Has anyone ever grown or harvest sesame seeds?

Question

Probably because my mom was Sicilian and I grew up on italian food I always love sesame seed and i was always wondering how and where it is grown? Anyone know due to personal experience and if not get me some answers for 10 points! Thank you in advanced friends of Yahoo Land!

Answer 1

There is a lot online about sesame - the biggest producing countries are India and China - Japan is the biggest importer of sesame and in the US it is grown almost entirely in Texas and Oklahoma.

I am growing some at the moment in Shizuoka,Japan - a few rows in a small field. It is my first attempt and it is just getting about time to harvest. I got the seeds locally, availability may be limited in N. America, though. Basically it is supposed to do well where cotton does well. Hardly anyone grow the stuff around here now, but they used to grow a lot of both, so I have been able to get some secondhand information about how they did it.

The climate around here is probably about like coastal Carolinas in the US. and the soil where mine is is sandy/well drained. I have checked enough seed pods on the plants to know I have gotten some production - have had some insect damage, but not huge - I have not used any pesticide at all, so not bad considering.

To get it established in the first place do not bother to plant until soil

is relatively warm - it is vulnerable to drying out when first getting established and does not compete with weeds too well when it is young. Seems pretty tough once it gets going and is somewhat drought resistant, but is supposed to yield better if it gets a fair amount of water while growing.

The plants themselves are attractive, basically the plant grows on a single stalk and the flowers bloom progressively up the stalk until growth ceases, seed pods form where the flowers were - some of my plants have bloomed out and stopped growing (but seed pods and plant stems are still green), others are still flowering/growing.

I am still trying to sort out the harvesting/processing bit, but as I have a traditional variety that "shatters" meaning that the seed pods open when they dry out, releasing the seed,  I need to harvest before that happens and put the stalks or individual pods on sheets or in containers to dry out. Apparently, one way to separate seeds from pods is to pound/flail them while in a bag with something like a large heavy returnable Japanese beer bottle once the pods have dried enough to be kind of brittle.  

Sesame is one of the oldest cultivated plants with lots of excellent

applications/characteristics as food/nutraceutical/cosmetic/natural medicine, even some industrial applications..

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

     I tryed to germinate some sesame seeds from a berger bun before, but no success.  I think because they are rosted or something.  You can try to grow some of the fresh ones you get in a bag at the supermarket or in a seed pack at a nersery.  I like to try to grow them again seems fun. :-)