PlantSowGrow
How to grow Callaloo (Leaf Amaranth)
Amaranthus dubius
🥕 Vegetable
🌱 Grown each year
The Caribbean spinach: tender leaves that love summer heat, cooked like spinach with onion and thyme.
At a glance: Sow early May to mid June, harvest from mid June.
When to sow, plant and harvest
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Sow outdoors
Harvest
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Callaloo (Leaf Amaranth): what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water regularly in dry weather
- Soil
- Fertile, well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 30 cm
- In pots
- Grows well in containers
- Feeding
- A general feed before sowing or planting
- Harvest
- About 50 days from sowing
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 3–9
- Difficulty
- Easy
Step by step
- Early May – mid June · 3 weeks after the last spring frost
Sow Seeds Outdoors
Sow thinly in drills where they are to grow. Sow thinly on the surface and barely cover.
- 5–10 days after “Sow Seeds Indoors” · Mid May
Check Germination
Seedlings should appear in 5–10 days. If sown outdoors, thin to 30 cm apart when big enough to handle.
- 40–61 days after “Check Germination” · Mid June – mid July
Start Harvesting
Pinch out the tops and pick young leaves regularly; this keeps the plant bushy.
- 60–90 days after “Start Harvesting” · Mid August – mid September
Finish and Clear
Clear the remains to the compost heap once cropping ends.
