Malabar Spinach

Growing Malabar Spinach in Vegetable Gardens

Don't hesitate to add Malabar spinach to perennial beds and annual borders. Like a handful of other vegetables, this good-looking green will add to the aesthetic of the space while providing health-enhancing produce. Other great vegetables for ornamental gardens include 'Bright Lights' Swiss chard, a leafy green prized for its nutrient content that boasts flashy red, orange, and yellow stems. Both the leaves and stems are edible. With their feathery tops, carrots also make great ornamental garden companions. So do miniature pepper plants, which are typically more compact than their sweet pepper relatives.

Learn easy tips for starting your own vegetable garden.

Malabar Spinach Care

Malabar spinach grows best in rich, moist, well-drained soil and full sun, although it will tolerate light shade. This plant does not like frost, nor does it perform well if nighttime temperatures consistently dip below 59°F. It requires consistent moisture to prevent flowering at summer's end, which causes the leaves to turn bitter.

Plant Malabar spinach from seed sown directly in the garden after the chance of frost has passed. It can also be started indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last average frost. Malabar spinach takes 2 to 3 weeks to germinate. Hasten germination by scarifying the seeds, which means rubbing the seeds between two pieces of sandpaper to rough up the seed coat. Malabar spinach grows slowly when air temperatures are cool, but as soon as summer heat sets in it extends its vining stems at a rapid rate.

Shortly after planting, provide a sturdy climbing support—trellis, arbor, or fence—for your vining plants. (Two plants will serve a family's vegetable needs for the summer and fall growing season.) Once the vines begin to grow, weave them around the support so they can climb up the structure. Begin harvesting young leaves and tender shoot tips—which will be more tender than mature ones—about 55 days after seeding. Continue harvesting through summer.

More Varieties of Malabar Spinach

'Malabar Red Stem' spinach

Basella rubra 'Malabar Red Stem' features thick red stems that twine around any support that you provide for it. Use the medium-green leaves as you would spinach.