Vegetable / Warm season
Red Stem Malabar Spinach
Summer greens on trellises after cool spinach is finished.
Succulent leaves for hot-weather salads and cooking.
Seed spacing and maturity
- Days to maturity
- 70
- Germination temperature
- 70-90F
- Seed depth
- 0.25 inches
- Spacing
- 12 inches
- Row spacing
- 24 inches
- Start method
- Either
Frost-date timing
- Indoor start
- 4 weeks before last frost
- Direct sow
- 14 days after last frost
- Transplant
- 14 days after last frost
Action plan
- Can I plant this now?
- Use your local last-frost, first-frost, and soil-temperature checks before treating this crop as plantable today.
- Start indoors or direct sow?
- Direct sow or transplant depending on your soil warmth, bed readiness, and frost-risk plan.
- How much space?
- 12 inches in-row spacing, 24 inches between rows, and 0.25 inch seed depth.
- Best companions?
- Use crop-family rotation first, then pair with compatible timing, spacing, and canopy size rather than relying on a simple companion chart.
- Common failure modes?
- Growth stalls in cold soil; wait for settled warmth. Steady moisture keeps leaves tender in hot weather. Warm, fertile, well-drained soil with trellis support.
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Steady moisture keeps leaves tender in hot weather.
- Soil
- Warm, fertile, well-drained soil with trellis support.
- Watch
- Growth stalls in cold soil; wait for settled warmth.
- greens
- heat-tolerant
- trellis
- containers
Browse context
- Vegetable Catalog Category collection
- Basella Family Rotation and family context
- Warm Season Seeds Season collection
- Either Seeds Start-method collection
- Container-Friendly Seeds Practical trait collection
- Beginner-Friendly Seeds Practical trait collection
- Part-Shade-Tolerant Seeds Practical trait collection
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Source: Seed Savers seed saving guide