requirements, eucalyptus trees are often tricky to propagate in the Sahel. You need to dust the surface of a soil filled container with seeds, add a fine layer of sand or soil to protect them, and then make sure they stay watered. Here's where the problem comes in. If you pour water on top of the seeds, you risk washing them away. So what you need to do is to water the seeds from underneath.
One means of achieving this involves the use of two pans that can be placed inside of each other, The inner pan has holes drilled in the bottom, and is filled with soil and dusted with seeds. Water is added to the outer pan. Capillary action of the soil will draw the water up from the holes in the bottom and spread it through the inner pan, irrigating the seeds.
The Njawara Training center built a shallow box for the propagation of euclyptus. This 1 m x 30 cm x 5 cm box has a piece of perforated hose running the length of the center of the box. Once filled with soil and seed, water is added via the hose.
