Amaranths

When we really try hard to grow Amaranths and sow seeds they do not survive and soon bolt just after germination. But when we care less and throw some seeds around, they grow lush and gives us some decent harvests. The Amaranth variety I am going to show here is a strong stemmed one called as 'thandu keerai' in Tamil.  In this variety, along with the leaves, the stem can also be used  in cooking - in a stir fry or in a sambar. I feel this variety is tastier compared to the normal Amaranth varieties. 

This one was around a foot tall

The flower head is starting to form

A look at the sturdy stem..it is best to give a support to the plant

This one was left to flower and seed to help our seed saving practice

A close up of the flower

As said, the plants shown above are kind of volunteer plants .ie. grown when the seeds were randomly thrown around the garden. I also prepared one small container and sowed a few seeds just to see whether it works atleast this time. As predicted, only very few survived and they too very much show all the signs of bolting.. Ah, the mystery thickens further in gardening Amaranths successfully.

The next batch.