Garden Beat the Heat with Malabar Spinach G
BY L A R RY ALLEN N.C. Cooperative Extension Service Master Gardener Volunteer
24 | SAND& PINE MAGAZINE June/July 2022
ardening in the South certainly presents its challenges in the summer months. High temperatures and humidity are great for tomatoes and okra, but what is one to do if a salad is on the menu? Lettuce and spinach are cool weather favorites, but they have wilted or bolted by late May. If a fresh, green, cool salad is what you want to beat the summer heat, one of the greens you may choose to grow is Malabar spinach. This highly nutritious native of the Indian subcontinent is now grown across tropical Asia and Africa. Thus, it can take the Southern heat and thrive throughout the summer months. In fact, mid-May or even early June is the time to plant it, as seedlings will not thrive until nighttime temperatures average 65 degrees. While it is not a true spinach, the leaves closely resemble spinach and can be used in the same ways. When cooked it tastes much like spinach, but eaten raw is a revelation of flavors from citrus to pepper, making it a wonderful addition to other greens in a salad. Unlike true spinach, Malabar is a vine; in its native tropics it is a perennial, but here should be grown as an annual. Malabar is a member of the Basellaceae family. Two available seed varieties are Basella alba, the green leaf choice, and its red-stem cousin, Basella rubra. Both varieties mature in 60 days. The vines are prolific and make a striking statement in the vegetable garden.
