How to grow amaranth

Clear the plot of all weeds and old crop trash, and break up any hard crust or cap on the surface. Amaranth cannot fight weeds, so you must start on clean ground.

Dig and break the soil down to a fine, crumbly tilth (loose crumbs, like coarse flour). The seed is as fine as dust — big clods leave it stranded in air pockets where it never comes up.

Dig in plenty of well-rotted manure or compost — dark, crumbly, no strong smell — about 5–10 tonnes per hectare, a wheelbarrow-load every few strides. This feeds the soil, helps it hold water, and supplies the phosphorus for strong roots and the potassium and nitrogen that drive fast, tender leaf.

Firm the bed lightly with the back of a rake or your feet, then level it, so water spreads evenly instead of washing the tiny seed into heaps and bare patches.

Sow only into warm soil, after the last frost — amaranth loves heat and sprouts best at about 18–24 °C (comfortably warm to the back of your hand, never cold). Cold, wet soil rots the dust-fine seed before it can sprout.

Mix the tiny seed with dry sand or fine ash — about one handful of seed to five or ten of sand — so you can see where it falls and spread it evenly. On its own it pours out in clumps.

Sow shallow: either broadcast (scatter) the seed-and-sand thinly and evenly over the bed, or trickle it along shallow drills (little furrows) about 10 cm apart — half a hand-span.

Barely cover the seed — just a fine sprinkle of soil or sifted compost, no more than 1 cm deep, about a fingernail's depth. Rake it in gently or press it down with a board. Covering too deep is the number-one reason a stand fails.

Keep the surface damp (see the next task) until the seedlings show, in about 5–10 days.

If the stand comes up thin or patchy → re-sow the bare patches at once, while the bed is still warm and moist; dust-fine seed leaves no way to fill gaps later.

Water gently — a fine rose on the can, or a soft sprinkle — so you don't wash the tiny seed into heaps or wash it clean out of the bed.

Keep the surface damp, not soaked. Check with a finger and water when the very top is just starting to dry — about every 2–3 days, more often in heat and wind.

Never let it puddle or stay swampy. Amaranth hates wet feet — standing water brings the rot (damping-off) that kills young seedlings. Drain or fill any low spots that hold water.

Once the seedlings are up and growing (about two weeks in), ease off and let the surface dry a little between waterings, to draw the roots down and firm the plants up.

From a few days after sowing, walk the bed every 3–4 days, in the early morning, and look closely along the little seedlings.

Cutworms: look for seedlings cut clean off at ground level and lying wilted, as if snipped with scissors. Scratch the soil right there and you will often find a fat, greasy, grey-brown caterpillar curled up — pick it out and crush it.

Damping-off: look for seedlings that flop over and rot at the soil line, their stems pinched thin and dark, often in a spreading damp patch. Pull out and remove the collapsed ones.

If damping-off is spreading, stop over-watering, improve the drainage, and thin out crowded seedlings to let air move between them — the rot thrives in wet, still, crowded beds.

If cutworms are cutting several seedlings a night → search the soil around fresh-cut plants at dusk or dawn and crush the grubs, and clear the weedy edges where they shelter; a bad, spreading attack on a young stand may mean re-sowing the worst patches.

At about 2–3 weeks after sowing, when the seedlings are small (a few finger-joints tall, roughly 5–10 cm), thin them to about 10 cm apart — half a hand-span — pull or snip out the weakest, leaving the strongest, evenly spaced.

Eat the thinnings. The pulled young seedlings are your very first tender picking, so nothing is wasted.

Weed at the same time, and do it gently — hoe only shallowly, or hand-pull. Amaranth's roots are shallow and sit close to the surface, so deep or rough hoeing cuts them and sets the crop back.

Keep the plot clean for these first few weeks. Once the crop bushes out and shades the ground, it holds its own against weeds.

At about 2–3 weeks after sowing, once the plants are thinned and growing away, feed nitrogen — either a nitrogen fertiliser, or (better for leaf you will eat fresh) well-rotted manure, a lighter band than you dug into the bed.

Place it in a band beside the rows, not on top of the plants, then water it in so it reaches the roots instead of sitting on the surface or gassing off.

Feed again, lightly, after each leaf cut to drive the next tender flush of regrowth — little and often, not one heavy dose.

Leave a few days between feeding and cutting for the pot. Too much nitrogen makes the leaf store nitrate (a substance that is not good to eat in large amounts), and well-rotted manure gives lower-nitrate leaf than strong fertiliser.

Start at about 3 weeks after sowing, when the shoots are about 20–25 cm tall — a hand-span, tender, and not yet flowering.

For repeat harvests (cut-and-come-again): cut or pinch off the top few finger-joints of each shoot with a knife or your nails, leaving the lower leaves and stem to regrow — fresh shoots push out from below the cut.

For a one-off harvest: pull the whole young plant, roots and all, while it is still tender.

Cut in the cool of morning, keep the leaf shaded and cool, and eat or sell it the same day — amaranth wilts fast and does not store.

Come back every 1–2 weeks for the next cut, feeding lightly after each one.

If the shoots have already grown tall and tough, or are running up a flower stalk (bolting) → cut them right back hard, or pull them and re-sow that patch; that leaf will not turn tender again.

From about 2 weeks after sowing, walk the crop twice a week and look over the leaves — tops and undersides — and the growing tips.

Leaf-webber (the worst one): look for young leaves spun and webbed together with fine silk, eaten to lace, with a small green caterpillar hiding in the fold. Pick off and crush the webbed leaves the moment you see the first ones.

Flea beetles: look for leaves peppered with tiny round shot-holes, and tiny dark beetles that hop away when you touch the plant.

Aphids: look for clusters of small, soft green or black insects on the growing tips and leaf undersides, with sticky, shiny leaves. Rub small colonies off by hand, or knock them off with a splash of water.

Act on the first signs by hand — picking, crushing and rubbing off — before the numbers build up and spread down the bed.

From about 6 weeks after sowing, once the plants are flowering and setting seed, stretch out the gap between waterings — water about every 7–10 days instead of every few days.

Give less each time, as the heads fill and start to colour and dry.

Stop watering once the heads are clearly drying and the seed is hardening, so they can dry down fully in the field.

Don't let the plants wilt badly while seed is still filling — ease off gradually; don't cut the water off all at once.

From about 6 weeks after sowing (once flowering starts), check the heads about once a week.

Look for birds feeding on the ripening heads — they can strip a lot of the tiny seed fast as it hardens. Note which heads are worst hit.

Look for caterpillars or bugs feeding down inside the flower heads, and for mould or dark rot on heads after damp weather.

Rub a head gently over your open palm: as it ripens, firm seed starts to drop into your hand. This tells you harvest is near.

If birds, rot, or heavy shatter are taking the seed → cut the affected heads early and finish drying them under cover, rather than lose them standing in the field.

From about 2 months after sowing, watch the heads turn from green to their ripe colour — creamy, gold, red or brown, depending on your type — and begin to dry.

Test for ripeness: rub a head gently over your open palm — when ripe seed drops freely into your hand, the crop is ready to cut.

Cut the whole heads on a dry morning, once the dew has just lifted, with a knife or sickle. Handle them gently — every knock spills seed.

Slip a sheet, basket or tarpaulin under each head as you cut, and lay the cut heads on it (never on bare ground), so the seed that loosens falls where you can keep it.

If the seed does not drop yet (heads still green and soft) → wait a few more days, but keep checking daily, because once ripe they shatter quickly. If birds, rain or shatter threaten → cut now and finish ripening the heads under cover.

First cure the cut heads for about 7–10 days in the shade with good airflow — on a rack or hung up — until they are crisp and dry.

Thresh (knock the seed loose): rub the dry heads between your hands, or beat them gently, over a sheet or tarpaulin — the tiny seed falls out easily.

Winnow (clean it): on a breezy day, pour the seed slowly from one container to another — the light chaff and dust blow away and the heavy, clean seed drops straight down.

Dry the seed hard in the sun on a mat or sheet, turning it now and then, until it is fully dry.

Test it: bite a few seeds — dry seed is hard and shatters, it does not squash. If a seed squashes or dents, it is still too wet → spread it back in the sun and dry it more before storing, or it will mould in the container.

Store the dry seed in a clean, sealed container — a tin, jar or airtight bag — kept cool, dry and up off the floor.