Has anyone grown Sesame?

I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but I'll give it a try.

I have purchased seed for Sesame from Monticello.

Has anyone ever grown this in their garden before? I'd sure appreciate any first hand knowledge.

Apparently, it can grow from 3 to 5 feet tall and is an attractive plant. The fruit is a grooved capsule often containing more than 100 (hundred) seeds.

Mine are just starting to come up. I have grown sesame once before (some years back) and really enjoy this plant. Needs a long growing season so start them early. My got around three feet.

onecent

Onecent,

Thanks for telling me about the long growing season. I couldn't find any information on how long it takes to grow them from seed to harvest. I'll start them inside asap.

Have you ever gotten a harvest from your plants? I'd like to at least get some seed for saving for the next year. It would be nice to get some to use in the Kitchen as well.

Any tips on harvesting it? do you have a picture of the plants?

how would you hull them - all the sesame seeds I
buy say they are hulled.

how long a growing season until they bear seeds?

When something says it's hulled, I think that means the hulls have been removed.

I tried germinating the sesame seeds that I bought in bulk from the fruit market to see if they would grow. In just 3 days they had all sprouted. (just put some on a wet towel in a ziploc)

Now I don't know if there are different varieties of sesame plants, but I imagine these would grow just fine. No need to spend $2-$3 for a packet of a few seeds.

I wonder if you can eat Sesame Sprouts? I love sprouts and this would certainly be an inexpensive one and readily available.

I too would like to know how long from seedling to harvest.

This message was edited Mar 12, 2004 7:20 PM

Sesame sprouts are edible and healthful...chow down. Bet they'd be good over a slab of ham on home baked bread with a viniagrette dressing.

I have some black sesame seeds that came as a bonus trade...guess I should see about getting them planted.

Black Sesame ..... that's a new one to me. I'd love to know how they do.

I researched and found some new information that may he helpful to anyone else wanting to try growing sesame.

Tender annual vegetable for full sun. Height is three to four feet with seeds ripening in the early autumn months. Sow after the last frost. Sesame was planted yearly by Jefferson, who sought to make salad oil from the seeds. He also planted it as a border because of its ornamental qualities.

The plant requires a fairly long and warm growing season of four to five months and favors conditions similar to those needed to grow soybeans.

There are literally thousands of named cultivars of this plant in worldwide commercial use, but we could find none at all in domestic home-garden seed catalogues. That is even more of a shame than is usual with spice and herb plants, because the many cultivars have significantly different uses and advantages. For example, sesame is short-day plant, whose flowering is initiated by daylength shortening till it reaches a critical level; thus, many sesame cultivars have been developed each for use at a particular range of latitude. But apparently we home gardeners have to take it on trust that the generic "sesame" we get from our seedsmen is suited to the whole of the U.S.


Planting
Timing
Because sesame wants a long, warm season, we're probably best off sowing it (direct where it is to grow) in mid-May or even around June 1st. The minimum soil temperature for satisfactory germination is 60° F., and higher is better--it is a legume, and should be treated more or less like a bean, or even a lima bean. (Colder zones may want to start early in a greenhouse or inside)

The Bed
The general rule for herb and spice plants is that their soil needs are not demanding, save that the soil must be very well-drained: few herb or spice plants can stand "wet feet". The soil should not be particularly rich, most especially not for flavoring plants we grow for their seed (or fruit), common mis-advice to the contrary notwithstanding: a rich soil will lower the concentration of the "aromatic oils" that give the seed its characteristic flavor, which is the very thing we are growing them for. Plants that are slightly nutrient-stressed (which doesn't mean starved) give better-tasting seed.

Planting Out
Sow seed in moist but not soaked soil. Sesame seed is quite small, so plant it fairly shallow. Ideal spacing is unclear, but 6 inches is certainly enough; significantly less is probably feasible (commercial row-crop stands are planted at 1 to 2 inches separation).

Growing
As with most spices, water only lightly, so as to concentrate the essential flavoring oils in the seed.
Harvest when the seed capsules have mostly or entirely turned brown, and dry well before, and then again after, threshing. Since the capsules are prone to shattering, it is probably a good idea to enclose them, as harvest approaches, in permeable "mini-sacks" of cheesecloth or the like (or perhaps old row cover bits) to catch seeds released by premature shattering.