Growing Job's Tears (Coix lacryma-jobi): Harvesting Grain and Overwintering This Unusual Perennial Plant

Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi) is one of those unusual plants that seems almost too interesting to be real.  It produces edible grain, ornamental bead-like seeds, useful livestock fodder, and in warmer climates can behave as a perennial crop.  It is both practical and strangely beautiful, which is why I wanted to see whether it could survive the winters in my part of southern Australia.

Job's tears - various colour on same plant

Growing Job's Tears

I first grew job's tears almost 20 years ago.  Back then seeds were easy to find, and many online seed sellers carried packets of these seeds.  I bought some seeds back then, planted them in the vegetable garden, the plants grew and looked like cute tiny corn plants.  

My plants produced seed, but shortly afterwards we moved house and had a new baby, so the seeds were forgotten among all the chaos of that time. 

Job's tears seeds can be used like beads

Job's tears is perennial in tropical and subtropical climates, but is usually grown as an annual in cooler regions.  I was keen to see whether it could survive winter here, but we moved before I had the chance to find out.   

For some reason, finding seed for this has been really difficult lately.  Almost no one seems to be selling seeds of Job's tears at the moment, and the few places that do sell seed are expensive.  This made me especially keen to save seed from my own plant.  If it proves capable of surviving winter here, seed from plants grown under these conditions could be particularly interesting to keep and grow again.

Job's tears plant looks like tiny corn stalks

Job's tears beginning to tiller

In spring 2025 I got a small Job's tears plant.  As I only had one Job's tears plant, I put it in a pot in my greenhouse because I wanted to protect my only plant from out of season frost and give it the best chance of surviving while I learned how it behaved.  In hindsight, it may have grown better planted directly in the garden, although it still performed reasonably well in the greenhouse.  It went ok in the greenhouse, so I decided to leave it in the greenhouse, and see if it can overwinter there. 

Job's tears plants like water, so I put mulch over the soil surface.  This mulch was sawdust that came from the guinea pig house, this should add organic matter and nutrients as it breaks down.  I also put a bit of azolla under the mulch, this will break down quickly to fertilise the plant. 

It didn't take my Job's tears plant long to grow a thicker and taller stalk, then it started to tiller.  Tillering is where the plant produces additional stems from the base.  Each new tiller can produce its own flowers and seed heads, so a plant that begins as a single stem can eventually become a productive clump.  I was pleased to see this because each tiller can produce its own seed heads, making the plant far more productive.

Job's tears tillering early in the season

Same plant, more tillers later in the season

I hoped to be able to remove one of the tillers and grow it as a separate plant.  While this looks like it should be possible, I worry it would damage my one plant, so decided not to try this yet.  

Next year I will try to grow several plants from seed, perhaps I will try to divide some tillers then.  Or perhaps I will grow enough from seed that I won't need to bother dividing a tiller.  My plant has a few tillers now and I am still tempted to remove one and see how it goes, but am trying really hard to leave it for now. 

My plant grew tall, then in big wind it got some damage.  The plant fell over and looked like the stem may have been partially broken.  I stood it back up, tied one of the leaves to the bench of the greenhouse to stabilise it, and hoped for the best.  

Fortunately, the damage must not have been too severe because it continued growing normally.  Once it grew taller, it began to flower. 

Job's tears flowering

Job's tears starting to produce grain

Flowering and Producing Seed

Like most grasses, Job's tears flowers are not overly impressive.  These are wind pollinated, so they don't need to produce showy petals or nectar or perfume.

The plant produces separate male and female flowers on the same plant.  The male flowers form hanging clusters above, while each female flower develops inside the hard bead-like casing that gives the plant its name.

If you look closely you can see two stigma poking out the top of each bead.  These will collect pollen, which will fertilise the bead and produce a seed.  The seeds will then need to mature and ripen, then dry a little before being harvested.

It feels like it takes forever from flowering until beads are ripe, but that is probably just me being impatient and it only felt like a long wait because I was impatient to see the mature seeds.

Job's tears producing beads

At this early stage all the beads were still all green.  Once they mature a little they get some nice colouration.  

The colour of the beads varies on the same plant, and also changes a bit depending on how mature the seed is.  The same plant can produce beads that are almost white, almost black, almost entirely brown, or a mix of brown black and white.  

I don't understand the colour genetics of this plant as there is little published data.  Unlike corn, whose colour genetics are well studied, very little seems to have been published on the genetics of Job's tears seed colour.

Various coloured beads on the same plant

This first year my plant began flowering around 8 January 2026.  It may have been slightly earlier, but that was when I first noticed it.

First beads were ripe from 23 February 2026, with most of the beads not being ripe until months later.  They kept ripening up until the frosts.  

This was one of the things I hadn't appreciated before growing Job's tears: flowering does not mean the whole crop will be ready at once.  The plant can have green, developing and fully mature beads at the same time.

Seeds ripening

Harvesting Job's Tears

Because this was my first crop, I was learning as I went. 

I harvested the mature beads by hand as they became ready rather than waiting for the entire plant to finish.  I kept some aside specifically for planting, because producing my own seed was one of the main reasons I wanted to grow the plant again.  

Job's tears seeds different colours

Can Job's Tears Survive Winter?  My First Attempt

Over winter a lot of the top growth was damaged, I expected this.  We had a relatively mild winter, and so far my plant appears to be surviving the light frosts.  I have the plant under shelter, and have high hopes it should survive the winter. 

If it survives winter and regrows in spring, I'll update this article with the results.  I'm particularly interested to see whether an established perennial plant grows larger and produces more seed than a first-year plant.

Job's tears plant tillering over winter

Related Articles

I also grow a number of unusual and perennial food crops.  Here are some other plants I've experimented with:

• Perennial buckwheat - my experience growing this incredibly hardy and underutilised crop
• Perennial corn - my experience growing Zea diploperennis in Australia
• Perennial corn surviving a cold winter - my experience with overwintering and survival of perennial corn
• For sale catalogue - where you can buy Job's tears plants or seeds in season

Final thoughts

I'm glad I decided to grow Job's tears again after all these years.  It is an attractive plant, surprisingly easy to grow, and fascinating to watch from the first tillers through flowering and finally the development of its distinctive little beads.

This first season has answered some of my questions, particularly how long the grains take to mature and how a single plant develops from one stem into a much larger clump.  It has also raised another question: can this plant actually survive winter here and return strongly in spring?

I'm hoping to grow more plants from my saved seed next season and compare them with this original plant.  I'd also like to see whether an established plant produces more tillers and grain than a first-year plant.

For now, Job's tears has earned a permanent place on my list of unusual crops worth growing.

Perennial buckwheat seed

I have only been growing perennial buckwheat (Fagopyrum cymosum complex, also called Fagopyrum dibotrys) for a small number of years.  This perennial vegetable is mostly grown for its edible leaves, stems, and roots, while the annual species tend to be grown for their seed.  

Each year my perennial buckwheat flowers, but it seems reluctant to set seed.  In the few years I have been growing this, they have not set seed before.

I have a lot of plants, but they are all genetically identical, perhaps they have some sort of self pollination incompatibility, or perhaps the growing conditions were not right.  Based on what I am seeing now, I assume my clone is largely self-incompatible. 

Perennial buckwheat setting seed

I grew some perennial buckwheat in various different containers of soil, and I grew some in the soil.  Some was inside my greenhouse, some was growing outside.  I have a lot of plants, but they are all genetically the one clone.  I hoped growing them under different conditions may allow me to be lucky enough to get some viable seed.

This year, for the first time in my garden, the perennial buckwheat is setting seed.

Perennial buckwheat flowers are produced in huge numbers, the flowers are complete, they produce pollen, and they should be able to set seed.  For some reason, most flowers abort early.

The buckwheat inside my greenhouse flowered and was covered by many different insect pollinators over an extended period of months, yet not a single seed formed.  The perennial buckwheat plants grown outside in the soil are yet to produce a seed (I think this may be because it is a little dry where I grew them).  One container of perennial buckwheat growing outside is producing a few seeds.   

Sometimes when a plant is self-incompatible, if conditions are just right the plant can produce seed.  This plant is producing hundreds, if not thousands of flowers, over several months.  These flowers were visited by many different pollinators including honey bees, native bees, ants, wasps, flies, butterflies, beetles etc.  Some flowers opened in the heat, others with warm days and cool nights, others in colder temperatures.  Some were open when it was dry, others in rain, others with dewy nights or foggy mornings.  

Out of those hundreds upon hundreds of flowers I found a small number of developing seeds so far, and there is a chance more may be produced before the frosts arrive. 

Perennial buck wheat flowers

Perennial buckwheat produces a large number of flowers

The flowers are complete, should be able to produce seed, yet most abort

Self incompatibility in plants is not always 100%, even when there is genetic self incompatibility.  When a plant makes a huge number of flowers over an extended period of time, there is a chance a few might set seed.  That is likely what I am seeing here.

If the seeds are not eaten by something and are not destroyed by the nearing frosts, there is a chance none will be viable.  There is also a chance that one or more will be viable.  If I plant them, and if I am able to get at least one to grow to maturity, there is a chance that they will contain the same self incompatibility gene as the mother plant, and they won't be able to pollinate one another.  

Keeping all of that in mind, there is a chance that if I get a seed to grow that it will be different enough from the mother clone that they will be able to pollinate each other and I will be able to produce somewhat decent amounts of seed.  This is what I am hoping for.  

So many flowers, so few seeds

The one pot of perennial buckwheat that set seed

I had always heard that perennial buckwheat seed was much smaller than seed from the annual species.  So far it looks pretty similar in size to buckwheat groats I buy and eat.  Perhaps because this plant is producing so few seeds it is able to devote more energy into the seeds and they are larger than they otherwise would be.  

Only time will tell if I am able to get a genetically distinct second clone and am able to produce grain from my perennial buckwheat.  If I am able to get a decent harvest of seeds, I have no idea if they will be too small to be worth my time. 

While I would love to grow perennial buckwheat seed more reliably, I do grow this as a perennial leaf vegetable and as animal feed.  This vegetable is very good at doing what it does (ie growing rampantly and producing a lot of highly nutritious leaves) so if it never produced grain for me I will still gladly continue to grow it.  

Growing a nutritious leaf vegetable that most people would not recognise as being edible is not a bad thing to do.  Given how nutritious the leaves are, they also make a great addition to poultry forage.  All of this means even if I never get a decent amount of seed out of perennial buckwheat, it is still worth growing for the leaves. 

I will probably have a few small perennial buckwheat plants for sale soon.  If you are interested they will be listed on my for sale page.  That page will link to that month's for sale page, and I try to do a new blog post each month with the perennial vegetables I have on offer.  If I don't list something on my for sale page for that month, then I don't have it for sale that month. 

Growing Brazilian Spinach (Alternanthera sissoo) in a Cool Climate

Over the years I have heard a lot of great things about Brazilian spinach.  Brazilian spinach is a perennial leaf vegetable that is commonly grown in the tropics.  It has many common names, including Sissoo Spinach, Samba Lettuce, Sambu Lettuce, and Poor Man's Spinach. 

I am a little confused over the taxonomy of this plant.  It carries the binomial name of Alternanthera sissoo, but is thought to be the domesticated form of Alternanthera sessilis.  

Brazilian spinach produces small uninteresting spiky white flowers that look suspiciously like khaki weed.  For some reason this vegetable never produces any seed.  

It is meant to be propagated rather simply by cuttings.  It is said to grow fast, and develop into an edible ground cover in the right conditions. 

Brazillian spinach getting large before winter

I have been looking for a spinach alternative that performs well in the heat.  True spinach (Spinacia oleracea) does not do well in the heat over summer here, yet frustratingly summertime is when we tend to eat spinach.  

Brazilian spinach is used as a warm season alternative to true spinach, and is grown in tropical places where true spinach does not cope.  

From what I am told, this plant likes heat, does not cope with frosts, it spreads outwards and forms a mound, and it is said to thrive in part shade.  This is meant to grow best in tropical and sub-tropical places, and not do so well in temperate climates such as the one I am in.

Brazilian spinach plant

A year or so ago I got a small and healthy Brazilian spinach plant.  I tried to grow this in my greenhouse and placed it where it would receive a lot of light.  It never really grew larger over summer, and then it died over winter.  The plant was certainly healthy when it arrived, so the problem must have been how I attempted to grow it.  Had it been larger once winter hit I think this possibly would have survived as it had a fair bit of protection.

This year I decided to give Brazilian spinach another try, and I got another small plant in spring.  

This was smaller than the first, but looked just as healthy.  I planted it in a large pot of soil, and this time I kept it in shade.  From there I largely forgot about it, I kept watering it but paid it little attention.  

While I was not watching, this plant put on a lot of growth.  The leaves are far larger, the stems are longer, and it is looking pretty healthy. 

The plant did not grow as much as I had hoped, but it was certainly growing.  I had not rotated the pot, so the growth was uneven.  Still, it was a lot larger than when it arrived. 

I had hoped this plant would have spread further and produced more side branches by now.  Perhaps this is one of those plants that needs to be harvested in order to put on more growth.  To be fair, it is a lot larger, and is growing quite well, I just hoped it would have spread a lot more than it has. 

Large crinkly edible leaves

True spinach does fine here over cooler months, and performs poorly over summer when I want to eat spinach.  I really want to grow a spinach substitute over summer, and prefer to grow something perennial so I don't have to bother with seedlings.  

Things commonly grown as spinach substitutes such as silverbeet don't tend to be overly substitutable, and often have too much of a distinct flavour, other things have a weird texture.  I want something that lacks any real flavour of its own.  

I have eaten Brazillian leaves raw a few times, they taste ok and weren't fibrous.  I tried them cooked once, they were much like real spinach, didn't have much taste of their own and weren't slimy or weird.  This is exactly what I was hoping for from this leaf vegetable. 

I am told that this plant is simple to grow from cuttings.  I took a small cutting, and planted this in soil in a small pot of soil in the greenhouse.  This had a lot of shade and was near the parent plant.  It did not take this cutting long before it wilted badly.  From there the cutting lost all its leaves and then died.  

I took another cutting and put it on the kitchen window sill. This looked ok for a day, then wilted badly.  Perhaps it would have performed better had I removed some of the leaves.  The leaves picked up the following day.  It kind of started to grow roots, got little bumps on the stem, then stopped.  

This cutting has been sitting in water for a few months now, the leaves are far larger, but other than that it is not doing much.  I should plant it in soil and see if it survives.

Brazil spinach cutting in water

While the photo looks dark, it does get some light here

I took another cutting in late summer and planted this in soil.  After my first failed attempt I had low hopes.  This cutting has been there for about a month, and looks much the same.  I have this cutting in a pot of soil with a tomato cutting that I am planning on over wintering.  Sometimes I group things to overwinter, then in spring I divide the survivors. 

Presumably the Brazillian spinach cutting is doing well.  I am guessing it should have died by now if it wasn't growing roots.  Then again, perhaps the soil is damp enough that it is able to survive.  Only time will tell.

I don't rotate the pot so it grew unevenly

Winter and frosts are just around the corner.  I would really like to over winter this plant so I am trying to let it grow large and not mess with it too much.  

Larger plants tend to insulate themselves and have a better chance of surviving the cold than tiny plants.  I am well outside its preferred climate, and I expect it to get damage from the cold, but really hope to keep it alive.  

Brazilian spinach is a perennial vegetable that I think would be perfect in places with milder winters.  My winters are a bit harsh, and get down to -10C most years, and I am not yet sure what my chances are of overwintering this successfully.  If I can get it through winter, I would like to grow more of it.  

If I do grow more Brazilian spinach I will try to list extra plants for sale.  Given how this does not love frosts I am guessing I would only be selling over warmer months. 

Triple-Leaf Yacon: An Unusual Mutation in Smallanthus sonchifolius

I have grown yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius) for well over a decade, in a few different climates.  It is a great perennial vegetable. 

Yacon generally grows opposite leaves, this plant has three leaves.  It has done it for the past few years, and it returns the following year. 

Yacon leaves in sets of three

Normally, yacon leaves are arranged opposite and decussate; they are found in pairs on opposite sides of the stem and the each pair is offset 90 degrees from previous set.  On this plant, the leaves are whorled, and offset at 60 degrees from the previous set of leaves.

Extra sets of leaves like this can be a temporary thing influenced by environmental factors, or can be caused by a genetic mutation.  Given this has happened in the same plant for several years in a row, I think in this instance it is caused by a genetic mutation. 

Yacon leaves in sets of three

I assumed more leaf area would mean more photosynthesis resulting in more vigorous and productive plants.  This plant is shorter, I'm not sure if tuber production is noticeably different.  

Yacon normally has opposite leaves in sets of two

Regular yacon

This triple leaf yacon doesn't tend to flower more, or less, or earlier, or later, than regular yacon.  It doesn't seem to cope better or worse in the heat.  Other than being a little shorter, nothing really seems different at all.

I have been growing the same yacon for so many years that I feel attached to it.  Having a mutation show up is fun, and I didn't want to lose it.  

Yacon leaves in threes

Triple yacon

This year my yacon has broken dormancy and grown well.  I planned to separate my three leaf yacon and put it in a new garden bed, but none grew triple leaves this year. 

Over winter I gave away dormant yacon crowns to a few people.  I have a feeling I may have inadvertently given away my triple yacon.  

I gave yacon to a few different people, mostly to strangers who came here to buy other plants, so I have likely lost this mutation forever.  While I am a little upset over this, there are worse things I could have lost.  Hopefully it does well for its new owners, and hopefully they share it around a bit.  

Yacon drooping a little in the heat

Sometimes I sell dormant yacon crowns over winter.  When I do they will be listed on my for sale page.  I don't seem to have any triple yacon left, but I may have some regular yacon crowns for sale.  

Perennial buckwheat flowering

Perennial buckwheat (Fagopyrum cymosum complex, sometimes called Fagopyrum dibotrys) is a perennial vegetable that is sometimes used as medicine.  It is mostly grown as a leaf vegetable, or the rhizomes are eaten, or the leaves are fed to poultry and livestock, while only occasionally the seed is eaten. 

I have never seen perennial buckwheat seed, but am told it is smaller than common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) or tatrary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum).  Perennial buckwheat seed is meant to be highly nutritious, and (while this is hard to believe) studies show it to be even higher in protein than either of these annual species. 

Perennial buckwheat is also called 'golden buckwheat' or 'tall buckweat'.  I believe it gets the name golden buck wheat because in autumn the leaves take on an incredible golden yellow colour beforegoing dormant over winter.  It gets the name tall buck wheat because with support the plants can grow taller than me.  This perennial vegetable is rather impressive.  

Perennial buckwheat flowers 

Perennial buck wheat is very vigorous and productive, its leaves and rhizomes are eaten commonly in developing nations across the Himalayas.  Perennial buckwheat has been used as food for centuries, yet for some reason this is not grown or eaten in Western nations.  My perennial buckwheat seems to need a bit of water, and tends to suffer if the soil gets too dry.  Other than that it seems pretty indestructible.  

The flowers of perennial buckwheat are small, white, and produced in large numbers.  Each stalk produces flowers, and each group of flowers contains many flowers that open sequentially over a long period of time.  Each spray will have some flowers that have faded, others will currently be open, and others will still be immature buds.  

Having many flowers opening over such a long time means it provides food for beneficial insects for a very long time.  This is good for my garden.  It attracts pollinators, and it feeds other beneficial insects. 

Perennial buckwheat flowers are small and numerous

Common buckwheat is an annual plant.  These are largely self incompatible,  and usually only set seed if you have two or more genetically unique plants.  I don't know if perennial buckwheat is also self incompatible or not, but I am suspecting that it may be.

While I have a number of perennial buckwheat plants, I only have one clone of perennial buckwheat.  Every plant I have is genetically identical to all the others that I grow.  This is not ideal. 

Each stalk produces a spray containing many flowers, but so far it is reluctant to set seed in my garden.  From the hundreds, if not thousands of flowers it produces, not a single seed from my perennial buckwheat was set.  

Perhaps it needs a second clone to set seed well, perhaps it does not enjoy my conditions, perhaps it lacks the right kind of pollinators in my garden, or maybe it was just not a great year for seed set and future years will be fine.  At this stage I don't know. 

I am told it will cross with tartary buckwheat, and the resultant plants are said to display a great deal of hybrid vigor.  I grow common buckwheat, but have never seen tartary buckwheat for sale.  I know it is in the country, but can't find it for sale anywhere.  Hopefully some day I track down some and see how it grows here.  I would love to create this cross, and see how vigorous the hybrids can be.  

Perennial buckwheat leaves and flower buds

Until recently I only grew my perennial buckwheat in pots, and it always seems to want deeper soil.  This plant spreads underground.  It appears to perform better in my deeper pots, and it always tries to escape through the drainage holes.  

I wonder if I grew it in the garden if it would cope better with dry conditions and be more likely to set seed.  I am reluctant to plant it in the ground because I have heard that perennial buckwheat can be so vigorous that it is difficult to control when in the garden.  

Despite my hesitations, I am trialing growing some perennial buckwheat in the soil just outside the chicken's run.  This will get a lot of the nutrients from the chickens, plus it will be in deep soil, and hopefully this will produce strong plants.  So far the hens keep reaching through the wire and eating it, so I need to protect it a little better.  I want the chickens to eat this plant, but I don't want them to eat it to death.

I figure by planting it in soil near the chicken's run it should spread underground via rhizomes, and pop up away from the initial planting site.  Some will be eaten by the hens and provide them with nutritious feed, some will spread into the lawn and be mown, and some will hopefully be in that perfect zone where it can grow tall and potentially set seed.  

More perennial buckwheat flowers

I don't know why perennial buckwheat is so rare in Australia.  It is such a vigorous grower, and so nutritious, that it should be grown more commonly in backyards where it can add to household food security.  Perennial buckwheat leaves can be eaten as vegetables, or they can be fed to chickens, or can be used in the compost.

Hopefully when my perennial buckwheat flowers next it produces a few viable seeds.  If not, I will still enjoy this plant for the valuable leaf vegetable that it is and I will feed the leaves to my chickens to lower the feed bill.  I am told it makes a good cut flower, but I'm not sure if the flowers are pretty enough for this purpose and may leave them so they continue to feed beneficial insects. 

Perennial buckwheat is a great producer and an excellent permaculture plant.  At this stage very few places in Australia sell perennial buckwheat plants, and I hope this changes in the near future.  I am mostly experimenting with this plant to see what it can do, I have high hopes that it will act as a significant source of feed for our chickens.  If I have extra perennial buckwheat plants, I will offer try to some for sale through my for sale page.  

Perennial vegetables for sale October 2025

For sale in Australia perennial vegetables, heirloom vegetable seeds, edible herbs, organic berry plants, and a few non-edible plants and things.  Everything has been grown organically by me.  

Maintaining my old for sale page wasn't working for me, so each month I will write a new blog post with an updated list of what I have for sale that month and include a link on my old for sale page. 

Various organic tomatoes

For Sale: October 2025 

Bare Rooted Plants $5 each (unless otherwise stated): 

Skirret offsets 
Everlasting onions 
Babington leek 
Pineberry strawberry 
Virginian strawberry
Atilla alpine strawberry 
Jekkas thyme 
Spearmint 
100 yr old mint
Lavender mint 
Willow herb
Vietnamese fish mint
Vietnamese coriander
Variegated water parsley
Green water parsley (more vigorous stronger tasting version of the variegated form)
Asparagus (Variety: Purple) 
Asparagus (Variety: Precoce D'Argenteuil) 
Sweet Violet 
Water cress - well rooted cuttings
Hops (Variety: Target)
Brahmi/water hyssop (Bacopa monnieri) 
Tiger nut/chufas (Cyperus esculentus) $5 for 5 tubers
Jerusalem artichoke tubers $3 each
Duck potato $3 each
Chinese water chestnuts $3 
Spider plant (variegated, green, or reverse variegated)  $3 each
Azolla  ($3 per scoop)  

Ancient Cultures: 

Milk kefir grains  $5 

Heirloom Vegetable Seeds:  $4 packet (unless otherwise stated) 

Immali corn
Superior coriander
Giant parsley
Purple hot mustard
Purple asparagus
Tomato Zolotoe Serdtse
Tomato Tommy Toe
Tomato Reisetoimate 
Tomato Woolly Kate 
Senposai
Huacatay

Non edible things:

Aloe vera $5
String of pearls succulent - plant $5, cuttings $2
String of beans succulent (from Coober Pedy) - plant $5, cuttings  $2
Red jelly bean succulent  $5 
African violet leaf cutting (Variety: New Hampshire) $3 each
African violet leaf cutting (Variety: unnamed double light blue) $3 each

Candle mold 'skep' $10 each
Candle mold 'owl' $10 each 

Postage Prices: 

$12 for plants etc, or 
$3.50 if only buying seeds.  

I post the Monday after payment has cleared.

Jerusalem artichoke tubers

To order anything from the above list: 

Please send me an email saying what plants/seeds you would like and I will reply with prices/payment methods.  My email address will need to remove the the spaces, put @ instead of the word 'at' and . in place of the word 'dot': 

damien_beaumont at yahoo dot com dot au 

Photographs, binomial names, and descriptions of plants, and notes on how I grow them, can be found on my old for sale page.  Please note my old page has a lot of things not currently in season/not currently for sale.  The only things I have for sale this month are listed in this blog post above. 

Silverbeet: One of the Easiest Vegetables to Grow at Home

Silverbeet (Beta vulgaris) is an easy to grow leaf vegetable.  Silverbeet is also called chard, swiss chard, rainbow chard, leaf beet, perpetual spinach, and beet spinach.   

When I was a child (and in some parts of Australia today) this vegetable was mostly called 'spinach'.  Silver beet is not closely related to true spinach (Spinacia oleracea).  They are used in similar ways, but they are very different plants, they grow, taste, and look different. 

Coloured silverbeet mix

Like many leaf vegetables, silverbeet is reasonably nutritious.  It is particularly high in vitamin K.  Ten grams of raw silverbeet leaf contains the recommended daily intake of vitamin K.  

Like many vegetables, silverbeet contains some anti-nutrients, in this case it is oxalic acid.  It is not overly high in oxalic acid, and it is usually eaten cooked (heat somewhat degrades oxalic acid), so this is not a big issue.  Some people eat raw leaves in salads, given the relatively low amount of oxalic acid present in the leaves and the small amount of leaves generally eaten, this isn't an issue for most people. 

Much genetic diversity among my silverbeet

Many years ago we bought a pack of silverbeet seeds.  It was a coloured mix and the seedlings grew various coloured petioles (leaf stems).  I liked the look of the yellow ones.  For some reason the yellow ones were always less vigorous in my garden, but I like the looks of them. 

I allowed them to self seed indiscriminately, and we always had some silverbeet of various colours.  We moved house and I took some seeds with us, then I forgot about them.  A few years later I thought about growing silverbeet again and had plenty of seeds that were about ten years old.  I planted a bunch to see if they would work, figuring I could buy more seed if needed.  

Most of the seeds did nothing as they were too old, but some grew, and we have had silverbeet growing ever since.  

Not a great photo: white stem on left, green stem on right

Each year there are different colours in the garden.  A few years ago most had light green stems, I like the look of them.  

This year there are no yellow ones, but we still have red, a vibrant pink that I cannot capture the colour of in my photos, white, and light green.  The leaf is always green, some dark, others light, and over winter some turn purple/reddish green.  

  

Various stem colours

Silverbeet is often considered to be a biennial, They grow one year and they flower and die in their second year.  Given the right conditions many silverbeet plants probably are biennial.  For me some are annuals, they grow, flower, and die in under a year.  Some are indeed biennial, growing one year, then in their second year they flower and die.  Others are short lived perennials, in my garden they survive 4+ years before flowering.  

Silverbeet is the same genus and same species as beetroot, mangelwurzel, and sugar beet.  All of these plants can and will cross readily, so care needs to be taken if seed saving.  

All of these can be grown side by side without affecting the taste of each other or the colour of neighbouring plants.  Growing them next to one another is only an issue if you are allowing them to flower and are planning on collecting seed. 

Pink stems from same plant - far prettier in real life

Beetroot was selected for its large sweet and tender root, mangelwurzel was selected for larger root and leaf, sugar beet was selected for high sugar content, and silverbeet was selected for leaf production.  I find beetroot goes woody and my chickens won't eat it once it grows large, whereas my hens eat every last scrap of mangelwurzel no matter how large and old it is.  

If seed saving, all of these beets will cross pollinate readily.  The plants produce ample pollen that is spread a long distance by the wind.  

I have crossed beetroot and silverbeet a few times, the result is usually a plant with a tiny bulbous root, and produces fewer, smaller, and slightly sweeter leaves than silverbeet.  I am told that crossing silverbeet with sugar beet results in plants with large and tasty leaves.

Various red and pink silverbeet

Seed saving and breeding of silverbeet can be a little difficult and takes a lot of time and garden space.  As mentioned, individual plants can be annuals while many are perennial or biennial.  This may be influenced by environment as well as genetics.  Stress seems to induce flowering, so if you have a nice perennial plant you may be able to stress it into flowering.  Being wind pollinated means your plants may cross if your neighbours are also growing some of this species.

As you can see in the photos, my Silverbeet has a lot of genetic diversity.  I think this is a good thing and try not to create a genetic bottleneck.  Some years I see more diversity than others, this is because it has some recessive genes as well as genes that are only expressed when in the right combination.  

I have always thought about breeding something spectacular with it, but have never gotten around to it.  I tend to just cull things I dislike and allow the ones I like to flower and drop seed.  There are also some that grow in out of the way places in the garden or lawn, which I often allow to flower and seed.  

I have a few plants that have very wide petioles, these look interesting but we don't use petioles much, and my chickens are reluctant to eat these thicker stems.  I had some plants a few years ago that were twice as wide as this, they were short plants that produced little leaf and had extremely wide white petioles.  I culled them.  I probably won't allow these wide petiole silverbeet to flower.  Then again, I may leave one just to keep the diversity in the mix. 

Thick petiole vs thin petiole

I like the bright yellow ones, but they were not as productive in my garden so are slowly disappearing from my mix.  I don't have any bright yellow ones this year, but they may reappear next year.  As much as I like the looks of them, if they are less productive I won't grow them. 

I don't love the looks of white stemmed ones, I prefer the look of light green.  Presumably white is more vigorous or something as that is the most commonly seen in shops, I just don't love the look of it.  In my garden the light green ones seem pretty vigorous. 

The red ones can be very pretty, and my red ones may have some beetroot genes in their heritage.  Many of these are very productive and vigorous.  Some of these will be allowed to set seed.

This year there are some vivid pink plants that I cannot really capture in photos.  I plan to allow them to flower and set seed.  I don't have many of the vivid pink, but they seem to produce well.  I hope I get more vivid pink in future generations.  It wouldn't be overly difficult to bag them and collect self pollinated seed, but I have a feeling that I won't get around to doing that this year.  

Silverbeet grows well over winter here, and provides nutritious and large leaves that we eat as well as feeding to our chickens.  Having some greens over winter is good for the hens.  Silverbeet also grows reasonably well over summer, but needs some water to prevent wilting.  

When my current plants set seed I may collect and offer some for sale through my for sale page.  This will be a mix of colours, and it has been open pollinated, so I can't guarantee what colours you will get.  

My plants probably have some beetroot in their heritage, but are not likely to produce fat roots.  Coloured silverbeet is not rare, and is certainly not difficult to grow from seed, so if I don't have seeds you should be able to find seed for sale somewhere.  You could buy seedlings, but for the same price you will get a lot more seed with a lot more interesting colours.  Seedlings tend to sulk after transplant but pick up if cared for, and seeds grow so easily, so either is a good option to grow these.  Once you have them in the garden, it isn't too difficult to allow some to flower and set seed when the time is right and ensure a continual supply of this vegetable.