AND the FREE WOOD CHIP mulch arrived this morning. So we re-routed the fencing to reach all the way to the house
and laid down the wood chips (of course, it arrived after I planted seedlings...)
The broccoli is going to be coming out soon to be replace by quinoa. I'll get that started soon, but with the 4 inches of mulch we just put down, I'll have to transplant the baby sprouts into taller seeding containers to give them a better start. Quinoa starts off really spindle-y, then if you shore it up (bury it) in the stalks up to the leaves, the stalks will thicken up.
It's great to grow grain. And heirloom quinoa just keeps going and growing.
Quiona is one thing we had talked about growing but did not think we would get enough on our small city lot with everything else we want to grow to make it worth it. How much space do you use to grow it and how much do you get. We have considered Quiona and Amaranth.
ReplyDeleteDenise- You asked about quinoa. Interestingly enough, I just put out new quinoa to start some seedlings last week. I scattered them in a layer of compost rather than planting them 1 by 1 in peat pellets like I normally do.
ReplyDeleteAt present, I am only getting about a 20% germination. I know that has more to do with HOW I cast the seeds versus the seeds themselves. Sigh. So that means next time I need to go back to the 1:1 method, where I get a 95% germination rate.
I planted 6 quinoa plants last season in an area which only got about 3 hours of direct sun a day. They grew to medium height. I was able to harvest about 4-6 cups of quinoa I think.
I planted about 32 quinoa plants at the community garden. The gophers ate most of them. Aphids killed the rest. So plan on buying Lady Bugs when your plants get to a decent size. I had one lone plant come up as a volunteer this summer. Because it was in mostly shade, it only grew about 2 feet tall, but that was enough to give me about 3/4 cup of quinoa. I used 1/2 cup in a cooking demo I did, and saved the rest to plant.
So I would say, conservatively, if you are growing quinoa in full sun, which is a must, and it grew to full height (about 5-6 feet tall) you could expect about 4-6 cups per plant? Maybe. I will know more after what I have growing now reaches maturity.
BTW, I have heirloom Amaranth seed running around here somewhere. Remind me, (offlist) and I'll send you some.