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Purple Amaranth

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posted 16 years ago

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Hey all - Anyone have experience with a simple, efficient way to cull seeds from purple amaranth heads? Thanks!

Nicholas Covey

Posts: 182

Location: Missouri/Iowa border

posted 16 years ago

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I don't know if purple amaranth is any different than Orange Amaranth, but I just hung mine up in the garage, stretched an old sheet out underneath it. I dried it for about a week, then beat the tar out of it with a stick (quite a bit of seed fell out).

What was left I took and rubbed between my hands (wear gloves) intil it pretty well disintegrated and ran that through a window screen to take out the big chaff.

Then, i took what was left and shook it lightly so that the blooms and light chaff rose to the top and blew off as much as i could.

I repeated that process until it was pretty clean. It's not easy to thresh or winnow by hand, so I think I'm going to try and build something to make the process easier.

Hope that helps you somewhat.

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posted 16 years ago

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Just grew my 1st amaranth plants this year, thanks for the timely post

Brenda Groth

pollinator

Posts: 4437

Location: North Central Michigan

posted 16 years ago

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wondering if anyone would be willing to spare a tablespoon full of seed for a newcomer to amaranth to plant next year??? I've wanted to try it for a while

Brenda

Bloom where you are planted.
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

Jennifer Smith

Posts: 720

Location: Zone 5

posted 16 years ago

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Brenda, I live close to bakerCreek seeds and can get you a package easily. They have several kinds so look over their site www.rareseeds.com I think and let me know which you would like. http://rareseeds.com/seeds/Amaranth

Brenda Groth

pollinator

Posts: 4437

Location: North Central Michigan

posted 16 years ago

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oh thanks, i can go there and buy my own i guess..appreciate the site.

Brenda

Bloom where you are planted.
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

Jennifer Smith

Posts: 720

Location: Zone 5

posted 16 years ago

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In another thread someone mentioned that you can buy amaranth seed at the health food store and grow it. The elephant head was spectacular and came up the following year for us too.

I have so much out where my wild horses run that I want to bring here. There is an asian pear that was to die for. I need to check and see if I can graft it onto wild pear rootstock. Oh, and the yellow berries, they were the best I have ever tasted. That place is a longish drive but not too long for what I hope to bring home when the time is right. When would be the best time to get berry cuttings? Will berrys grow from cuttings?

Leah Sattler

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posted 16 years ago

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I think technically anything has the potential to be grown from cuttings but some things are easier than others. things like black berries are easy. just bury the tips for a while then dig them up. cuttings from bush like berries might be a little harder but still possible.

I love love love asian pears. we had one in our backyard when I was a kid and it produced gobs of pears without doing a thing to it. the ones from the store are so mushy and gross they aren't worth eating usually.

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Jennifer Smith

Posts: 720

Location: Zone 5

posted 16 years ago

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What I am after out there are yellow raspberries, so bury a tip and then dig it up later, right? When do I bury and when do I dig? It is a tank of gas each trip so I need to go as seldom as I can. Do I bury the tip in a pot of soil? Do I notch it or anything?

The place is kinda cool though. It is like an abandoned commune with old orchards and berries and such. Several years ago I rescued some feral horses and turned them out there too. Though the same people own it all this time differant people live there from time to time and I have no idea who is there now.

Brenda Groth

pollinator

Posts: 4437

Location: North Central Michigan

posted 16 years ago

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Jennifer, you don't need to bury just the tip if there is a cane that can be totally laid down..lay it down..if you want to easily dig it..pile some mulch under and over it..it will root at every node..in the early spring dig up each new plant..

i had a black raspberry plant fall over in the winter and in spring it rooted about 8 or 9 plants along the length of it..

i'm sure you can do that with any brambles..can't hurt to try..i'd lay down one plant for each 5 or 6 plants you want to have babies of to dig up.

Brenda

Bloom where you are planted.
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

paul wheaton

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Posts: 57440

Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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posted 16 years ago

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If the long term mission is chicken feed, then what about throwing the whole heads out to the chickens?

Joel Hollingsworth

pollinator

Posts: 2103

Location: Oakland, CA

posted 16 years ago

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paul wheaton wrote:
If the long term mission is chicken feed, then what about throwing the whole heads out to the chickens?

For simplicity and efficiency, you can't beat mu.

"the qualities of these bacteria, like the heat of the sun, electricity, or the qualities of metals, are part of the storehouse of knowledge of all men. They are manifestations of the laws of nature, free to all men and reserved exclusively to none." SCOTUS, Funk Bros. Seed Co. v. Kale Inoculant Co.

Jennifer Smith

Posts: 720

Location: Zone 5

posted 16 years ago

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Mu?

Joel Hollingsworth

pollinator

Posts: 2103

Location: Oakland, CA

posted 16 years ago

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Jennifer Hall wrote:
Mu?

It's the best answer to questions like "what's the most efficient way to drive a car?" or "Coke or Pepsi?" or most of the questions a stereotypical drill instructor would ask. One translation is "the answer lies outside the context framed by the question/assertion/statement".

It's borrowed from Japanese, and comes into English largely through students of Zen Buddhism. In the original language I think it means something like "null." It came up over on the Fukuoka thread, but I like the passage of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance on it. Here's Robert Pirsig:

For example, it's stated over and over again that computer circuits exhibit only two states, a voltage for "one" and a voltage for "zero". That's silly! Any computer-electronics technician knows otherwise. Try to find a voltage representing one or zero when the power is off! The circuits are in a mu-state.

Jennifer Smith

Posts: 720

Location: Zone 5

posted 16 years ago

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I knew when I asked the question that the answer would make me look stupid... but I asked it anyway.

Joel Hollingsworth

pollinator

Posts: 2103

Location: Oakland, CA

posted 16 years ago

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?

I don't think that question made you look stupid.

At any rate, I'm glad you asked. It prompted me to look up some things I was on the edge of forgetting!

Irene Kightley

pollinator

Posts: 480

Location: South West France

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posted 16 years ago

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Our chickens love Amaranthus - I just pull up a plant from time to time and they totally strip each one. Our birds are totally free range and it stops them stripping other plants at this time of the year after a hot summer and very little grass.

This is them with Gangeticus (Elephant Head Amaranthus)

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Jennifer Smith

Posts: 720

Location: Zone 5

posted 16 years ago

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Lovely photo Irene, and nice blog, thanks for sharing!

Posts: 106

posted 16 years ago

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fall was so wet here that I could not harvest my amaranth. At present I just let my chickens take care of it.

to thresh things like that, just get a big piece of cardboard that refrigerators and the like come in, like from Lowes. Lay down the seedheads, put on some flat soled boots or shoes and shuffle around on the seedheads. You can also put them in a big pillow case and beat it against a tree.

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posted 14 years ago

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Brenda,

I simply went to the local health food store and bought a pound for about $5 (Whole Foods in Dallas has it in bulk for $2 per pound) and planted about a 1000 sq foot of raised beds in with my field corn. The amaranth has deep roots that help to pull up nutrients and I thought it would help the corn. As it turned out the wild hogs harvest 4lbs of seed corn (twice) before it could sprout. On the other hand I think every seed of the amaranth came up and we have eaten and frozen the leaves. It is better than spinach and reportedly supplies over 75% of the nutrients a human body needs (great obama crop.) Look up the Greek recipe for veleeta, its great. The deer and hogs don't seem to bother the amaranth and it seems quite drought resistant. The seed heads are so heavy they are starting to pull the plants down. I would guess I easily have a couple hundred pounds of seeds from about a 1/4 lb planted.

Best way to harvest is not to hang up in the garage. You get too much chaff. Simply take an old pillow sack and lean the head into it and pull it off, then clean it. The time to harvest is after the first frost and watch the birds. When they start attacking the grain you need to do the same. By the way I did butcher 6 corn fed hogs.

Jordan Lowery

pollinator

Posts: 1528

Location: zone 7

posted 14 years ago

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thanks for the info texasland01.

i had a similar situation. i broadcasted seed from the bulk bins and ended up with hundreds of plants, probably more. I ate the thinning's. the amaranth grows unbelievably fast, i planted in the last week of June and they are already approaching 5 ft.

thanks for the tips on harvest. never used a pillow before.

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