Malabar Spinach: Benefits and How to Grow, care and Eat It

Malabar Spinach is scientifically known as Basella alba and belongs to the Basellaceae family. It is available in – Green and Red varieties. so it needs some support to grow. The leaves are larger and fleshy compared to regular spinach.

Malabar spinach is known by common names including Basella alba, vine spinach and Ceylon spinach

The stem of the Basella alba is green and the stem of the cultivar Basella is reddish-purple; the leaves of both the species are green.

How to Grow and propagate : Growing Malabar Spinach Plant in your garden is very simple and It can be grown by seeds and stem cuttings from the mother plant. To grow this plant at your home garden  take the stem cuttings  from the mother plant, or from vegetable shop.

Effective Drainage: if you have to grow in a container an excellent soil drainage is crucial to grow Malabar spinach Plant. You can take a pot make a small hole and you have to create a drainage layer by adding a medium such as pebbles or stones to the bottom of a pot before adding soil. So that Soil particles are very small and tightly packed together so that water moves through them quite slowly.

Potting Soil : Preparing potting soil for a seed  or stem cuttings is a very easy and straight forward process. to prepare potting soil, you have to Fill the pot with the soil mixture of 50% of garden soil, Sand is another common component of potting mixes and It can improve drainage and 30% of organic compost and mix properly. Spray the water to maintain soil moisture.

Growing From Stem cutting:  

It’s easy to propagate Malabar Spinach from stem cuttings. Take stem cuttings of three to six inches from mother plant and remove the leaves from the bottom.  It can be grown in a big sized pot or on a permanent raised bed. It will grow to about 5 to 6 ft easily. Plants can grow quite dense & they will continue to grow this way.  Insert this stem in the soil a few inches deeper, with leaves above the soil surface. Mist it lightly and keep in the full sun.

Transplantation : When your stem cuttings reaches 4 to 5 leaved stages you can transplant into bigger pot.

What is the Best Time to Grow : The best time you to grow Malabar Spinach plant from seeds is March-April.

Sunlight: Malabar Spinach Plant  prefer bright direct sunlight, it requires at least 6 to 8 hours direct sunlight. The plants can also grow in partial shade but the rate of blooming might reduce

When to Water? All it requires is watering regularly and sunlight exposure. Remember over watering can kill this and the soil has to be well drained before watering.

When to feed Fertilizer: Malabar Spinach needs a lot of nitrogen rich fertilizers. Lots of vermi compost & cow-dung manure should be provided to the plant to produce thick, big fleshy leaves.

Pruning :  Pruning is the very important part to grow, You can also harvest by trimming down and use all the leaves that are growing along with it. That way you can keep plant down to sizable proportions as well.

Pests and other problems : Watch out for slugs and snails that like to consume Malabar Spinach leaves at night. You will have to remove them physically from your garden.

Harvest : You can start harvesting leaves from your Malabar Spinach plant quite early in the growing season as and when you need them. You can also harvest by trimming down the vine and use all the leaves that are growing along with it. That way you can keep plant down to sizable proportions as well.

Health Benefits:  Malabar Spinach is very healthy because it provides a lot of proteins for a number of calories you consume. It is an excellent vegetable for health and great vegetarian protein option. It is also high in Vitamin A & C, high in iron and calcium and low in calories by volume.

Cooking With Malabar Spinach : Malabar spinach can be used raw, in salads, or as a stand-alone vegetable. You can also use it like spinach in soups and stews. Steamed Malabar spinach is great and will yield more than conventional spinach due to its fleshy nature.

I hope you like this blog and video. Happy Planting. Thanks for watching.