What it is
Leaf Amaranth (Callaloo) (Amaranthus tricolor) is in the Amaranthaceae (Amaranth) family. A summer 'spinach' that thrives in the heat that kills real spinach. Cut it back and it keeps coming.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it low — heat-tough, and give it tolerant soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–7.5. Space plants about 8–12 in apart. Expect roughly 30–50. Warm-season annual.
How it's used
Leaf Amaranth (Callaloo) is used: cooked greens.
🔎 How to identify it
- Broad colorful (green/red) leaves
- Upright leafy stalk
- Tiny seed plumes if left
Edibility
How to grow & propagate leaf amaranth (callaloo)
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate leaf amaranth (callaloo)
This family — the amaranths, beets, chard, spinach and their wild cousins — is grown from seed sown right where it'll stand. The grain amaranths and quinoa throw enormous seed heads you can harvest by the handful and re-sow for free. Beets and chard seed are actually little clusters, so each 'seed' can send up several seedlings you'll need to thin.
Growing leaf amaranth (callaloo) in Texas
Give it full sun and tolerant soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
This one thrives in heat that flattens other plants, so it earns its space through a Texas summer. Get it established before the worst of July, keep water steady, and it'll produce when little else will.
Keep moisture even, especially while it's young — deep, less-frequent soaks build better roots than a daily sprinkle.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly 30–50 before you're harvesting. Harvest at peak and keep harvesting — most vegetables produce harder the more you pick, and one left to over-mature tells the plant its job is done. The part you're after: leaves and stems.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Keep this knowledge offline
A garden full of leaf amaranth (callaloo) is a real asset when times get hard — but the know-how to grow, store, and use it shouldn't live only on a website you can't reach. That's why I keep a copy of the references I rely on on a local server at home. Project NOMAD is a free, open-source way to run Wikipedia, survival and medical guides, maps, and even a private AI on your own hardware — knowledge that keeps working with no internet, no cloud, no signal.
See how I keep my library offline →Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.