Climbing spinach trellis/climbing structure

Mark

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Here's my makeshift log/stick trellis pyramid for climbing spinach. The variety of spinach (or type of plant which tastes like spinach) is supposed to be great for warmer climates and salad greens through a hot summer.

I've knocked up this trellis from some old hardwood sticks I collect to use as stakes etc and ties some garden twine around it. I'll update this thread as the plants grow - it's the first time I have grown climbing spinach and I'm always on the lookout for food plants that can grow well and produce through our hot summers.

pyrmid out of logs sticks for climbing spinach.jpg

climbing spinach seedling.jpg
 

Tim C

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Is that Purple Malabar or another? I have Purple Malabar, but it's just out the ground.. Mine is planted along the fence-'bout 8 plants, here and there, and another 20 to plant. Have some garden worth pics now(soon), but the prettiest is the Tree Spinach (Chenapodium Gigantium). We've had 37-38 here for the last 5 days straight,-Adelaides had 32- the hottest October(average) on record. My water bill, even at 48c a KL, is going to be hell.
Oh what I would give for native saplings like you,(in the background), I would have log cabin-style shadehouses everywhere.. Our straggly, crooked Mallees aren't much chop..:chop::cry2:
 

Mark

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Is that Purple Malabar or another?
Yes correct - Purple Malabar - I should have noted that :oops:

What does it taste like? Good and like spinach? How does it handle the heat?
 

Tim C

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Heat, good. Taste unknown(yet). I know Tree Spinach contains Oxacilic acid, so should (apparently) be cooked, and in a S/S saucepan as opposed to aluminium(oxides). Chalk and cheese though. I'm pretty sure Malabar can be eaten raw(?), but is better cooked.... Did you pre-soak your seeds? It's a really deep-purple dye from them....
I actually prefer silverbeet to spinach, in that the stems aren't as stringy..Anything you can eat is worth a crack, in my opinion.Any beets you can eat the leaves off, but they are high in trace elements and good to leave on the garden beds. I have Cylindra red, Chinese(?) round red, Chioggia(bullseye) and Yellow Eckendorf Mangels. Here they grow cold-climate, Mediterranean and Tropicals, so I suppose we're pretty lucky. And no fruit-fly. Our Mangoes are only a month later than Humpty-Doo.
If my Eckendorfs were yellow or mangeled, I'd be off to the doctor, I reckon!:ROFL:
 
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Mark

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Yep, the packet said climbing spinach could be eaten raw or cooked - I'd probably like it raw in a salad (use the small leaves). I hope it stays plump and doesn't get dry or stringy as the weather heats up. I didn't soak the seeds (I rarely ever do soak any of my seed even if you're supposed to - naughty me). Having said that, I probably could have gotten a better success rate with about only half my seedlings coming through but that's all I needed anyway...
 

Tim C

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I got 8 out of 10 soaking them. They say it's mucilagenous raw- may be a bit slimy- but probably ok mixed in a salad anyway. I have my Travisio Chicory, Red-veined Sorrell, Red leaf chicory that I also have to work out a use for. The Southern Curled Giant Mustard I'm using (hot , like Horseradish), but it's better picked young:cowmoo:otherwise a bit stringy! Red mustard leaf for a-plantin' now. Rats-tail Radishes flowering.
Some of my Red flowered and Blue-flowered passionfruits are up too! Lilac Afghan poppies(from store bought bread seed), and Coriander on the cusp of flowering,(predatory wasps already hovering). Argentinian and Turkish tobacco babies by the hundreds(planted end of July!). Nicotianums are beautiful scented flowers on dusk.(cough,cough). Also 80% of my Corn/Curcubits up and away. And shadecloth over my Brassicas to (try and) stop them bolting to seed.
 

Mark

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I got 8 out of 10 soaking them. They say it's mucilagenous raw- may be a bit slimy- but probably ok mixed in a salad anyway.
I hope it's not slimy - that's the last texture someone wants in a salad! :vomit:
 

Raymondo

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Here's my makeshift log/stick trellis pyramid for climbing spinach. The variety of spinach (or type of plant which tastes like spinach) is supposed to be great for warmer climates and salad greens through a hot summer.

I've knocked up this trellis from some old hardwood sticks I collect to use as stakes etc and ties some garden twine around it. I'll update this thread as the plants grow - it's the first time I have grown climbing spinach and I'm always on the lookout for food plants that can grow well and produce through our hot summers.

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Raymondo

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My climbing spinach, Malaga I think ,about 18 months old , slightly slippery to taste but when sliced into a mixed salad, not noticeable , does extremely well in summer/ wet conditions as you can see pic taken April SE Qld, and looks like perennial, that's my kinda gardening cheers and happy planting Raymondo
 
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