New Zealand Spinach

Very quick growing long yielding plant. Taste is good but I still slightly prefer traditional spinach varieties. As a hot weather spinach I've not found a better performer. A couple of plants were more then enough.

This is the easiest plant to care for in my vegetable garden. I have harvested from a single plant for 21 months with periodic feedings of homemade organic compost. Perennial in mild winters where <32*F nights are not persistent, survives 110*F summers though a bit of shade in the scorching afternoons is appreciated, and disease and pest resistant. I use the SFG method in raised beds and it sprawls into neighboring squares and over the edge of the bed. So, allow plenty of room and keep it trimmed. Great for cut-and-grow or single leaf harvests. I would plant in a corner square, a separate large pot or a hill like squash, with the soil covered with straw or wood chip mulch to keep the leaves clean. Taste-wise, it tastes like spinach. Nutritionally, it is near identical to regular spinach, but without the sliminess of Malabar "spinach." Same nutritional caution as spinach for some individuals.

I planted this spinach for the first time last year and was AMAZED! Excellent production! It just kept going and going, no matter how much I picked. It has a perfect spinach taste. It doesn't wither as much as regular spinach when cooking. I will never buy another type of spinach! This is perfect.

My chickens like it even more than my carrot greens.

I live in Ontario, zone 5b and found this plant easy enough to grow however, the yield isn't great for the amount of space used. The leaves are thick and have a felt like texture. I could see using this to put on a dish to look nice but making a salad out of it wasn't appealing to me. I won't grow it next year.