Spinach that reseeds itself?

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I was asked to find the name and hopefully a place to buy this spinach. It was explained to me that it reseeds itself and comes back every year. My friend had it for years and years and has now moved and wants to locate a source of the seeds and start it again.

Any ideas about what variety she is referring to?

-- homestead2 (homestead@localnetplus.com), March 19, 2002

Answers

How about New Zealand Spinach(Tetragonia)? Not a true spinach but an old kitchen garden plant that is said to taste like spinach.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), March 19, 2002.

how about dandelion? that can reseed itself NO PROBLEM

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), March 19, 2002.

I thought that any spinach when left to bolt will re-seed the ground. I could very well be wrong, wouldn't be the first time! LOL! Best wishes.

-- cowgirlone in OK (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), March 19, 2002.

The New Zeland spinach is great. I use it to supplement my feed. The chicken, ducks, rabbit and pig all love it, plus it does taste like spinach, doesn't bolt, lasts longer during the growing season, and in warmer climates, it grows year round, and some plants last a couple years or more. Frost will kill it, though.

-- Wendy A (phillips-anteswe@pendleton.usmc.mil), March 19, 2002.

Regular old spinach will do this. Here's what I've done: when picking, pick only the large, outside leaves, not the entire plant. as the season wears on, pull out the plants that are starting to bolt and eat those. Leave only the ones that haven't bolted. A few days later, do this again. Leave only the ones that are big and healthy and are the last to bolt, amd let those go to seed. If you have a long growing season and water well, you can sometimes get a fall crop of spinach. By picking the plants that bolt first, you are selecting for plants that are slower to bolt and produce for a longer time. One problem I have had is that the seeds seem to fall from the plant very close together. Some places will be crowded, others are bare. So it may be better to scratch the seeds in a little bit after they fall from the plant, to distribute them more evenly.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), March 19, 2002.


Bountiful Gardens (www.bountifulgardens.org) (707-459-6410) carries New Zealand spinach. (They are really great to order from.) What about transplanting wild spinach -lambs'quarter- if she recognises it. It will seed itself later, and is delicious. (We used to gather it from the barrow ditches when I was a kid, surely contaminated then, but we didn't think of that, and certainly out of the question now.) Look for it in disturbed places but away from roads, because of the auto contamination. Wherever you get it going, it'll get invasive (or prolific, depending on your veiwpoint!) if you let it go to seed, unless you're just faithful about harvesting it, so try to get a stand of it where you don't mind it spreading. It's REALLY good.

-- teddy (millerfam@panhandle.net), March 19, 2002.

Homestead2, I don't know for sure what variety it is that your friend had, but some friends of mine have a variety they call mountain spinach. It is one of the first things to rise in the spring garden (the spring garden is a perennial /self seeding annual ensemble that is left to it's own accord, unless the grasses get out of control.). The spinach is mighty tasty, and I'm going to transplant a few of them over to my place as soon as they come up, so that they can spread their wealth on my new land. I could send you some seeds in the fall, but I failed to get seeds this last fall, and my friend doesn't bother since it takes care of it's own planting at her place. It could be NZ spinach, I don't know.

-- roberto pokachinni (pokachinni@yahoo.com), March 20, 2002.

Thank you all for your responses. Knew I could get the feedback from this forum.

-- homestead2 (homestead@localnetplus.com), March 20, 2002.

Malabar spinach will self seed in my mulch garden. hmm,never had so much 'regular' spinach planted that any was left to boldt! :] yum,yum.

-- bj pepper in C. MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), March 21, 2002.

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