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How to Plant & Grow Pennywort Seeds

Pennywort is the name given to several different plants, but the most common one is also called gotu kola, or Centella asiatica and Hydrocotyl asiatica. It’s a small, creeping perennial plant with light green, scalloped leaves that spread vine-like over the ground in moist areas. Pennywort is considered a weed in many places, but it has the reputation of being able to help your memory if you take it on a regular basis in tea or as tincture. Seeds can be difficult to start, but you can do it with a little determination and patience.

Mix a good potting soil with about 25 percent Perlite or vermiculite and then fill a nursery flat with your mixture. Sprinkle with water. Fall is the best time to start pennywort seeds.

  • Pennywort is the name given to several different plants, but the most common one is also called gotu kola, or Centella asiatica and Hydrocotyl asiatica.
  • Pennywort is considered a weed in many places, but it has the reputation of being able to help your memory if you take it on a regular basis in tea or as tincture.

Scatter seeds on top of the soil mixture and then gently press them into the soil with your palm.

Keep your seeded flat in an unheated greenhouse or other location that stays cool throughout the winter. Keep the soil surface moist and expect your seeds to germinate in 30 to 90 days, but they could wait six months before you see any green sprouts above the soil surface.

Transplant your young pennywort plants to a shady, moist area of your garden when they have fully formed leaves, about 1-inch across.

Fertilize your newly transplanted pennywort with a high nitrogen plant food within one month of transplanting to the garden. Keep your plants damp by giving them supplemental water if rains are not sufficient, especially during summer.

Tip

Pennywort will often die back during winter in colder climates, but often comes back from the roots in spring. To help this happen, mulch the area where your pennywort is growing with compost, wood chips or other organic material suitable as mulch.

Warning

If you take this plant medicinally, it can cause headaches, vertigo and photosensitivity. Always check with your doctor before you embark on a course of herbal medicine.

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