Bladder Senna (colutea arborescens)
SKU:
£1.10
£1.10 - £10.45
per item
Seed Prices
1 gram (approx 75 seeds) £1.10
2 grams (approx 150 seeds) £1.65
5 grams (approx 375 seeds) £2.30
10 grams (approx 750 seeds) £3.50
25 grams (approx 1875 seeds) £6.80
50 grams (approx 3750 seeds) £10.45
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Germination, Sowing and After Care Information for
Bladder Senna (colutea arborescens)
Colutea seeds have a moderate dormancy combined with a very hard, water-impermeable seed coat and require pretreatment for successful germination to occur. Without pretreatment it is likely that 10% or less of the seeds will germinate. A combination of seed pretreatments is necessary to make the seed coat permeable so that the seed embryo can take up water and begin the process of breaking down the natural dormancy contained within the seed.
Place the seeds in a heat proof container and pour very hot (almost boiling!) water over them and leave them to soak for between 12-24 hours then fully drain away the water.
Next prepare a free draining substrate into which the seeds are to be mixed, this can be a 50/50 mixture of compost and sharp sand, or perlite, vermiculite. The chosen substrate mix needs to be moist (but not wet), if you can squeeze water out of it with your hand it is too wet and your seeds may drown and die. Mix the seeds into the substrate, making sure that their is enough volume of material to keep the seeds separated.
Place the seed mixture into a clear plastic bag (freezer bags, especially zip-lock bags are very useful for this -provided a little gap is left in the seal for air exchange) If it is not a zip-lock type bag it needs to be loosely tied. Then write the date on the bag so that you know when the pretreatment was started.
The seeds require a sustained cold period to break down the dormancy that is within them, this is easily achieved by placing the prepared bag of seeds and compost mix in the fridge (4 Celsius or 39F) for between 60 to 90 days. It is quite possible for the seeds to germinate in the bag at these temperatures when they are ready to do so, if they do, just remove them from the bag and carefully plant them up
Sow in pots or seed trays of good quality compost at a depth of about 1 cm (just less than ½ inch) The seed usually germinates in under 4 weeks at 15-20°c.
Growth in the first growing season is usually between 20 and 40cm and accelerates in the second and subsequent years. Plant them out into their permanent positions after 2 or 3 growing seasons. This species usually transplants very easily.
