Apparently it's difficult to find a truly heat tolerant spinach. That seems odd because spinach originated in Persia (now Iran) and is much used in Indian cooking. Don't Iran and India have hot climates?

There are several heat resistant spinach substitutes such as Malabar spinach. But these generally won't satisfy someone who wants true spinach.

Maybe those oriental varieties have some promise. Not having grown any of them, I don't know. I'm wary of claims such as "slow to bolt" which are made about notoriously fast bolting vegetables such as spinach and lettuce.

Nevertheless, if spinach is a common vegetable in places with hot climates, it stands to reason that it can be grown in heat. Isn't that logical?

Another good source of oriental vegetable seeds is Evergreen Seeds. You might want to read descriptions of their spinaches . One is called Indian Spinach Beet, which they claim is "strongly resistant to heat". From its appearance, I suspect it is actually a chard.

Chard is good and it grows well in heat, but I don't consider it spinach, even though it is somewhat related. BTW, even though we think of "Florentine" dishes as based on spinach, when I visited Florence I never saw spinaci (spinach) on a menu. It was always bietoli (chard).

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Oriental Spinach from Evergreen Seeds

"Apparently it's difficult to find a truly heat tolerant spinach. That seems odd because spinach originated in Persia (now Iran) and is much used in Indian cooking. Don't Iran and India have hot climates?"

Every time I eat saag paneer at an Indian restaurant, I ask myself the same thing.

I've grown Malabar spinach and it's a beautiful plant, but you're right. Not quite what I want.

I'll have a looksee at the Evergreen offerings. Thanks!