Ulex europaeus II

Last night I sowed several hundred seeds, in 2 trays (recycled tin foil, about 7x10x1ins, holes in bottom with old vegetable knife). I used John Innes seed compost from B&Q.

Procedure:
  • take seeds from polythene bag in fridge, put into a plastic measuring jug after shaking around in a metal flour-seive to get dust out;
  • pour 300ml approx boiling water;
  • leave about 10-15 mins until water was lukewarm;
  • drain through the flour-seive. 
  • place on paper kitchen roll to dry, (when wet the seeds stick together in clumps);
  • by hand, a pinch at a time, sprinkle seeds onto trays, attempting to get them as evenly spaced as possible, (this isn't easy because they're a similar colour to the compost, therefore difficult to see - they are shinier than compost, so catch the light somewhat);
  • sprinkle on a layer of compost by hand, about 2-3mm deep, (checking to see that no seeds were shining through;
  • the two trays were put into a cat litter tray;
  • water well from the bottom, (although the compost appeared moist coming from the bag, the two trays between them absorbed 1L of water). 
Now they're on a S facing windowsill. I expect them to begin germinating in 3-4 days, so that's Saturday or Sunday.

With the near, or total, failure of the the alder, and hawthorn, respectively, the gorse is assuming a lot of importance if I'm to get the hedgerow started this year. So I'm thinking of investing in trays of plugs and compost to prick them out into, rather than putting them into a seed bed.

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