If you have a problem with amaranth not producing seeds, it’s understandable that you’re feeling frustrated. After all, this plant is grown primarily for its grain-like seeds, and a poor harvest can be devastating for your family or farmstead.
If you’re new to growing amaranth, please visit our guide to study up on its needs.
We’re going to take a look at nine potential causes for this issue, and how to address them.
1. Nutrient Deficiencies
Although amaranth does well in most soil types, it won’t thrive in soil that has had most of its nutrients depleted by other crops. If this is the case, your plants will be stunted, and you will also have to deal with your beautiful amaranth not producing seeds.
Test your soil to check its nutrient levels, and amend as needed before the planting season. If you test it in the autumn, you can plant cover crops to become “green manure” over the winter months and then drench the soil with compost tea a week or two before planting.
2. Poor Pollination
Just like corn, barley, and oats, amaranth plants are anemophilous: pollinated by air rather than insects. As a result, they also need to be planted in blocks for successful pollination.
If you’re dealing with amaranth not producing seeds (or just scant amounts), then you’ve likely planted yours too far apart for successful pollination.
In the future, make sure you group your amaranth plants in clusters of at least twelve so the wind can slosh their pollen around to one another.
Alternatively, the weather may not be conducive to successful pollination. If your area has received higher-than-usual rainfall or less wind than normal, the pollen isn’t being spread around. In cases like this, you may need to pollinate your plants by hand with a soft brush.
3. Insufficient Water
This is also known as “drought stress” and is a leading cause of amaranth not producing seeds. If your plants don’t get enough water just before (and during) their flowering period, those flowers will fail to mature. They’ll dry up, drop and never make it to seed production.
Ensure that your amaranth plants get sufficient water during heat waves and drought-like conditions. You may need to take the hose to them more often than usual, or else set up soaker hoses on timers so the soil around their roots remains consistently moist.
Frequent watering is a lot healthier for them than deep drinks interspersed with periods of thirst.
4. Too Much Water
Of course, too much of a good thing can also be detrimental. This species doesn’t like to have “wet feet”, and if it’s been planted in the wrong type of soil (e.g. clay-rich, boggy, or alkaline), then that may be a reason for your amaranth not producing seeds.
Too much water can lead to root rot or simply “failure to thrive”, which will result in wilted, dying plants rather than tasty greens and nourishing seeds.
It does best in slightly acidic, well-draining, nutrient-rich soil. As such, be sure to have yours tested before planting to see if it needs amending in order to avoid disappointment a few months down the road.
5. Soil-Borne Pathogens
This goes along with the previous cause of amaranth not producing seeds, as pathogens such as Pythium aphanidermatum thrive in damp, soggy soil. Oomycetes and fungi damage plants’ roots, thus preventing them from being able to uptake water and nutrients. As you can imagine, this leads to plant death (and a noted lack of harvestable seeds).
If your soil has a lot of clay in it, be sure to amend it with sand, perlite, and plenty of well-aged compost. Additionally, avoid planting amaranth in lower-lying areas where there’s a risk of water accumulation.
Should you find that your plants are affected by pathogens, treat the area with the fungicide appropriate for that species, and don’t plant amaranth there again for at least three years.
6. Not Enough Light
Your amaranth plants need to have at least six hours of direct sunshine on their shoulders in order to produce seeds. As such, if they’ve been placed in an area where trees or taller plants shade them out, they’re going to under-perform.
This is why it’s so important to observe your land well before planting anything: the areas that looked ideal in January may end up being completely shaded in July.
Aim to plant your amaranth in an area that gets direct sun from June through October, with enough space for at least a dozen plants. This ensures that they’ll all get the amount of sun that they need to thrive, as well as increasing the chances of successful pollination.
7. Heat Waves
Amaranth is a cooler-season crop, and doesn’t do well in seriously hot climates. As a result, if your area gets a sudden heat wave that spikes temperatures above 95°F (or 36°C), they can get heat stressed. Much like with the inadequate watering mentioned earlier, exposure to intense heat for more than a couple of days can lead to amaranth not producing seeds.
Their flower heads will simply shrivel and drop off before they can mature.
Although you can’t control the weather, you can keep shade cloths handy in case of a sudden, intense heat wave. Pull this over your amaranth plants to offer them shade during the hottest part of the day, as this may lessen its deleterious effects on them.
8. Competition with Other Plants for Nutrients
If you’re intercropping amaranth with other plants, ensure that you aren’t growing it alongside species that will compete with it for nutrients. Avoid planting it next to heavy feeders like squash or pumpkin, as they’ll draw out the calcium that amaranth needs to produce seeds properly.
Additionally, ensure that you pull any invasive weeds around your amaranth plants, as they’ll also suck up vital nutrients that your food plants should be getting instead.
9. Birds
This is an issue that we’ve encountered in the past on permaculture projects: people have gotten frustrated with their amaranth not producing seeds, but it turned out that birds were swooping down onto the plants early in the morning and feasting on them before they could be harvested.
As a result, we all thought there was a pollination or seeding issue, when it was simply predation instead.
Either set up cameras or check on your plants around dawn to see if any critters are hoovering up your crop before you can get to it. Very fine bird mesh can be draped over the seed heads to protect them from bird activity if that is an issue.
Alternatively, you can harvest the seed heads just before maturity and hang them upside-down inside paper sacs to finish their maturation cycle.
As the seed heads dry up, they’ll fall free and collect inside those paper bags.
Although any of these issues may contribute to amaranth not producing seeds, just about all of them can either be avoided or addressed with careful planning and preparation. Offer your plants the best possible environment in which to grow, and you’ll be able to harvest their nutrient-dense, delicious seeds to feed your family and community.
Grab some seeds at Amazon and get planting!
