Chia Power

Easter Week Chia

In parts of Mexico and Central America, chia appears in traditional Easter Week celebrations. 
In 2024 Viernes de Dolores, the Friday of Sorrows, falls on March 22, marking the beginning of Easter Week, or Holy Week. The day commemorates the seven sorrows of the mother of Christ. Temporary altars and displays are set up in the streets, usually featuring an image or statue of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores surrounded by flowers, and a variety of traditional items: candles, oranges, bowls of colored water, corn seedlings, and chia sprouts. According to this article, the chia seeds are blessed at the beginning of Lent.

Sprouted sage seeds blessed on February 2, have also long been associated with the celebration of Our Lady of Sorrows. Growing greens remind the viewer of the resurrection and renewal of life. These sprouting sage seeds are also known as chia, the seeds traditionally sprouted in the grooves of clay animals, figures and pots.

Ron Mader of Planeta has documented this use of chia pets in Oaxaca.

My friend, Rachel Lindsay, a Fulbright Fellow in Nicaragua, sent me this photograph of chia seedlings used in the famous huge street sawdust paintings in León:

Australian Chia Video

This has got to be the best chia video out there. Actually see the plants being harvested.

 

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

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

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

Good luck!

WARNING!!! Be careful with your chia gel!

Chia seeds may be hazardous to your plumbing!!

 Blogger Kevin Gannon has been trying to grow a Chia Obama without much success.

But in the process, he's accidentally grown chia seeds in a few other places, for example, in this margarita glass, and,  UNFORTUNATELY, in the drain of his sink!!

I've done the same thing. And I almost had to call the plumber!! Draino to the rescue!!

So be sure to clean up after your chia planting experiments.

Don't pour your chia gel down the drain.

Flush it, instead!!

Art with Chia Seedlings

Back in 2009, the artist, Jeff Schmuki created "Chia Sculptures and Interventions" pictured here.

He said, "Using Chia in my work has created another means of engaging the public.  The novelty of the Chia Pet™ and the nutritious and easily grown Chia super-grain inspires projects that utilize Chia as both an art form and a sustainable food source.  Creating soil-less works which employ Chia, as well as other food plants, allows me to demonstrate the benefits offered by hydroponics.  These benefits include an increases in crop yields, lower water usage, as well as the fact that hydroponics can be used in places* where ordinary agriculture or gardening is impossible."

Jeff continues to create art using plants, but apparently hasn't worked with chia seeds recently.

Flowering Chia!

On October 28, I visited my friend Dave's patch of chia growing here on Long Island. Remember that this is a very unusual place for chia to grow, and we were not expecting to see flowers or seeds before the first frost.

Luckily, fall is late this year, and ten days ago, Dave's chia was in bloom. So.... I pinched some flowers and used my scanner to photograph them. They are such a beautiful blue color!
According to Dave, the insect pollinators are still busy at work. So now I wonder, will we get any seeds?

Chia seeds on a sponge timelapse!

Growing Chia Seed in a Garden

    Back in mid-June, I gave some chia seeds to my friend, Dave, and then forgot all about it. Dave planted them in his garden in Setauket. Now, just 4 months later, they are about 4 feet tall, and seem about to flower.

Our average first frost date here on Long Island is less than 3 weeks away, which doesn't give enough time for  seed production. But who knows, perhaps with global warming, we'll get a few extra weeks of growing season, like we did last year. Stay posted....  

      

Adding Nutrients to a Chia Pet???

A question posted on the Twiggers website.

Question:

if you added nutrients to a chia pet would it live longer?

Wrong Answer: Technically, yes – a little longer. It wouldn’t radically change the time it lives – simply because they are very short lived plants in the first. place.

My Answer:

No,no,no! Chia is not normally short lived. These plants can grow to be huge! Over 15 feet tall. But that's if they're growing in soil and aren't crowded together.

But on the chia pet, the seeds are crowded, and no amount of added nutrients will extend their lives beyond about 3 weeks.

The only exception is if you refrigerate them. You can add weeks to their lives if you leave them in the cold and dark.

Good luck!!

Timelapse of Growing Chia Seeds

Someone should make an animated GIF of this. Not sure how many hours this timelapse video covers. But don't let anyone tell you that plants don't move.

 

Miniature Fairy Garden

I ran across this perfect chia project for children. Read instructions here.

 

 

This is how it looked 5 days after planting!!!

A nice video showing attempts at growing chia for seed.

 

Can You Eat Chia Sprouts?

I keep getting the question about eating chia micro-greens. I don't like them. They are bitter and hairy. And the goodness of the seeds (omega-3 oil and soluble fiber) doesn't make it into the seedlings. But if you must try for yourself, first visit:

Gil and Lori have been growing organic sprouts in San Francisco since 1993. They are the experts. They'll sell you the seeds and the equipment and the know-how to grow your own broccoli, sunflower, alfalfa sprouts and MORE! If you are into sprouts, this should be your number one stop.

Yes, they do know how to sprout chia seeds and have published their method here. 

THEY SAY: Chia is a profoundly slippery seed when wet, Chia pets are famous (chia is the "fur").  Chia is easy to grow as a Micro-Green.

But what do you think? Have you tried them?

The First Modern Field Trial of Chia as a Crop

One of the first modern studies on growing chia seed for commercial use was presented in 1988 at the First National Symposium on New Crops, held at Purdue University.

Advances in New Crops: Proceedings of the First National Symposium New Crops, Research, Development, Economics, Indianapolis, Indiana, October 23-26 Hardcover – January 1, 1990

In it, Howard S. Gentry, Marc Mittleman, and Peter R. McCrohan published this account of their experience growing 6 species of chia at the Gentry Experimental Farm in Murrieta, California.

They report:

...there is no handbook on "How to Grow Chias."  We have test planted both groups nearly monthly during our first and second year trials. ...(The seeds of S. hispanica)... germinate in the warm days of late spring, and flower in the short days of September for seed harvest in fall.  Water should be held off after flowering. 

Chia Seeds Come from Salvia Plants

Salvia hispanica is the scientific name for the chia plant.

The genus Salvia includes hundreds of species, many of them ornamental and many of them pictured on the website of this English Salvia collector.

His website includes a photo and more information about chia plants.