Germination temperature
Day/night 15/6 °C to 35/20 °C (59/43-95/68 °F) for non-dormant seed.
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Field pennycress is a fast annual of the cabbage family with round, flat seed pods. Let the seed after-ripen, sow it shallowly into moist, cool soil in autumn or early spring, and remove plants before they shed seed if you do not want them to spread.
Day/night 15/6 °C to 35/20 °C (59/43-95/68 °F) for non-dormant seed.
On the surface or barely covered; nearly all seedlings come from the top 2 cm (0.8 in).
Variable: after-ripened seed comes up readily, fresh seed may wait months.
Helps: red light promotes germination, shade from a canopy suppresses it.
Store dry for at least a month to after-ripen; autumn sowing gives a natural cold spell.
Direct sow.
Seeds are small, about 1.5 mm (0.06 in) long and 0.74-1.5 mg each, brown to purplish with fingerprint-like ridges. Mix them with dry sand for even sowing.
Not needed. Dormancy in pennycress is physiological, not a hard coat.
Strain-dependent. Most seed after-ripens if stored dry at room temperature for a month or more. Some strains respond to several weeks of moist cold, but in others cold near 2 °C (36 °F) pushes the seed into deeper dormancy, so a refrigerator is not a safe default. Sowing outdoors in autumn or at the start of the cool season lets the seed sort itself out.
Not needed. A firm, moist seedbed matters more.
Non-dormant seed germinates well at day/night temperatures from about 15/6 °C to 35/20 °C (59/43-95/68 °F). In temperate regions most seedlings appear in early spring, with a second flush in autumn. In warm climates, including most of India, sow at the start of the cool season.
Scatter on firm, fine soil and press in, or cover with a few millimetres of soil at most. Seedlings rarely emerge from deeper than 2 cm (0.8 in).
Ordinary, fertile garden soil or seed compost. Fertile, recently worked soil often triggers a flush of germination, as nitrate stimulates seed exposed to light.
Keep the surface evenly moist. Pennycress seed needs more soil moisture to germinate than most crops, and a dry crust stops it.
Sow in an open spot. Red light promotes germination, while the filtered light under taller plants holds it back.
After-ripened seed in cool, moist soil emerges in a short flush; dormant seed can stay in the soil for years and come up later.
Not recommended; sow where the plants will grow and thin seedlings to stand a few centimetres apart.
Spring-sown plants flower 5-7 weeks after emergence and grow 50-80 cm (20-32 in) tall. Autumn-sown plants overwinter as rosettes, survive frost down to about -14 °C (7 °F) once hardened, and flower about a month earlier in spring.
Cause: dormancy at shedding. Fix: store seed dry for at least a month before sowing, or sow in autumn and wait for spring emergence.
Cause: seed sown too deep, shaded or in drying soil. Fix: sow on the surface of a fine, moist bed in an open position.
Cause: one plant can shed thousands of seeds (up to about 14,000 with little competition), and buried seed can survive 17-30 years in undisturbed soil. Fix: grow it in a contained bed and cut plants before the pods ripen, about 1-2 weeks after flowering.
Cause: all parts of the plant smell strongly when crushed. Fix: this is normal; keep it away from grazing animals, whose milk and meat it taints.
Field pennycress is a common weed of grain and oilseed fields, and its seed contaminates canola harvests. Do not sow it near crops or pasture, and check local rules before growing it outside a garden.
Where winters are cold, sow in autumn: the rosettes overwinter and flower early in spring. This is also how it is grown experimentally as a winter cover and oilseed crop.
Seeds mature about 1-2 weeks after flowering and the plant is largely self-pollinating. Cut stems when the round pods turn straw-coloured, dry them in a paper bag and thresh.
Sow field pennycress shallowly into cool, moist soil and keep it contained.
Fresh seed is usually dormant. Store it dry for a month or more, then sow on the surface of a moist bed in cool weather.
No. It is a cabbage-family (Brassicaceae) herb with flat, round seed pods; 'field grass' was a mistranslation.
It is best kept away from livestock: it taints milk and meat, and large amounts can poison cattle.