Seeds

Lucerne trees flower prolifically from mid-winter to early spring, from July to November in South Africa. These trees carry very abundant, fragrant white flowers which attract bees, bumblebees and birds to the flowers — bee-keepers & honey farmers — take note!  The flowers develop into seed pods, each containing about 6 – 8 seeds.  Once brown and dry, the pods split open and the seeds fall out.

To harvest lucerne tree seeds, we prune the branches with their ripe seed pods while they are still unopened and store them until the pods pop open.  We then hand-thresh and sift our seeds from their pods. Read about harvesting your own seeds here.

• We sell our excellent organic quality seeds in packs of 100’s or 1000’s in a sealed Ziplock bag, shipped undeclared as ordinary mail.
• The seed pack includes our detailed germination instructions plus at least 10% extra seeds.
• Seeds are couriered or posted with registered mail and we email you the waybill or tracking number.
• To order online – pop over to our Orders page.

GERMINATION INSTRUCTIONS

Lucerne tree seeds (also known as Tagasaste – Chamaecytisus palmensis) are naturally very hard-shelled seeds and require a process called scarification to encourage germination.

 

We recommend a 2-part process where you nick or cut the edge of each seed before soaking the seeds in very hot tap water overnight to weaken the hard seed coat of the seed to encourage germination.  Only start the germination process when you are ready to plant your seeds into seed trays or potting bags. Work with batches of + 100 seeds at a time.

1. Nick the edge of each seed with a nail clipper or sharp blade. Only cut off the top edge of the seed coat and do not cut deep into the seed itself. Do not cut the bottom white germ edge.  You can view how to nick the seed in a short YouTube video.
2. Soak nicked seeds in a bowl filled with very hot tap water overnight.  
3. You can inoculate your seeds the next morning (in cool water) with Groundnut & Cowpea Group Inoculant which contains Bradyrhyzobium sp. (Vigna) bacteria, a bacterial legume inoculant. We do NOT supply inoculant, but you can order a packet from your local agricultural supplier. Read about this process here and here.
4. Plant out the soaked seeds the same day.
5. Prepare seed trays or potting bags filled with coarse river sand with holes for drainage. Do NOT use potting soil.
6. Use a stick & make rows roughly 5mm (0.5cm) deep and place the seeds in these rows & cover lightly with sand.
7. Water lightly regularly & do not let the soil dry out.
8. The seeds usually germinate within 15 days. 
9. Wait at least 40 days until 70%-80% of the seeds germinate for maximum germination before potting out seedlings into individual 1-litre potting bags.
10. Dig deep under the seedling roots to loosen the soil and gently lift seedling out of the potting soil. Do not pull the seedlings up from the tray as this will damage the roots.
11. Water regularly and wait till these trees are at least 30-40cm tall with pencil-thick stems before planting them out in your lands.
12. Keep watering the remaining germination trays even if the seeds did not germinate as slower seeds may still germinate!

    You can germinate your soaked seeds in any of these:

• seed trays or
• 2-litre ice cream tub pierced with holes for drainage pierced at the bottom or
• plastic crates which have depth for the roots to develop or
• raised 30cm-tall mound seedbed of coarse river sand

How to transplant the young seedling into individual potting bags ~

1. First fill individual 1-litre potting bags filled with well-drained, sand-soil mixture.  We use the taller, narrower bags so that the roots have more room to develop.
2. Dig deep under the seedling roots to loosen the soil and gently lift seedling out of the potting soil. Do not pull the seedlings up from the tray as this will damage the roots.  Notice the extremely strong root growth on these seedlings!
3. Use a dibber or any pointed stick to make a deep hole in the soil in the potting bag.  Wiggle the dibber around to make the hole in the soil wide enough.
4. Gently lift each seedling out of the germination sand and place the roots in the hole in the potting bag, and gently press the sand firmly around the seedling.
5. Water immediately and then water regularly but lightly.  Be careful not to over-water!  These trees do not like to stand in wet soil.  Micro sprayers are excellent as they give a fine mist and will gently water your little saplings.
6. Only plant small trees out into the land when they have sturdy pencil-thick stems and are about 40cm-50cm high.
7. Approach your planting as if you are planting out at fruit orchard. 
8. Pop over our Planting page for all our step-by-step instructions, photos and calculations.

Read all our posts on seeds and germination ~

• Nip your seeds before soaking
• Flowering!
• Scarification germination process
• Proof – new germination method is effective!
• Hold your seeds until Spring
• New Seedlings Growing!
• What why and how to inoculate for rhizobia
• Lucerne trees nitrogen fixing nodules
• Inoculant is NOT needed
• When to harvest your seeds
• New Seeds 2022

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The Life is in the Seed!

Copyright © 2012 by Myles & Nadene Esterhuizen

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