Fat-hen

How to recognise it

Habit

Annual, upright, often branched plant of 20–150 cm; the stem is ridged and often green with red or purple stripes.

Leaf

Alternate, diamond-shaped to lance-shaped, 3–7 cm, irregularly toothed; grey-green and white and mealy, especially underneath and when young, so that water droplets bead on it.

Flower

Tiny greenish flowers without petals, in dense clusters that together form spikes and plumes, from July to October. They are wind-pollinated.

Fruit/Seed

Glossy black, lens-shaped seeds of 1–1.5 mm, enclosed by the dried flower parts. One plant produces thousands.

Roots

A taproot with fine side roots; young plants pull up easily.

Look-alikes

Oraches, such as spreading orache, look very similar but have two triangular bracts around each fruit. Stinking goosefoot is low-growing and smells of rotten fish. Take care: black nightshade often grows in the same beds; it is poisonous and has dark green, non-mealy leaves, small white flowers with a yellow centre and black berries.

Flowering: July–October · Pruning: July–August

Why grow it?

• The seeds feed sparrows, finches and buntings in autumn and winter.
• The leaves feed the caterpillars of various moths and are often full of aphids, which in turn attract ladybirds and hoverflies.
• An edible wild vegetable: cook the young tops and leaves like spinach.
• An honest indicator: where it grows lushly, the soil is rich in nitrogen.
• An old food plant and a relative of quinoa and spinach: its seeds are often found in excavations of prehistoric settlements.

Fat-hen: where does it grow best?

• In the wild on arable fields, in vegetable plots, on compost heaps, waste ground, building sites and manure heaps.
• Full sun to light partial shade.
• Rich, nitrogen-rich, open soil: sand, loam or clay.
• It germinates mainly on freshly dug soil, where seed from the soil is brought into the light.

Goes well with

• Common poppy: Together with other cornfield flowers on an open field margin: a colourful mix.
• Cornflower: Blue cornfield flower for bees next to the grey-green fat-hen.
• Sunflower: Another seed plant for birds: together a winter store for sparrows and finches.
• Good-King-Henry: A perennial relative with edible leaves, for anyone who wants wild spinach every year without self-seeding.

Fat-hen: when and how to plant it?

1. Usually you do not need to sow: fat-hen comes up by itself from the seed bank in the soil as soon as you dig or hoe.
2. If you want to grow it as a vegetable, sow in April–June in rows on open, rich soil and rake the seed in lightly.
3. Thin to 20–30 cm, or leave it closer if you mainly want to pick young tops.
4. Pick the young tops and leaves when the plants are 20–40 cm tall, before flowering; cutting makes the plant branch.
5. Get seed from a supplier of wild-plant seed or let a few plants set seed, but be aware that you will then have seed in the soil for years.
6. Never dig up plants in the wild; for this common plant there is no need anyway.

Care

Water

Not needed; on rich soil it grows even in dry summers.

Feeding

Not needed. On heavily fertilised soil it builds up nitrate; better not to harvest there.

Spreading

Never let it set seed in the vegetable plot: hoe off seedlings on a dry day and pull up larger plants before they flower.

Mulching

A mulch or a green manure keeps the soil covered, so the seeds in the soil do not germinate.

Seed for birds

To help birds, leave a group of plants standing into winter in a fixed spot outside the vegetable plot.

In the kitchen

Cook the leaves briefly, like spinach, and throw away the cooking water.

Tip: An old gardeners’ saying goes: one year’s seeding, seven years’ weeding. Pick fat-hen as a young vegetable, but pull it up before it flowers.

Pruning and mowing

Pruning months: July–August.

When: In July–August: cut or mow the plants before they set seed if you do not want them to self-seed.

How:

• When growing it as a vegetable, pinch out the tops regularly: this keeps the plant compact and tender.
• Pull up or mow plants in the vegetable plot before the flower clusters set seed.
• In a spot for birds, leave a group standing and only clear it in March.

Caution: Do not wait too long: even plants you pull up in full flower can still ripen seed on the compost heap.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Seed

The only way. Sow in April–June where it is to grow; the seed germinates on warm soil and in the light.

Seed bank in the soil

Seeds stay viable in the soil for many years, sometimes decades, and germinate as soon as you dig. It is also spread with soil and unfinished compost.

Fat-hen: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −25 °C.

• The plant dies at the first hard frost and overwinters only as seed in the soil.
• Leave a group of dead stems with seed standing: sparrows, finches and buntings feed on them in winter.
• The seeds survive the harshest winter and germinate in spring as soon as the soil warms up.

Diseases and pests

• Seed bank: One plant produces thousands of seeds that stay in the soil for years. Never let it seed where you grow vegetables.
• Aphids: Black or green aphids on the tops. They attract ladybirds; pick from other plants instead or hose them off with water.
• Leaf miners: Tunnels or blisters in the leaves caused by the larvae of tiny leaf-mining flies. Pick off the affected leaves.
• Mix-ups: Black nightshade often grows in the vegetable plot too. Only pick what you recognise for certain.
• Competition: In young vegetable beds it takes light and nutrients. Weed early and mulch.

Through the year

• March: Clear away last year’s dead stems.
• April: First seedlings on dug soil. Sow for a vegetable crop.
• May: Hoe off seedlings in the vegetable plot. Pick young tops.
• June: Pick tops and young leaves; cook them like spinach.
• July: Flowering begins. Pull up plants or pinch out tops before they set seed.
• August: Flowering. Mow or pull up in the vegetable plot.
• September: The seed ripens. Leave a small group for the birds.
• October: Last flowers and ripe seeds.
• November: The plants die after the first frost.
• December: Birds eat the seeds from the dead stems.

Did you know?

• Chenopodium means goose foot in Greek, after the shape of the leaves.
• Fat-hen seeds are often found in excavations of prehistoric settlements in Europe: for a long time it was a gathered food plant.
• It is a close relative of quinoa from the Andes, which belongs to the same genus.