Amaranth as a crop for a changing climate

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Background

Amaranth is widely grown in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean from tropical to temperate climes. The vegetable, also known as Chinese spinach or callaloo, can be grown both as a crop for seed and a crop for leaves. Its leaves are highly nutritious, containing a wide range of amino acids, calcium, magnesium and antioxidants.

It's grown extensively by multicultural communities in the UK, particularly Jamaican, Gujarati and Bangladeshi communities - but most UK growers are not so familiar with the crop.

We'd like to find out what you think of it and whether it's a good crop to grow in our increasingly warming climate in the UK. It's important we grow a more diverse range of crops to spread the risk from unpredictable weather conditions and pressure from pests and diseases.

Aims

The main focus of this experiment is:

1. To test whether people enjoy growing and eating amaranth, and think it's a crop worth cultivating.
2. To compare the performance of three different varieties that have become adapted to our climate. We collected these varieties from communities and allotment growers between 2011-2016.
3. We're also going to ask people to have a go at characterising their varieties.

Garden Organic last evaluated amaranth with its members in 2013, but more productive varieties have since been collected that we would like to evaluate.

Timescale

April – October

Sign up deadline 30th March

Space required

3 x 1 m plots

Materials needed

We will provide seeds and protocols

What is the commitment?

1 hour to set up trial, then 20 minutes a month for assessments.