Has anyone here tried Malabar Spinich, (Basella alba, or Basella rubra)? I know the leaves and stems can be used in soups etc. What about the flower heads, are they OK in soup, or green salad?
I hope to grow some Red Malabar Spinich next summer, and would appreciate hints and comments. I recently sampled some of the leaves, and found I like them better than regular spinich. Thanks.
Malabar Spinich
I grew Malabar Spinach in the summer. They really love our heat.
Malabar are not really a "true"spinach thought.
I never ate the seed pods ... but I just let them drop and the plants will reseed for me next year.
Mine have the red stem.
I bough the seeds below and you can also read other reviews:
http://www.rareseeds.com/red-malabar-spinach/?F_Keyword=malabar
Good luck and happy gardening/
This talk has me curious again about Good King Henry
http://www.floralencounters.com/Seeds/seed_detail.jsp?productid=99541
Anyone familiar?
This is very interesting.
Does anybody in Texas grow "Good King Henry"?
(I should apologize, I may have sent this thread off on a new tangent. I meant to post my comment on another thread.)
I'm not familiar with Good King Henry either but it sounds interesting. If you consider mentioning it a mistake, we'll just call it a fortunate mistake.
Thanks drthor, We have some hot weather here in Kentucky, but probably not for as great a duration as you have in Texas. I would probably need to start seeds of Malabar Spinich indoors and baby it along till mid June or so before setting it out.
I've grown Malabar Spinach too along with the heat it does loves humidity. It grows fast. What zone are you in?
Best I can tell by the maps we're sort of splitting between 6a & 6b. Temps in the high 90's are not unusual, occasionally over 100 but not very often.
I would give it a go, if I were you. You don't have much to loss. Your temps sound perfect. You can direct sow it or start it early but then you have to let it acclimate....I find direct sowing to be easier a lot of the time. It is a pretty plant that reseeds freely.
Thanks for all the comments. I'll be watching the seed catalogues for it, I've been wanting to find something different for a leafy vegetable.
Jim
Sounds like a good idea, please let us know how it goes.
I want to try it next year, too. Do you pick the older leaves, or newer leaves, or does it make a difference?
I just pick whatever, but the new leaves are probably the best, I have found that to be the case with most greens.
Has anyone grown enough to do anything more than a few seasonal side dishes? I grew it many years ago. Though easy enough to cultivate It didn't seem to produce enough greens to be worth the space. Collards, kale and cabbage or mustards produce way more greens per square foot.
This can be grown in the heat of summer and I let it climb so it takes up very little space. I eat it raw.
I personally don't care much for malabar spinach, but, practically speaking, it grows in the summer when cole greens like cabbage and kale can't. So the space issue isn't greens vs. greens, but whether you want to grow some sort of summer greens vs. some other kind of crop.
Lol I don't really like it that much either but I eat it bc it's good for me.
What I grew was rather leggy but it was a fun and easy experiment. I was neutral on the flavor. We grow and harvest kale almost year around, including summer. Certain varieties, like lacinato, stay mild. We start planting cabbage in March and, with succession plantings, we harvest well into July. The farmers around us start replanting in September.
Here is a video talking about the malabar spinach and a way to use it,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRCSB_kdq7k
Thanks for the link! Like Nicole said we can't grow any greens here when it gets hot Malabar Spinach is better then nothing and the plant is pretty. Unfortunately the USDA zones are only for how cold it gets not how hot.
Our situation is one of altitude not zone. The Appalachian foothills make for variable altitudes which affects temperatures over a relatively short distance. Being on the north side of the mountain is way different than the south. Our elevation is over 1,650 ft and south facing so we are cool but sunny. Microclimate is a huge factor in mountainous regions.
John Kholer from the video is taping in California or Las Vegas, both of which get pretty hot.
Thanks for all the discussion, haven't had time to keep up lately but read it today.
Interesting video, but I think I'll pass on the wraps, too much trouble. I'll try it in a garden salad if I get it to grow.
Give it a try, otherwise you'll never know. : ). The plant is pretty too,I don't think you have much to lose. Let us know how it goes,please.
I would love to see photos here of well grown specimens. I've seen some really good looking plants on the internet but most had spaced out leaves like mine. Maybe folks don't eat the righteous salads we do.
Like mentioned above, greens can not be grown all over the country during the heat of the summer greens just won't grow. It doesn't have anything to do with what we eat but what we can grow. Maypop, you have already mentioned that due to the altitude your temps are cooler so I don't see how this issue applies to your circumstances?
Maybe we just don't eat the righteous salads you do, but some how we get by.
JHarp-I was going thru some old threads and found this one on Malabar Spinach. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1258168/ I thought it was interesting hope it helps. I was surprised to see a DGer grew it in NY.
I grow it in a hanging basket. Lots of water and fertilizer. It drapes down, then crawls back up its' own stems. Any age leaves, they don't get tough, just bigger. I pinch off the flowers, when they are about two inches at most. Leaving a few green seeds. Oh, I eat the flowers. The base of the plant grown new stems. Sorry, no photo, I'll have to work on that.
Mucilaginous plants are good for detox, to be rid of environmental poisons that are all over us any more.
Hi all, I have grown Malabar spinach and sometimes I forget to collect seeds for the following spring. To make up for lost time. I will buy the green variety, cook and eat the spinach, but save tips of the plants for rooting. They can be rooted easily, if you are interested. Let me know I will share some tips how to do it.
I bought seeds of the green and the purple to grow this spring and summer. Here is a page from Cornell University about Malabar Spinach and it says the plant loves the heat.
http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/homegardening/scene9529.html