Growing Vegetable Amaranth: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 10, 2026
Vegetable amaranth is a warm-season leafy green grown for its tender leaves, sometimes streaked in red, pink, or yellow depending on the strain, harvested young rather than left to reach the height of the ornamental amaranths.
Wait for warm soil
This is strictly a direct-seed crop, and it needs soil at 70°F or warmer to germinate reliably. Sowing into cool spring soil just stalls; wait until conditions have warmed rather than pushing an early planting date. For baby leaf production, sow 3 to 5 seeds per inch in rows at least 2 inches apart; for full-size plants, sow 12 to 15 seeds per foot and thin to 6 inches apart. Depth is shallow, an eighth to a quarter inch.
Two ways to harvest
Cut whole plants once they reach about a foot tall, or pinch the terminal growing bud on individual plants to keep them branching and producing new leaves over a longer window instead of a single cut. The pinching approach stretches out the harvest from a single planting.
Rotate it like any other leafy green
As a warm-season crop prone to the usual leaf-spot and root-rot pressures of its family, vegetable amaranth benefits from the same rotation and bed sanitation as other leafy greens rather than being repeated in the same spot season after season.
Vegetable amaranth has no well-established companion pairings, and nothing it needs to be kept away from. At 4 plants per square foot, it fits well into a Garden Designer greens block planned for mid-to-late summer, once the bed has warmed.
Source: Vegetable Amaranth: Key Growing Information, Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
Companion planting guide for Vegetable Amaranth · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 3-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 1-2 ft
Method: Direct sow: Direct-sow outside. It doesn't transplant well, or doesn't need the extra time indoors.
When to plant vegetable amaranth, by zone
Every zone vegetable amaranth grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3a & 3b | Not usually | Jun 13–Jun 20 | Jul 23–Jul 30 |
| 4a & 4b | Not usually | May 29–Jun 5 | Jul 8–Jul 15 |
| 5a & 5b | Not usually | May 24–May 31 | Jul 3–Jul 10 |
| 6a & 6b | Not usually | May 9–May 16 | Jun 18–Jun 25 |
| 7a & 7b | Not usually | Apr 24–May 1 | Jun 3–Jun 10 |
| 8a & 8b | Not usually | Apr 8–Apr 15 | May 18–May 25 |
| 9a & 9b | Not usually | Mar 1–Mar 8 | Apr 10–Apr 17 |
| 10a & 10b | Not usually | Feb 13–Feb 20 | Mar 25–Apr 1 |
| 11a & 11b | Not usually | Jan 15–Jan 22 | Feb 24–Mar 3 |
Harvest dates are about 40 days after the sow or plant-out date.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Vegetable Amaranth plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 4 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 1-2 ft.
Varieties worth considering
- 'Red Leaf' vegetable amaranth: Johnny's Selected Seeds sells this as their full-size vegetable amaranth offering, known as 'red callaloo' in the Caribbean, comparable to spinach in taste. Their other amaranth listings are microgreen products grown for a different use, not this crop's named-cultivar market. (source) Buy seeds: Botanical Interests
Why each variety is listed comes from the source shown next to it. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement. The buy links are separate from those sources: they go to seed suppliers that sell that exact variety, and we may earn a commission on some of them.
Where to buy vegetable amaranth seeds
High Mowing Organic Seeds (each supplier's vegetable amaranth seeds)
The varieties we recommend above each have their own buy links, for the suppliers that sell that exact variety.
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing vegetable amaranth" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Vegetable Amaranth: A warm-season leafy green harvested young for its tender, often colorfully streaked leaves, related to the ornamental amaranths but grown to eat.
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