Jadenlea Posted August 13, 2016 Report Share Posted August 13, 2016 Bought Amaranth seeds off ebay this spring and thought I would plant my own. I love Han but ordering all the shrimp supplies gets expensive. My bush/plant as of today is almost as tall as me and here is my first harvest. Some of the leaves are 8 or 9 inches long! I nuked some for a minute so they would sink and offered them to the shrimp and they loved them. These I am going to dry out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadenlea Posted August 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2016 The plant/bush? I think if I would have planted it with more room on the sides it would have grown bushy instead of straight up. oem and Shrimple minded 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vpier Posted August 13, 2016 Report Share Posted August 13, 2016 What process are you going to use to dry out the leaves? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barvinok Posted August 13, 2016 Report Share Posted August 13, 2016 @Jadenlea- if you pinch the top in should grow more side branches oem 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oem Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 Yaaa! Glad to hear it grew so well for you Jadenlea. I too have leaves dried and stored in an air tight Mason jar and about 20 full plants wilting on an inside clothesline so I can finish drying them in the oven with only the pilot light as a heat source. I tried two different varieties and the purple produced larger leaves while the red produced more but smaller leaves. I'll let all know the total dried weight at the end of the growing cycle from both varieties. I also took out of my garden numerous species plants and are drying them as well. (using in salads also) The unusual heat wave in Ohio has been causing headaches for our cool season crops and my irrigation lines have had more gallons of water thru them then normal. Anybody else having good luck as Jadenlea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
35ppt Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 ooh, those leaves look yummy Agreed; pinching the top should make it branch out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadenlea Posted August 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 I wish I would have known about the pinching thing when they were short. It is probably to late now. Vpier, I was just going to let them dry in the air and sun but if anyone has a process I should use I am happy to hear it. I am new to all this! Still trying to figure out where to get seeds out of it for next year. If I don't ruin them, there will be a RAOK For them because there is no way I can use them all! No promises since I dont know what i am doing here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vpier Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 16 minutes ago, Jadenlea said: I wish I would have known about the pinching thing when they were short. It is probably to late now. Vpier, I was just going to let them dry in the air and sun but if anyone has a process I should use I am happy to hear it. I am new to all this! Still trying to figure out where to get seeds out of it for next year. If I don't ruin them, there will be a RAOK For them because there is no way I can use them all! No promises since I dont know what i am doing here. Thanks. I have some ready to harvest but mine did not grow tall like yours. The amaranth I have grew more like spinach and I bought my seeds from ebay. Main reason for not harvesting yet is due to not knowing what method to use for drying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
35ppt Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 do you have a gas oven with a pilot light? You want the lowest amount of heat you can get. I use the stored heat from a very lightly heated oven with a pizza stone since I don't have a pilot light. I also try to ensure there is some air movement. I dry between 2 cookie racks, or even a cookie sheet with a rack on top. This also helps flatten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pescador Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 If you have a food dehydrator they work great, but if don't and do not want to spend $30.00 on one them then the oven as mentioned will also work. The leaves come out completely dry, hard and crumbly but they soften right up after about a half hour in the tank. I just put them in a zip lock bag once dry. I tried sun dry but ended up with inconsistent results. Too many factors with humidity, living close to the ocean we can get a lot of fog at night, then very hot and dry days. I also battled with bugs and wind making a mess of things. Plus having a 3 and 6 year old sons that love to get into everything adds to the challenge as to where to put leaves to dry... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimple minded Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 Vpier, I only had mine in a pot and they did the same thing. I'm wondering if mine stayed small because of being potted vs being outdoors, or if it had to do with variety. Jadenlea, I think there are seeds by the thousands once it flowers, which I don't think yours has (fully). The pictures I've seen of the flowers have big bunches/buds. I'd love to see a shot of how your shrimp are taking to them. Great work BTW! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vpier Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 30 minutes ago, Shrimple minded said: Vpier, I only had mine in a pot and they did the same thing. I'm wondering if mine stayed small because of being potted vs being outdoors, or if it had to do with variety. Jadenlea, I think there are seeds by the thousands once it flowers, which I don't think yours has (fully). The pictures I've seen of the flowers have big bunches/buds. I'd love to see a shot of how your shrimp are taking to them. Great work BTW! I planted mine outside in my garden. I dont have a gas stove, its electric. I might try the oven on the lowest temp and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
35ppt Posted August 15, 2016 Report Share Posted August 15, 2016 I don't even fully heat the oven. Just enough so you can tell there's a little heat in there. Repeat as needed. I haven't tried sun drying; it seems problematic. Paden 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oem Posted August 15, 2016 Report Share Posted August 15, 2016 As I mentioned in the DIY section on growing Amaranth an easy way to dehydrate is in a cardboard box and a 60w -100w light bulb depending on the size of the box. Veggie/fish grilling racks are on sale now (end of season) and set on dowell rods pushed thru the box at several levels. You will need some holes at the bottom and top of the box for natural air flow so the moisture can escape. The leaves should be dry overnight. After removing the leaves IMMEDIATELY put in a sealed jar or bag so they don't pick up moisture and get moldy. Google "card board box dehydrator" if you need some pictures and lists of materials. Pinterest, Y-tube, Mother Earth News, all have designs from small to large scale. I made my first dehydrator and fish smoker as a kid back in the 70s. (Yeah I'm that old) Wygglz, Soothing Shrimp, sarah and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadenlea Posted August 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2016 Thanks for all the tips. I do have a gas oven. How long do you leave them in the oven for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadenlea Posted August 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2016 so our oven I found out when we pulled the manual, has a dehydrator cycle . It also has a warming drawer. I put a batch in the oven on dehydrate and a batch in the warming draw on low. I will let you know the results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vpier Posted August 20, 2016 Report Share Posted August 20, 2016 On 8/14/2016 at 1:57 PM, Shrimple minded said: Vpier, I only had mine in a pot and they did the same thing. I'm wondering if mine stayed small because of being potted vs being outdoors, or if it had to do with variety. In the past two weeks half of my plants have grown vertically 10+ inches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadenlea Posted August 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2016 Oven dehydrator worked great. I had them in about 4.5 hrs. I started on 100 degrees and bumped it to 120. The warming tray in the oven worked ok. They did not dry as fast and I got impatient and eventually moved them up into the oven with the others on dehydrate. The oven warmer would have worked eventually . It would just take longer.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadenlea Posted August 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2016 Oh and to the person who mentioned that they wondered if theirs didnt grow as high because they were indoors in pots. The answer to that is yes. I started mine indoors. When the weather was nice enough I moved them outside but kept 2 inside in pots. They are still tiny. I think you could grow them in pots inside and still have enough leaves for just your own tank throughout the year but if you want a large crop I think you need to move them outdoors and plant. Eventually I moved my pots outside. Just moving them outside gave them a big growth spurt but they still do not compare to the planted ones. Soothing Shrimp 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vpier Posted October 6, 2016 Report Share Posted October 6, 2016 Last month I finally harvested my amaranth and dried them in a 170 degree oven on wire baking racks. Worked great and took about 30-45min. Today I feed my shrimps the leaves after a 5min boil and it was a hit. I think I will do this again next year. The only thing I didn't like was washing the leaves, mine didn't grow tall like Jadenlea's so I had dirt on the leaves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oem Posted October 6, 2016 Report Share Posted October 6, 2016 Glad to hear of everybody's success. I've been harvesting and drying for the last month as well. I had to stake some up with bamboo stakes especially after pinching out the growing tip and the plants branched out in 6-8 places like an octopus. Saves on washing. Still picking the purple as it seems to be a later variety. Soothing Shrimp 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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