How to Grow Blood Amaranth USA

1. Establishment: Propagate by seed (RHS); for grain production, seed diluted with carrier and drilled at ~5 lb/acre (Univ. Wisconsin Extension).
2. Vegetative Growth: Upright annual to 2m tall, purple-flushed dark green ovate leaves (RHS).
3. Flowering: Clusters of tiny reddish-pink flowers in upright to arching spikes, summer into autumn (RHS).
4. Fruit Development: Grain-type seed heads develop after flowering.
5. Ripening / Harvest: Grain harvested once seed heads dry and thresh freely (general grain-amaranth practice; needs species-specific day-count verification).
6. Senescence / Dormancy

When to pick: Two harvests come off one plant, and they are read differently. Leaves: the first picking is ready roughly 30-50 days after sowing, and the plant will keep giving cuttings for many months afterwards (Ecocrop, via Useful Temperate Plants). Grain: the seed head is left standing until it dries down and the seed threshes free when a head is rubbed between the fingers. In a cool summer the crop rarely dries fully on its own -- the Alternative Field Crops Manual (Purdue NewCROP) states that "a killing frost must occur before harvest followed by a week of good drying weather", and Iowa State Extension likewise has growers wait until about a week after the first hard frost. Cut before the heads begin to shatter or the plants lodge, since seed lost that way cannot be recovered.