Last edited by shiny on November 10, 2026. View history
Malabar Spinach
A variety of spinach
How to sow Malabar spinach: Direct seed. If planting indoors, harden off before transplanting seedlings outside.
Sun requirement for Malabar spinach: Plant in Full Sun
Malabar, or Ceylon, Spinach is an edible perennial vine native to tropical Asia and Africa. It is a fast-growing, soft-stemmed, succulent vine that is used as a leaf vegetable and ornamental. The thick, heart-shaped leaves have a mild flavor and taste like a less bitter spinach when cooked. They are high in vitamins A and C, iron, and calcium. There are two varieties of Malabar Spinach: Green (Basella alba) and Red (Basella alba 'Rubra'). The red variety has a reddish-purple stem; both types have green leaves. Malabar Spinach needs a hot, humid climate with steady temperatures near 21° C. It benefits from trellising and can share a support with peas. If growing for the leaves, pinch the flowers to focus the plant's energy on leaf growth.
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For Malabar spinach, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 10°C and a shortest growing cycle of 55 days at its best temperature, about 825 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your Malabar spinach will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
by inkstone,
I originally wanted to do this yesterday but it rained in the morning so that kinda put a damper on things.
So I did it all today instead! A bunch of the seeds I wintersowed in the milk jugs and soda bottles were getting crowded so it was time to move them to their bigger (permanent) containers….
spinach
mizuna
arugula
tatsoi
lettuces
radicchio
broccoli
Malabar spinach
okra
parsley
anise
Nobody has harvested this crop yet.
Sign in or sign up to track your Malabar spinach harvests.There are no seeds available to trade on Growstuff right now.
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 55 to 180 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Basella alba L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Caryophyllidae Caryophyllales Basellaceae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual, perennial |
| Habit | climber/scrambler/scadent |
| Optimal soil depth | shallow (20-50 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours) |
Resources outside Growstuff.
Jerusalem artichoke
leek
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