Backyard Poultry Forum

I recently obtained some fathen plant seeds to grow for chook green feed but I have had no success in getting the seeds to germinate. Has anyone used this plant for feed or could provide information that would help.

barra

I haven't heard of the fathen seed but when I ordered some lucerne tree seeds by mail order, I received them with the instructions to "scarify seed before planting". I thought what in the world does scarify mean. I found out that one method of "scarifying" (i.e. preparing) the seed for planting was soaking the seeds in boiling water overnight. It worked for me. Maybe it is a similar thing with your seeds.

Hey Barra
I'm sure there are a few gardeners that would like to know what you are doing to not get it grow !
We have a small patch in one of our runs and it is great fun to watch the bantams jumping up to get the seed heads.
My only advise would be that this is a notoriously tough weed that needs very little water and sometimes we kill things with kindness. Do you have a spare run you can just throw the seed in and just forget it? It is also a bit like Pattersons that can lay dormant in the soil for years.

Wondering if anyone else uses this valuable plant to feed their poultry with, at present I am feeding it to my fowls in these dry times, and they go absolutely crazy for it. It grows in the veg garden as a weed introduced in sheep manure from under the shearing shed, and in the sheep yards that have been locked up for a while, with a big crimson tap root taking up lots of minerals it surely keeps them in top condition.

Um I think Fat Hen is Chenopodium album? The plant I'm thinking of certainly does not have a red tap root. If I remember in the daylight I'll take a pic tomorrow.

The plant we call fat-hen from memory doesn't have a tap root as such. It has multiple heads of seed up the stem when it matures. I've never thought of it as anything but a "weed". The Power companies plant it strategically in relation to the wind generator towers to keep to attract the birds to keep them from getting hit by the spinning blades.
Farmers hate it, now there's a thought. That idea has probably been planted by the seed companies maybe, because it is a nutritious prolific plant that can survive with little water?.

The conditions it lives in here are acid to neutral clay to clay loam soil it survives in the former but prefers the latter. Same with the water. It survives without but prefers good water. I have always just put it in my worm farms and the seed doesn't appear to survive that process.

I'm heading off to do a bit of research.......

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"All is not always as it seems"

Could it be Quinoa, Or is it Amaranthus cruentus? quite possible to purchase seeds of either and mistake it for 'fat-hen' [Chenopodium album] although you would need to be red/green colour blind to mistake red amaranth for fat hen, but if you were told it was fat hen and it was great for chooks would you have any reason to doubt the name?

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Cheers, Milo.
I observe in fascination a worm move by peristaltic action through the freshly turned earth as I plant out my chilies. Grasping the Annelid I toss it to the waiting pack of beady-eyed vultures and watch the ensuing mayhem while laughing like a chook!

Yes, that does sound like Amaranthus. My chooks love eating this plant- the leaves and seed heads. And it grows like a weed. Love it!

This is the plant we call fat hen

This one is going to seed

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"All is not always as it seems"

I messed that up but I guess you get the picture. This one not in seed as yet.

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"All is not always as it seems"

Also see here
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organic ... .php?id=17

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"All is not always as it seems"

Lucky, the second image you posted is what it looked like at my place before I eradicated it (trowel shaped leaves).

It was growing in an old horse paddock under some Ironbark trees, lots of old manure and a leaf litter I estimate at a foot deep. In this area even with the competition from the Eucalypts it grew 5 foot high with the main stem being 40mm in diameter. But after two years of spraying with MCPA and 2,4-D I got rid of it.

After reading the bit about the viability of the seed I'll have to watch out for re-emergence if the area is ever cultivated.

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Cheers, Milo.
I observe in fascination a worm move by peristaltic action through the freshly turned earth as I plant out my chilies. Grasping the Annelid I toss it to the waiting pack of beady-eyed vultures and watch the ensuing mayhem while laughing like a chook!