|
|
Post by hortusbrambonii on Aug 18, 2013 15:35:26 GMT -5
I did sow a small row of red 'Aztec Broccoli' (Chenopodium bierlandieri) from Vreeken in Holland; but it was overgrown by weeds and tomatillo, and I only got 3 giant goosefoot plants. They are about 3 m but not flowering yet, bigger even than my tree spinach but without the red, similar but not identical to the weedy C. album that comes up in the garden. Nothing red about it. Since I don't seem able to upload pictures right now, here's a link: twitpic.com/d9310l and twitpic.com/d934cgAnyone who knows what this is? All I can say is that it is quite a lot of spinach... |
|
|
|
Post by billw on Aug 18, 2013 15:42:09 GMT -5
Looks like huauzontle to me, although ours has a red tint to the leaves.
|
|
|
|
Post by hortusbrambonii on Aug 18, 2013 15:59:42 GMT -5
That's another name on the Aztec broccoli seeds, even though it's (mis-)spelled as 'huauzontli'.
but it is indeed supposed to be reddish somehow, which this one isn't at all (the color of this one is lighter green than the leaves of C. album or the green of C. giganteum)
Can huaozontle get this big?
|
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 18, 2013 16:27:03 GMT -5
They are about 3 m but not flowering yet, Quick. Chop them out before they produce seeds. Few weeds are as obnoxious as 3 meter tall chenopodia. |
|
|
|
Post by billw on Aug 18, 2013 17:49:32 GMT -5
Ours gets to be about 2m, but we probably don't have as much heat as it would like. You will have volunteers.  |
|
|
|
Post by hortusbrambonii on Aug 19, 2013 3:43:54 GMT -5
I suppose it's just an overgrown Aztec broccoli after all... Someone on FB said that the reddish color only comes when the nights get colder (as in rainbow quinoa) so we'll see what happens in september.
The plan is to harvest most of it at the 'broccoli' stage. And before that I'm doing to do some serious pruning for spinach later this week. Letting these 3 plants go fully into seed would indeed mean that my tree spinach (A 3 m chenopodium that I did introduce myself) as a vegetable would have serious competition as a superweed. And the patch has already a seed bank full of tomatillo and a fast-growing Malva verticillata among others... so the seed production will be limited and controlled so that I just have enough to share.
Someone on FB suggested that it grows so hard because of the heat, and indeed, we had a strange year with an extremely cold spring until somewhere in june, and then straight to subtropical heat... None of my tree spinach plants has done as good as these 3 specimens though.
|
|
|
|
Post by castanea on Sept 12, 2013 0:54:51 GMT -5
That's another name on the Aztec broccoli seeds, even though it's (mis-)spelled as 'huauzontli'. but it is indeed supposed to be reddish somehow, which this one isn't at all (the color of this one is lighter green than the leaves of C. album or the green of C. giganteum) Can huaozontle get this big? I've had it grow over 6 feet tall with no special effort. |
|
|
|
Post by ilex on Sept 17, 2013 7:55:42 GMT -5
Someone on FB said that the reddish color only comes when the nights get colder (as in rainbow quinoa) so we'll see what happens in september. Mine has reddish color all season. I don't think my summer nights are considered cold. |
|
|
|
Post by hortusbrambonii on Sept 21, 2013 12:04:47 GMT -5
It's definitely getting colder, and yet nothing reddish has appeared, and no flowers either. I estimate the biggest one to be 3,5 me or so now...
It's just a gigantic tree spinach without the fancy pink color, but bigger even and flowering later than my C. giganteum, which is flowering now... (C. album is havings seeds already)
Maybe I should look for another seed source for Aztec brocolli, this guy might be a good source of Chenopodium-spinach and the biggest one I ever grew, but he's not at all a reddish broccoli-bearing goosefoot...
|
|
