Lots more info on Amaranth and seeds.

Holy crap, lol, I resurected and created a monster. ISplatU, I bow to you the Amaranth King!

 

I'm only going with Burgundy this year on the inside of the garden fence and a volunteer crop from the spring tank overflow to get non cross pollinated seeds to save and distribute to people that want them.

 

I've got my first "test plots" out too. How hard is this stuff to thresh the seeds out ?

 

I will be keeping about two plants of each type, that grows well, covered with a bag to keep them from crossing. I have read this in several places, to prevent cross pollination.

 

Read the same thing, but I am only going to go with the one variety to get a good stock of planting seeds. I am also going to plant the Red Leaf Grain seeds you gave me, eating only the plant parts and not letting them go to seed.

 

Posts 64-66 on this thread might be what you are looking for, or are you looking for something else?

 

Hey guys. I have been reading your thread. Good stuff. I planted two rows, one of burgundy and one of golden giant. I am kind of concerned though, since I wanted to get seeds to plant for next year. It seems like everyone is talking about monoculture to get viable seeds. I actually thought the different amaranths were just cultivars and not actually separate species which cannot produce fertile offspring.

Looking at other sites, I have seen some amazing amaranth hybrids. I wonder if it would be worth it to try and induce polyploidy with colchicine to allow for viable offspring and produce a new species. What do you guys think?

 

Sounds like a fun experiment.
I planted nine kinds of Amaranth last year, and have many growing on there own from last year. Plus I planted some from Mountianman, and some of my own, that have crossed. I also have twelve new kinds this year that will have a chance to cross with what grows from last year.
So I am kind of doing that already, without planning it. It will be fun to see what I will get.

 

From what I understand, the pure seeds and the ones that are crossed will produce fertile offspring and any fancy techniqes to make a hybrid amaranth is not needed. I could be wrong since my college education was in electronics and not the study of those plant thingies, lol.

 

It's all about genetic manipulation. Your first hybrid cross of two heirlooms is just an unstable start. The seed from that is a dice roll as to what it will reproduce. It takes a ton of experimentation to get a stable results hybrid. Then you are back to the point of hybrid seed not producing identical results as the parent plant. It's the same with crossing different rabbit purebreeds. I played with New Zealand Whites, Californians, and English Spot. I had some very interesting results. None stable. All tasty though.

 

Amaranth disaster

Well I had a amaranth disaster. I planted all my amaranth in nice rows about one half inch deep, in the soil. Then I went to Fort Lauderdale for three and a half weeks for work, and when I get back, it is a disaster.

It poured rain for days after I left, which washed all my seeds away. Also, nice lush green grass covers my garden (I can not even get grass to grow in the frount yard). I have amaranth growing everywhere except where I planted it, with the grass. So, now all the amaranths are mixed up.

I do not know if I should just leave it just like it is, and harvest what I can, or till under some of it and replant. I might do both, but this is sure disappointing.

 

Amaranth coming in

Here is how much my amaranth has grown since sowing it in May. We have had some really cold weather here in WI, so I think it might be a little behind normal.

The Golden giant seems to be growing bigger than the Burgundy, but I think that might be due to the extra sun that it gets since the burgundy is closer to the garage (looking south in the picutre).

 

IsplatU,

I think that you might have ripe conditions for selection to produce some hardy amaranth crosses. Maybe just go with it?

 

I'm growing Oscar Blanco Amarath I got from rareseeds, so far I have about a dozen that have sprouted the tallest being about 3". Sown directly into the ground on June 1st. We've had cold, wet weather all June here in the midwest.
...
A unique variety from the beautiful mountain valleys of Bolivia. Mammoth plants can grow to 12' and produce 24 long dusty pinkish-colored flower heads with delicious grain and greens

 

Great to have a couple more Amaranth growers on here, let us know your progress. I am going to stick to my plan and grow some in the garden area for seed to give away and try for a volunteer crop where the spring tank overflows.

 

...found one plant to be 6" tall, making progress, slowly but surely...
it'll be interesting if they do get 12' tall.

 

OK, so it is not as big of as disaster as I thought. I do have many two to three inch sprouts growing where I planted them, they all did not get washed away. I just had to find them in all the grass and weeds. It is amazing how much weeds and grass can grow in four weeks.

I also have a couple volunteers that are now about four feet. Many I have cut off the tops and eaten, but a few I have not. Last year this time I had just planted my amaranth, so I am happy to be eating some already. Here is some of my volunteers.

 

Looks good! Glad it turned out ok.

 

Sounds like a winner, you will have to post pictures of it after it blooms, for us, and keep us updated on the size of them.

 

Crap, your lucky. Mine are only a few weeks old and about 3 inches tall. Same weather as last year, went from winter to summer in the middle of June.