Sesame

Sesame is direct-sown as a warm-season annual once soil temperatures reach around 70°F, generally no later than early summer; seed is set shallow, about half an inch to an inch deep, into moist soil, since it needs roughly three days of continuous moisture to germinate and can fail if the seedbed dries out or crusts before then. Because the seed and young seedling are sensitive to compaction, planting equipment is set to apply as little down-pressure as possible, just enough to cover the seed with loose soil, and planting is avoided if heavy rain is expected in the following days. Sesame needs about 100 days to reach seed maturity, plus a further one to two weeks to dry down, so timely planting is important.

Sesame tolerates a wide range of soil types from heavy clay to sandy ground but performs best in fertile, well-drained, medium-textured soil with a near-neutral to slightly alkaline pH; it is not salt-tolerant and dies quickly in fields that hold water. As a crop of tropical origin it needs a long, warm season of roughly 110 to 150 frost-free days: seed germinates poorly below 70°F, growth stalls in cool weather, growth and flowering are most vigorous between about 86 and 92°F, and very high temperatures above 105°F can reduce capsule set. Because sesame competes poorly with weeds and few herbicides are labelled for it, fields are kept weed-free from the outset, typically with a pre-plant burndown treatment and shallow tillage.

Sesame has shown notable resistance to deer browsing, with growers in North Carolina, Texas, and Oklahoma reporting little to no deer damage even in fields that are otherwise heavily grazed, making it a workable option where deer pressure rules out other crops.

Sesame's growth is indeterminate, so a single stem carries flowers, immature capsules, and ripening capsules together, with seed maturing unevenly from the base of the plant upward and the first capsules forming as low as one to two and a half feet above the ground; each capsule holds roughly fifty to eighty seeds. At maturity the capsules split open along their seams, and where this shattering habit is present growers must harvest by hand before ripe seed spills onto the ground, while whole-plant harvest depends on cutting and drying the crop within one to two weeks of maturity to limit seed loss.

Culinary: Sesame seed is very high in oil, and this oil is pressed for use as a cooking and salad oil valued for its stability and resistance to rancidity, and is also used in shortening and margarine. Whole seed serves as a condiment, notably on buns and in snack foods and baked goods, and is ground into a paste known as tahini.

Industrial: Beyond food, sesame oil is used in soaps, paints, cosmetics, perfumes, and insecticides.

Medicinal: In China, sesame seeds have a documented history of dietary use stretching back more than 5,000 years, and were formally listed among medicinal and food ingredients by the Chinese Ministry of Health in 2002.

Sesame's wild relatives are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, but Sesamum indicum, the cultivated crop, was domesticated in India, becoming one of the earliest oilseed crops brought into cultivation, more than three thousand years ago. Archaeological evidence places early cultivated sesame at ancient sites in what is now Pakistan, and the crop later spread into East Asia, where it entered Chinese food culture over 5,000 years ago.