I apparently sowed all my Verde de Taglio chard seed in the spring. I did find some Perpetual Spinach chard seed (several years old) and planted that, instead. It came up and grew really well!

What didn't germinate well was the real spinach. It's okay, I have my usual late planting of bok choy where the potatoes were harvested and, today, had a sink full of edible amaranth! We will cook some tomorrow.

I guess I'm convinced that the pictures in the online catalogs are of edible amaranth that wasn't grown around here! It spouted and grew very quickly in this hot weather. Still, the leaves are quite small and, at about 10", the plants look like they would like to bolt! Maybe not. I mean, they are only about 1 month old! A warm weather green? I guess so ... don't like cool weather, I'm sure of that.

Oh, and the green beans are flowering. Nothing new there ... and I have had frost in my garden by this time. Won't happen this year, thank heavens!

Steve

Very, very good. The edible amaranth has a rather unique flavor. I suppose it would be close to spinach.

What I had from that spring sowing was strongly flavored! Perhaps an acquired taste, I thought. Well, it would be best to grow them when they want to grow and like most things, their flavor is more "friendly."

The tiny seed germinated like crazy. I'm not sure how differently they might have grown if given more room but they are so quick, I would have had to be Johnny on the Spot to thin them.

I have much fewer chard plants but the leaves are nearly large enough to begin harvesting! This isn't what I planned for them. Instead, I want to transplant them to the greenhouse in October for a winter veggie. Maybe I can do both

Steve

A new edible amaranth this year:

I have two hopes for this Kitazawa green (link). One is that the plants will be a little larger than the amaranth that I tried last year. Two, that I can work this into a summer rotational scheme.

There is Verde de Taglio chard in the garden again this year but along side it is this Japanese chard, Umaina (link). So far, it's done better than the Italian chard and I enjoyed some with today's lunch. I guess I'm thinking of chard as more like beets, the seed of which have mostly failed to germinate and seedlings have failed to grow in summer. The spring sowing of chard is doing well but I guess I should have sprinkled some chard seed along with these cousins of theirs.

Steve

The Umaina chard seed germinated well and grew nicely ... unfortunately, it developed the heavy stems that I don't like about chard.

The Verde de Taglio chard seed and plants did fine in 2016 but new seed germinated poorly and left a lot of bare ground between the plants this year. I still like it better and may try a different seed company as a source in 2018. I mean, it's new, I like it, no fair that I can't have as much as I want!

! Okay. Now to the White Amaranth from Kitazawa.

I would like to have transplanted most of these into the big veggie garden but we have had anything but good weather for transplanting! I grew a different Kitazawa amaranth in 2016 and was disappointed in the very small size of the plants. I'm not getting a good test of these because they are so crowded. These are tender and nice in a salad. We should have started to use them for that days ago. Hopefully, some plants will have a chance to grow and show what they are capable of. (Super nice to have leafy greens and alternatives to cabbage and kale in August. I'm trying! :o)

Steve

Nice looking plants, Steve. Looks like you're in quite a heat wave! How are you holding up? Do you have a/c?

Have you ever tried orach? I house-sat for someone who grew it this summer, and it has a good taste. It's supposed to be a good alternative for spinach and resist bolting more than spinach does.

Here is an early orach reference by me - LINK !

I'm guessing that I first grew it in the 2005 garden. A dozen years later, this is the first spring that I wasn't enjoying orach ... It volunteered again and again. I bet it is growing there again, but I'm not. Too many places to turnup ... There is almost unlimited space at the big veggie garden, more than I want to use.

I grew Red Orach to compliment my Purple Orach a couple of years ago and saved the seed. Forgot to plant it this year! Will try not to make that mistake in 2018.

By the way, the purple plant behind the amaranth is Perilla. I think it's real pretty but I've never found a use for it! It volunteers, as well.

Steve