100s of gorse seedlings: to be left out in the cold...


The gorse seeds were collected early last autumn, and I wasn't really thinking through the timescales involved. I scarified them in almost-boiling water, and sowed them in the two seed trays you can see on the right of the photo, that was probably early November. They've been in the seed trays on the sideboard by the bay window since then, nestling amongst Xmas presents for a while because that's where the tree goes.

They're getting their first true leaves, so it's time to prick them out. I took them to the allotment this morning. The thermometer tells me it's been down to -4.5C this week, even though it hasn't been particularly cold elsewhere, the allotment is one of those 'rural areas' the weather forecasters refer to, outwith the Glasgow urban micro-climate.

I planned to prick out 200 or more, but decided to stop at 50, because I just don't know how gorse seedlings will fare in these temperatures, and didn't want to spend time on them only to come back next weekend and find them all dead. Gorse seed pods will pop on warm days, July or August say. And they will be naturally scarified around the same time if there's a fire, which would occur during that warm dry time of year. They will then germinate, so we're still in August, and they'll be somewhat more advanced than my seedlings by the time of the first frosts, early December say.

In their favour, I'm estimating the sub-zero temperatures will only last for a few hours, during the night. Just a bit of low winter sun in the morning sends the poly tunnel up into the mid-20s C. Be next weekend before I can check on them, looks liable to pour down until then...








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