Malabar Spinach

Discussion in 'Gardening, Plant Propegation, & Farming' started by Tumbleweed, May 23, 2018.

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  1. Tumbleweed

    Tumbleweed Expert Member
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    This year, I read about Malabar spinach, which is not a true spinach, and is actually a climbing vine with edible leaves that taste like spinach.
    I decided to try growing some and ordered a package of seeds of the red Malabar spinach. Most spinach is a spring green, just like lettuce and most other greens; but the Malabar spinach is a hot weather plant, and thrives all summer when the regular greens have either bolted or gone bitter tasting.
    Mine has grown enough that I have been able to start picking some of it, and the leaves are as large as my hand !
    It tastes like spinach, but has more of a juicy (?) leaf, and it has soluable fiber , like an apple has, plus really good vitamin and mineral content.
    You can also eat the little vine runners, but mine is not tall enough for that yet, so I am just harvesting leaves as they get big enough to eat. Once the vines start to actually climb, we should have a lot of fresh greens .
    Here is what mine looks like, and it is easy to grow .
    ACB3BD73-31C7-445F-90CC-6ABE20F2773F.jpeg 3401A38F-802F-44E6-8CA4-028620EE0C64.jpeg
     
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  2. Keith H.

    Keith H. Moderator Staff Member
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    We had a similar plant, but it's leaves were not as large as the ones in your images! I must look into this further. Thanks for sharing.
    Keith.
     
  3. Tumbleweed

    Tumbleweed Expert Member
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    Here is a good little video that shows this plant growing. If you prune back the tips, it bushes out like this, and otherwise, it just grows like a single vine.
    I have been pinching back the tops on mine and they are starting to branch out. Now, I need to move them to a deeper planting container and give them a tomato trellis so they can climb up that.
    I have some growing in gallon water jugs on my chain link fence because that is where we get the most sunshine, and those should be able to grow up the fence once they get taller.

     
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  4. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    I'm going to have to order some seeds for that stuff. It would be nice to have a hot weather leafy plant for salads and sandwiches.

    Another really good plant that is a very common weed is lambsquarters. It is a leafy plant that you eat like spinach except it has more calories and protein. Below is a comparison of nutritional value between spinach and lambsquarters

    https://skipthepie.org/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/lambsquarters-raw/compared-to/spinach-raw/

    Lamb's quarters
    Lamb's quarter, lambsquarters and similar terms refer to various edible species of goosefoot, or pigweed. There are numerous variations, with or without hyphens and apostrophes, using one word or two, and singular or plural. As a rule, the British English spelling uses two terms with or without hyphen though usually with an apostrophe, while the American English spelling uses one word.
    Lamb's quarters - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb's_quarters
     
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  5. Tumbleweed

    Tumbleweed Expert Member
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    Lambsquarters is definitely a good green, and does grow about everywhere, except for some reason......none in my yard or garden. It is a relative of amaranth, so even the seeds can be used once it goes to seed.
    I will start a thread on edible “weeds”.
     
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  6. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    It is really odd how many so called weeds are actually high quality eating as far as nutrition. I think that somehow people assume that a plant that grows without human cultivation efforts is automatically classified as a weed. Kudzu is even eatable and a good source of calories and protein.

    This is a good site for plant gathering for foods. It is directed at Texas but the info is good anywhere.

    http://www.foragingtexas.com/
     
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  7. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    weeds are merely plants in the wrong place.
     
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  8. Keith H.

    Keith H. Moderator Staff Member
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    Thank you, great idea.
    Keith.
     
  9. Keith H.

    Keith H. Moderator Staff Member
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    Or the right place if you are a prepper;)
    Keith.
     
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