Chia plants seldom appear for sale in plant greenhouse , so harvesting and growing chia seed may be your only option if you want to grow this glossy , edible plant at household . Sometimes called chia salvia , chia works ( Salvia hispanica ) is a tall , bloom perennial that grows best within USDA plant hardiness zone 9a to 11 .
The dainty , bluish - purple flowers bloom in summer and * * later mature into small semen pod that line the 2- to 3 - foot - tall stalks . * * Harvesting chia seeds takes footling movement and the seeds are easy to begin in pots or directly in the garden , although the sprouting clip is varying and can take anywhere from a couple of week to several months .
Harvesting Seeds From a Chia Plant
Chia seed areready for harvest inlate autumnwhen the small , stretch seed pods dry out and call on brown . The comfortable style to harvest the seeds is to cut off the grandiloquent chaff at the Qaeda when the germ pods are mostly wry .
Dry the stalks for a few days in an airy location out of unmediated sun , such as under a porch or indoors near a more or less open window . Set the angry walk on a shallow tray or on a tabletop run along with newspaper .
After a few days , crush the seed pod by hand to expel the tiny , brownish - white-haired seeds . Sift through the seed and cull out any that appear damage . Store the cum in a container inside the refrigerator or another cool , sorry and juiceless place until you are ready to inseminate them .
Tip
storage chia seeds in a seal container such as a pocket-sized charge plate food storage container or amber - colored jar .
Starting Chia Seeds
get down chia seeds indoors or outdoors immediately in the garden . In Robert Lee Frost - free climates , start the seeds at once outdoors either in autumn or early spring ; in colder climate , start them indoors before the last frost .
Starting Chia Seeds Indoors
Chia seeds demand plenty of clock time to grow before being transplanted into the garden , so it is good to start them 8 to 10 calendar week before the last give frost .
1 . Fill a nursery flat or some low pots with moist potting territory . 2 . Scatter a small pinch of seeds on the soil Earth’s surface and hide them with a lean sprinkling of coarse sand . 3 . Set the flat or peck near a bright , cheery window . Chia seed need temperatures between * * 60 and 70 ° F , * * so use a propagation matt to warm the grease if temperatures are cool . 4 . Mist the land whenever it feel mostly dry , but do not saturate the dirt . 5 . Watch for seedlings intwo to six week , although some semen may take much longer to sprout .
Transplant chia seeds into larger containers such as 3 - in pots and place them in a bright , warm and sheltered location for a few weeks before transplanting them into the garden or into a permanent pot with batch of drain at the bottom .
Chia plants can reach a mature height of nearly 4 feet , so they need a large pot , sooner 3 gallons or larger .
Starting Chia Seeds Outdoors
Chia plantsprefers full sunbut will tolerate light shade in very hot climates . libertine - debilitate soil is idealistic but very poor , sandy soil should be amended with a 1 - column inch - dense layer of compost worked into the top few inch . train the bed a workweek or so before sowing the semen .
Use little pair of scissors to snip off undesirable seedling at ground level rather than pulling them up , which might raise up nearby seedling .
Growing Chia Plants
Chia plants do not involve much hands - on forethought , although they will flower more abundantly with a little extra care .
- Pinching :* * squeeze back young chia source plants to further separate , bushy growing . Simply snarf off the peak of the main shank just above a pair of leaves when the plant reach 6 to 8 inches in top .
- Watering :* * Water regularly whenever the soil feel dry . seedling and chia plants grown in pots require more frequent watering and should not be dry out to the stop of wilting .
- Feeding :* * Chia seed industrial plant are temperate feeders that benefit from regular applications of dilute fertilizer . Use 1/4 teaspoonful of15 - 15 - 15or7 - 9 - 5fertilizer in 1 gallon of body of water . check feeding in late summer so that no new growth is produce before the weather cools down .
Chia plants are not especially susceptible to disease , but it is still a good idea to pass over down your pruning shear with home disinfectant before pruning .
- Pruning :* * Chia seed plants have a propensity to self - sow . If you do n’t want chia seedlings taking over your garden , consider crop off the florescence stalks before they set seed .
