Garden orache

Garden orache is an annual and dies off completely in autumn after the seeds ripen. There is nothing to overwinter. In late summer, let a few plants ripen and harvest the seeds, or let them self-seed; from March you then sow anew outdoors.

You propagate garden orache exclusively by seed. As an annual, it forms no perennial rootstock, no runners and no divisible or woody tissue, so vegetative methods are not an option. Direct sowing outdoors works early, from March, as soon as the soil is workable; the seedlings tolerate light frosts. Sow shallowly (about 1 to 2 cm deep, covering only thinly with soil) in rows about 40 cm apart, and later thin out in the row to about 20 cm. You can sow again about every four weeks until August, to be able to harvest tender young leaves continuously. Germination is quick and usually takes 7 to 14 days at around 10 to 20 °C. For your own seed, you leave a few strong plants standing until the seeds ripen in late summer (around August/September), strip off the dry seed heads and store the seeds cool, dry, dark and airy so that nothing goes mouldy. Fresh seed germinates best: viability drops noticeably from the second year and is hardly usable after three to four years. Sow older seed more thickly accordingly. Note that garden orache crosses easily with wild and other orache species; for true-to-variety offspring (e.g. red forms), spatial isolation helps. If you let a few plants go to seed, self-sown young plants reliably appear the following year, which is practical, but also plentiful.