Vegetable Growing 2024

@Escarpment we were given the pea beans by a cousin about 7 years ago and were amazed at how much they produced. We always keep some of the seeds back for sowing the next year. They are climbers. We sow indoors and then transplant out. They do sulk at this but once they get going they climb and climb. As usual the more you pick the more flowers are produced.
Pea Beans - Slightly Self-Sufficient (slightlyselfsufficient.co.uk)
I am not sure where you can buy the seeds, Kings Seeds maybe.
When I am picking them I have to make sure I have long sleeves and gloves on as the leaves give me a rash.
I hope you can find some as they are so worth having.
Some web sites call them navy beans but these aren't the same. The correct name is Atherfield peas from the Isle of Wight.

 

Ours too were poor this year, but have had 3-4 fruit off and 1-2 more to come. Grown these for the last 4-5 years and never pulled them out until after first frost. They can and do produce late.

 

Harvested the amaranth as we were worried about the rain. coulda done another few days i think. good amount of grain falling off though.
We had 5 plants, 3 of which in a shallow pot. very pretty flower for the last 2 months.



not bad yield of leaves. no idea what theyre like though. bitter spinach? will try cooking it, i think indians call it kallaloo or something


i think all the protein comes from the hundreds of spiders that bolted when i seperated it i think we are supposed to dry it for a few days? not sure

 

Boiled it for 5 minutes. Like mild spinach. Not bitter at all. Not tough either considering it is mostly old leaves from the mature plants.
The seed heads taste okay but are a bit odd of a texture, a bit rough. Perhaps if they were cooked or roasted for a longer time they would be softer, or were done in a sauce.

I think itl be a great crop for when our hot summers return in the future... whenever that is. Drought and heat hardy spinach!

Edit: Oh notably it was unaffected by any leaf miner unlike both the spinach and chard here, and no mildew either.

 

Do the amaranth seeds have any particular taste @Adam I ? Or is it mostly just texture? I've never grown them - they're big plants aren't they?

 

If you like amaranth try aztec broccoli, Huauzontl. You can eat the young leaves in salad, then pick the flower shoots like sprouting broccoli. I'm sure the seeds will be edible too. I find one plant is enough, it rows to 5 ft tall eventually and is quite attractive in its own right, you could put it in the flower border. All this family is easy to grow and has no pests except maybe slugs when they're tiny. If I grew nothing else I'd grow this and yakon, also pest free.
By the way my melons were hopeless. I shall try again next year.

 

Adam, I've been growing this for a few years. Mostly it doesn't grow too big, but that super hot summer we had (2022?) they grew well over 5 foot tall and kept producing multiple big leaves throughout the summer after being cut back. Lots of food from two or three plants.

There are some nice Jamaican recipes you can make - they call it Callalo.

How did you eat the seeds? I didn't realise you could. I still have one outside.

 

How do you use the yakon?
We've been enjoying the syrup with waffles, but haven't really found other good ways to use it...

 

We use the yakon in salads and it goes very well in a vegetable curry. It stays crunchy when you cook it. It has the advantage of tasting sweet but does not raise your blood sugar so good for diabetics.

 

Glad to see more people value amaranth as a viable leaf veg.

We've been growing it in the community garden annually for a few years now.








Like with most leaf veg, it is more desirable to harvest them in a way that delays flowering and forces new leaf production (the cut and come again method).

If you grow them by transplanting seedlings into evenly spaced regimented rows then take the first harvest by cutting the main stem above the first true leaf node (not the coteyledon). Let it grow on and take the second harvest by cutting the side shoot that forms above its first leaf and so on. The last picture above shows the side shoot growth habit of the plant and where you should cut - don't worry if the side shoot is not present when you make the cut as the plant will find a way to form one.

Incidentally, the stem is edible so harvest when it is still young and tender, say, when it is no thicker than a pencil.

If you grow by broadcasting seed then harvest by thinning out the bigger plants. This will allow the smaller plants below to catch up and become the next harvest. If the plants are really tightly packed together then cut out the bigger plants completely to ground level, otherwise, use the cut and come again method if they are fairly spaced apart.

At the end of the season the plants will still produce the cluster flower heads and even viable seeds if you time the harvest(s) right.

 

The amaranth was finally dry so I threshed and winnowed it. 60g!!!!


Nice to see the process. Was fun seeing the seeds falling off.
The area was about 50x50cm which would translate to 2.4 tonnes / hectare of amaranth grain and 16 t / ha of leaves, compared to 8 t/ha grain of wheat and 24 t/ha of spinach I found UK farmers to make. Not bad if I say so myself, considering the pot was 30cm tall!

All that chaff was only 75 grams, despite all the volume.

Will try it on sunday with the family.

 

Well done @Adam 1 Not an easy process to do but you did.

 

Picked all the squash, corn and beans, will be replaced by garlic. Planted two varieties of garlic in the greenhouse and a bunch of lettuce and endives. Only one tomato plant left in there now.

 

What an interesting thread this is! I grew some seeds I saved labelled as Love lies bleeding as an ornamental this year but I think they may have been Amaranthus 'Red Army' see attached.
Also my daughter gave me some vlita seedlings. Her partner is greek and his mum gave her the seeds. They are very like your amaranth.

 

Sure is. I have added Amaranth and Huauzontl to my seed shopping list!