Author Topic: Salvia Hispanica (Chia seeds)  (Read 999 times)

okra

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Salvia Hispanica (Chia seeds)
« on: August 03, 2017, 08:58:43 »
Has anybody tried growing salvia hispanica for the chia seeds they produce. If you have how did it go?
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Author of Olives, Lemons and Grapes (ISBN-13: 978-3841771131)

Vinlander

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Re: Salvia Hispanica (Chia seeds)
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2017, 11:40:58 »
Two years ago I experimented with chia seeds from the shops - the germination was high (I used sterile chitting).

I transplanted a few - I didn't want many - but they were competing with my pepper growing, so they didn't get much attention.

In the end I had 3 in a 10cm pot that did well enough to merit a 20cm pot in my sunroom - they produced beautiful pale blue flowers 70cm tall but no seeds (despite the presence of hoverflies).

Last year I tried putting a similar pot in a sunny spot outside, but they didn't do as well (though this was not a scientifically significant result).

I think your chances of getting a useful quantity of seed from anything less than 3 or 4 square metres of rich soil in a polytunnel are pretty slim. I have better uses for my polytunnel.

If you can mobilise these resources then it's worth a try, but I doubt you'll ever compete with the shops on this crop.

However if I had a few metres of unused sunny bed in the ornamental garden I would go for the double return of edible ornamental by planting out in May.

Cheers.
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

 

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