The spice bark is available both as a bush and as a stem and is extremely easy to care for. It's also very easy to plant.
The spice bark (Senna corymbosa) or Cassia with its magnificent, yellow flowers is a popular container plant on the balcony, terrace and in the garden. No wonder, because it develops well in a sunny and wind-protected location and thus enchants the garden. Rich potting soil is suitable as soil, which becomes well permeable with gravel or lava granules. But how is the spice bark planted correctly?
The right bucket for the spice bark
Spice rinds grow fast, so the pot needs to be big enough. There should be about a hand’s width of space around the root ball. Clay buckets are ideal because they store moisture. This means that the earth inside cannot heat up and dry out as quickly. Be careful with black or dark plastic or metal containers, because such containers can quickly overheat.
Create a drainage layer
Place a thick drainage layer of expanded clay or gravel at the bottom of the pot. A water-permeable fleece protects the soil from mixing with the substrate. The gardener's trick also works for potted plants that are still small: put the plant in the pot without drainage and place the container in a larger pot that has gravel or stones at the bottom.
Use nutrient-rich potting soil or humus-rich garden soil that you have enriched with compost as a substrate. You then have to make both soil mixtures loose and permeable with gravel, sand, expanded clay or lava granules.
Insert spice bark
You can either buy the plant or grow it yourself. To do this, sow the seeds in potting soil from February and keep the substrate well moist. Separate the plants after they have opened and when the first leaves appear. As soon as the plants are strong enough (which is around 10 to 15 centimeters high), they are placed in separate pots. After the last frost, the cassia can go outside. It is then planted like this:
- On the bottom of the potfirst comes the drainage, then a hand's breadth of earth.
- Now set the plant upright and fill up with soil all around.
- Now water well and place in a warm, sunny and wind-protected place.
Young plants need plenty of water. Older spice barks have to be watered regularly, especially in summer, during the long budding and flowering phase. The root ball must never dry out. In the first few weeks after planting, the nutrients in the soil are still sufficient. Later, the spice bark will need some liquid fertilizer in diluted form once a week for four weeks.
A new pot every year?
After winter, younger plants need a bigger pot. When repotting, you always have to replace the entire soil. Older spice bark, from about three or four years, only need to be repotted about every two to three years. You can find out exactly how to do this here.