Lots more info on Amaranth and seeds.

I am in the same boat with Mountainman. Only my volunteers are doing well, and the big ones, I already cut off the heads. So, pictures would not be good today.

 

OK it is June 2012 and I just planted my Amaranth seeds in the garden. I have some changes from last year, and scaled down a little.

Last year was a bad year for my Amaranth. It was very dry all summer, and I was out of town right after planting for almost a month. When I got back it was a mess, with weeds everywhere, and dryness.

Well, this year I am only planting half as much, and I am using the "back to eden" method. So I covered all my garden with wood chips. In the video it said the first year you may have to add stuff to it till the chips start to break down properly. So, I guess I will see what will happen without adding stuff.

I planted six types this year, New Mexico, Alegria, Red Garnet, Burgundy, Red Leaf, and Russian River Merlot. The New Mexico, and Alegria were the only two new types last year to give me any seeds. So, I planted two rows of each, one new seed, and one row harvested seed from last year. The Red Garnet was new seed. The Burgundy is new seed that I got from another Monkey ... cough... M M. The Red Leaf is a second generation seed from the last two years. And last the Russian R M is from new seed, and seems to do well here.

All these are blond seed Amaranth except Russian River Merlot, and some are sprouting already as I started planting them three days ago.
I will keep you updated, and will soon have picture.

Frank

 

Hey Frank,

I had the same bad results with my Burgundy only crop last year. Instead of planting them in the garden soil beds I had them in the clay soil inside the garden fence. They did not like the clay and the plants only grew between 2.5 to 4 feet tall with minimal seeds. The year before in the garden soil they were between 6 to 7 feet and had lots of seeds.

In February I spread out the seeds from last years crop into an area that my spring tank overflow is and have not seen anything coming up. Since that was not working I planted 8 containers that have 4 inch plants in them now. They are getting planted by the spring tomorrow, so I hope they make it.

 

I bet you anything, that if you rake or upturn this soil where you put the seeds, they will start growing today. They will lie dormant until the soil is turned up and the right temperature.

I have a chicken tractor in my yard, and when ever we move it, here and there are bare spots that the chickens make. Amaranth starts growing in those spots from the chikens scratching, now that it is warm. I do not even know how seeds get into some of the spots.

We even have a joke about one plant in the middle of our grass, I put some mulch around it and called it Jimmy. (the name is the joke part). I guess you just have to be here to get it.

For fun here is a pic of Jimmy I took today.

 

Jimmy's lookin good! I'll try your idea tomorrow when I put the plants in. The only problem I have is the natural meadow grass is 2 feet high now in that area, so raking the ground is going to be difficult.

 

OH! Raking will not work then, it will choke out the amaranth. Tilling will still work.

Amaranth can not compete with weeds, and grass, until it is bigger and badder than they are. That is why Jimmy grew in the grass, there was a five inch diameter bare spot after the chickens were there, but you know this already.

Pictures of my "back to eden" trial.






Must pull the chips away for the Amaranth to grow in the soil, I also upturned the soil in each small clearing, because it is better for the amaranth. See the sprouts!

 

Looks like I'll be switching to plan B already on this. Put 2 plants into the garden bed today to grow for saving seeds and will wait until the others get a little bigger and I clear spots for them before planting by the spring.

My idea for putting the seeds out in Feb. was to have the seeds get into the soil naturally as the ground turned during freezing and thawing. Then to start growing before the grasses started, didn't happen.

 

I threw out seed also, in many places, but unless it was a place that was tilled recently before, or the area was turned over, by me, chickens or rain water, it did not grow. I read that the seeds will lie dormant for up to 50 years till the soil is disturbed. Almost all my volunteers from last year were in an area we tilled, or got disturbed.

 

Hi Guys,

I didn't know if anyone was still growing or keeping this thread alive, so I was pleasantly surprised when I just checked.

Anyway, I decided to plant my entire garden with Russian River Merlot this year.

I have 28 days so far since sowing the seeds in turned-over soil (I planted on May 24th). They are really growing in the hot weather, and all I did was keep them watered for the first week in the ground.

I probably am going to thin them out a little bit tomorrow since they are growing really big and fast now. Anyone have advice? How about cooking the leaves? I'd rather not just throw them out!

Here are the pictures:

 

I know it has already been covered and is in this thread or the other amaranth thread. Bottom line amaranth leaves can be prepared an eaten just as you would cook spinach. ie substitute amaranth leaves in any cooked spinach recipe.

 

Hi Doc,

Good to see your still into Amaranth and looks like you have a great crop. I don't have the garden space for something like you have, need it for the veggies, and would be happy if I could just get my volunteer crop going. FYI, ISplatU started talking about eating the leaves on page 3 post 27.

 

Have any of you guys built a machine for winnowing amaranth or any type of thresher?

 

Hey guys,

Just an update...

I have taken pictures every week, so it's kind of a time lapse effect. Anyway, here are the pictures.

 

How's everyone else's plot lookin'? Mine are about mid-thigh height.

 

My 2 seed plants in the garden bed are about knee high. Checked the other 6 plants by the spring the other day and it looks like ground squirrels chewed the tops off all the plants. Lower leafs are still there so I don't think it was deer or elk that got them. Did not have this problem with what I planted over there last years, so not sure what the deal is.

 

No, but I want to. I have plans in a book from the 1970's, but I could not find a blower motor close to the one in the plans.

 

While searching a bit, I found some of these designs:

http://phoenixfeathers.homestead.com/SeedCleaner.html

http://www.thecanarysnest.com/seed cleaner/index.html

They apparently work well for cleaning bird seed. The big advantage would be that pretty much everyone has a shop-vac, PVC, and a funnel. It would be really cheap to implement, but I think that the suction of any shop-vac I've ever seen would suck up the amaranth seeds like nothing.

Maybe an adjustable air inlet between the funnel and where the shop-vac attaches would tone down the suction enough. What do you guys think?

 

I do not know if that would work.

When I tried to find one, the on in the book was a Dayton Shaded Pole Blower, 1/10 HP , 1,570 rpm, with free air movement at 525 CFMs. With a air outlet of 6.5" wide.

If I could find a blower close I would continue my work with it.