In a home garden, the seeds of alfalfa are usually not grown themselves, although that would also be possible. The rather rare need is covered by trade. What does the offer look like and how much seed is really needed?
Where can you buy alfalfa seeds and how much does it cost?
Alfalfa seeds can be purchased in stationary garden shops or in online shops. Prices per kilogram are between 10 and 20 euros. For one square meter, 2.5 to 3 grams of seeds are enough, which corresponds to about 2.5 to 5 cents.
The cultivation of alfalfa
The benefits of alfalfa are being discovered more and more often in private gardens. They are so-called butterflies that, thanks to a symbiosis with nodule bacteria, can absorb nitrogen directly from the air and store it in their roots. That's why alfalfa is ideal as green manure to give tired soil more power. Some garden owners also appreciate them as edible plants.
The need for sowing
Alfalfa is not planted, but sown. For this reason, specialist retailers do not offer young plants but rather appropriate seeds. Successful alfalfa cultivation therefore always begins with the small grains. It is important to obtain these in sufficient quality and quantity in good time before sowing.
Buy seeds
Alfalfa seeds are sold in units of different sizes everywhere in stationary garden shops. It is even more convenient to buy from online shops that ship the seeds to your doorstep within a few days.
Seed prices
Compared to the yield offered by growing alfalfa, the price of the required seeds is comparatively low. Depending on the manufacturer, between 10 and 20 euros are charged per kilogram. Since demand in home gardens is not so high, smaller packaging units are also offered.
Required sowing quantity
No order without quantity specified! But how many seeds can there be? Anyone who has no experience with sowing alfalfa will be stumped at this point. An important indicator here is the so-called seed strength. It indicates how many kilograms of seeds per hectare of area achieve the best result. For alfalfa, the seed rate is 25 to 30 kg per ha.
Converted to square meters, that's 2.5 to 3 grams of seeds. In terms of price, you have to spend around 2.5 to 5 cents per square meter.
Winning seeds yourself
The required sowing quantity does not have to come from retailers every year. Wonderful new seeds can be obtained from your own plants. It should ripen well on the plant beforehand. The dry seed must be stored under optimal conditions from harvest to sowing:
- hermetically sealed
- cool,
- dark
- and dry
Tip
If you have harvested more seeds than you need for seed production, you can bring them to your dinner plate. The widely valued, he althy alfalfa sprouts are grown from the seeds of alfalfa.
