Wow! That's good to know and great that they are so keen to grow so early!

I'm trying Malabar spinach this year and have four seeds sitting on damp paper towel in a baggie. Your 5% germination rate is terrible so maybe I should add a whole lot more......

Linda

Linda, I guess it depends where you got your seeds from. When I bought them last year, the germination rate was TERRIBLE. But my own seeds dropped off of my vines last year seem to do fine on their own. I thought malabar spinach desperately needed a lot of heat to germinate, but the temp here has mostly just been just in the mid-to-high 70s for the last week. That's good enough for them, I guess.

Now, I have to say that what is germinating on the ground appear to be the seeds that naturally dropped from the vines last year. Not completely clear that seeds that I *picked* from the vines will do as well. As I said, I've scarified the seeds I picked, and I'm trying to germinate them, but I just started trying last night, so it will be a while before I know. The issue is, when are the seeds really ripe enough to grow? I picked ones that were deep purple, but had not fallen off the vine yet. Maybe in order to be ripe enough to germinate, the seeds have to fall off? If so, my commercial provider may have made that error and just plucked them from the vine.

Thanks Daninthedirt. I was just reading about them and I learned that they can take 10-21 days to germinate! That would make it difficult to determine whether they are going to make it or not. I am now going to put them in a little pot and keep it watered. Sprouting on paper towel usually works very well for me, but not for things that take ages to germinate, as I find they tend to rot.

You are lucky to live in TX. 70 degrees is warm! My house falls to 60 degrees overnight and things can take forever to germinate.

Linda

I started some from purchased Territorial Seed Company seed two weeks ago and most of the seeds germinated (80-ish%) I started them in my basement (solidly 55 degrees) under light but not on heat. It came up much better than the new Zealand spinach. Soaked both overnight before planting.

Good to hear that you can buy these seeds commercially and expect them to come up! And yes, I've also heard it takes them a long time to germinate. I think that's partly because the seeds are surrounded by the dried berry, and it takes a while for the moisture to penetrate. That's why scarification helps germination, I believe.

I'm lucky to live where it gets up to 70-80F early in the season. The problem is later in the season when it's over 100F for weeks at a time, and the nighttime temp never gets below 85F. Bye bye tomatoes. But malabar spinach LOVES that. Other salad greens hate it. Chard is supposed to be somewhat heat tolerant, but not that kind of heat. Need to water chard every day.

Well, just to report back, indoor germination of my malabar spinach berries/seeds (after appropriate scarification and soaking) did pretty well. But I don't need them! The volunteers are going like crazy. Last year I barely managed to get four or five plants come out of a few dozen store-bought seeds. Those few plants completely took over a trellis and fed us (and neighbors) for the whole summer. This year, I have 20+ volunteers (after thinning!) A real mob scene.

It is just stunning that malabar spinach berries dropped on the ground and left to their own devices (no scarification, and enduring a few freezes this winter), germinate in abundance. I was carefully collecting those berries/seeds last fall, and never even saw any naturally dropped on the ground under the plants. I guess if there is any strategy I learn from this is just to lightly bury berries/seeds in the fall where you want them to germinate, and they'll do their thing come spring.

May I ask how tall these get? I've moved from 1 1/4 acre to a very small yard and have to be creative with my planting! Malabar is something I've been considering for awhile. Nancy

I have them growing up a 6-foot trellis. They go over the top and hang down. In fact, they try to grab on to nearby shrubs. Right now, they are all about four inches tall. But as the weather heats up, they will go bonkers, growing an inch or two a day.

I should add that in terms of productivity per unit area, malabar spinach really excels for a hot climate. Great for a small plot.

The seedlings are all a few inches tall now, and we're making salads with the volunteer thinnings. I mean, this is a trellis that was overflowing-full with FIVE plants last year. Now I have about 40. Let me emphasize that if I wanted to plant something else under this trellis this year, I'd be screaming INVASIVE!!!

And it's taken off. Kablooey. Vines are now five feet high. Grows a couple inches a day now. Of course, it's getting warm here. Pretty much like what it's like in the Malabar region of India. Daytimes in the high 80Fs. Malabar spinach LOVES heat.

After scarifying the seeds and placing them in a little pot covered with plastic, they all germinated after a couple of weeks and I have just separated them into individual pots. I have to wait until the weather warms up before they can go outside.

Looking forward to growing these this year. It will be interesting to see if the seeds will survive and pop up next spring!

Linda

Nice nutritional comparison of malabar spinach to kale, which is the end-all for nutritious greens. Now, it's not quite up to kale (or collards) nutritionally, but it's still pretty potent stuff.

https://skipthepie.org/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/kale-raw/compared-to/malabar-spinach-cooked/

I seriously dislike kale. Yuck. Of course, both blow away iceberg lettuce.

Wow!

OMG! Oh to live in Texas!!! My poor plants are barely a foot tall!

Linda

Yes, Linda. Of course you're going to have tomatoes all summer! Mine are done for the year. But I'm glad to hear that you have a crop of malabar. Give it a little time.

Don't you have a window for fall tomatoes in TX., Dan?

I don't have the patience required to nurse tomato seedlings through the vicious summer heat. I've tried to keep indeterminates going, but it's just too much trouble.

Looking forward to the Malabar :).

How about taking some tomato cuttings? They would be smaller, so hopefully easier to care for.....

Linda

A tomato cutting is a small plant, and small plants with shallow roots don't tolerate fierce summer conditions much better than seedlings do. I may try it someday, but I'd rather use the tomato trellises for winter peas. I'd put those in in October.

hey daninthe dirt knowledgeable fellow gardener.. got any pic of your bare trellis? is it pvc or wood. would tobacco sticks be good enough? oh how far apart ? the spaces the is? ? thanks

Pretty simple. Pretty cheap. 1/2" PVC threaded into poultry netting. Works fine for foliage or cherry tomatoes, but I would use something heavier for cukes or melons. You can see the bottom of it in the picture up top. I should admit that the Malabar spinach is heavy enough, since it drapes over the top, that I had to reinforce on the side with a steel T-post to keep things from leaning.