From the Mailbag: How to Grow Chia?

From: bjh
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 2:52 PM
To: mvc
Subject: Hello Margaret

Dear Margaret,

I am a Family Practitioner from South Carolina and have been studying and using chia in my practice for almost a year now.  I ran across your web site this past Monday and have found it extremely helpful and fun.

I was wondering about the growth of Chia in areas outside of the Southwest.  I don't think there have been any successes, but just wanted to pose the question?????  My husband is a horticulturist.  Two friends have been able to grow the plant, but weren't able to get seed production.

I have been extremely impressed with these seeds and have seen some very good results. 

    Sincerely,

      JH

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Dear JH

Your friends' experience is the same as mine: my plants barely started to flower in late October and were hit by frost before they could set seed. This is because in chia (Salvia hispanica), flowering is determined by the length of daylight.

My colleague Ann, in Knoxville, Tennessee, has also been trying to grow chia. She wrote me on November 30:

I think I won't get any seeds from my experiment this year. The Salba plants and the S. hispanica seeds (white & blue flrs., respectively) have bloomed madly and I can see seeds forming, but the forecast is for a night in the 20s by the end of the week with chilly but not freezing weather until then.  A couple of light frosts have withered some leaves in the past week.  The plants grew HUGE, with plants nearest the street bowing into the street area. 

Chrysanthemums and Christmas cactus are other examples of plants that are triggered to flower only at that time of year when the nights are long and days are short, in the fall and winter. For plants growing in the tropics and subtropics, day-length can still play a role in flowering, but since frost is not an issue, the life cycle can be completed during the winter months. 

I have heard that scientists are trying to breed chia that is not daylength sensitive so that it can be grown in temperate zones.

In the meantime, I have a suggestion. Try growing a different species of chia: Salvia tiliifolia (Tarahumara chia). This is an attractive, fairly weedy plant that will self sow in northern climates. It is also the same chia plant that is used in iskiate by the famous long-distance runners, the Tarahumara people of Copper Canyon.

You can buy it here:

  

My friend, Dave recently grew some here on Long Island, so I'm sure you can grow it in South Carolina!

Good luck!

Comments

[Margaret]

I have some Tarahumara chia seeds that you sent me last year. They do seem to be a little smaller than chia seeds. I'll try to publish a macro image comparing the two.

[dave]

Some mature seeds are now harvestable. My impression is that S. tiliifolia has slightly smaller seeds than S. hispanica, though.

[dave]

Several volunteer Salvia tiliifolia have been flowering for about a week, so they seem likely to be able to produce mature seed in the remaining frost-free month. Tarahumara chia is drought tolerant and does have the potential to become a weed but is not particularly aggressive: I have about 6 volunteer plants this year from what would have been hundreds of seeds dropped by about 10 plants last year.