Growing Malabar Spinach: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 10, 2026
Malabar spinach isn’t a true spinach at all, but a heat-loving vining green with a mild flavor and a thicker, more heat-tolerant texture than actual spinach, which bolts and turns bitter the moment summer heats up.
A genuine climber
Transplant, sowing seed indoors a quarter inch deep, 5 to 6 weeks before transplanting out after all danger of frost has passed, then space plants 6 inches apart in rows 36 inches apart. Direct-seeding after frost also works, sown 1 to 2 inches apart. This is a real vine and needs trellis support to perform well; without one it sprawls rather than climbing, which makes harvest harder and airflow worse.
Keep pinching for a longer harvest
Pick young leaves and stems throughout the season, and pinch the growing tips regularly. Pinching encourages branching, which spreads the harvest out over a longer window instead of concentrating growth into one long, unbranched vine.
Malabar spinach has no well-established companion pairings, and nothing it needs to be kept away from. Its need for a trellis makes it a good fit for a vertical spot in the Garden Designer, planted where a true spinach would already have bolted by midsummer.
Source: Malabar Spinach: Key Growing Information, Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
Companion planting guide for Malabar Spinach · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 5-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 6-10 ft
Method: Either: Start indoors for an earlier harvest, or direct-sow outside for less fuss. Either works.
When to plant Malabar spinach, by zone
Every zone Malabar spinach grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5a & 5b | Mar 29–Apr 5 | May 17–May 24 | Jul 26–Aug 2 |
| 6a & 6b | Mar 14–Mar 21 | May 2–May 9 | Jul 11–Jul 18 |
| 7a & 7b | Feb 27–Mar 6 | Apr 17–Apr 24 | Jun 26–Jul 3 |
| 8a & 8b | Feb 11–Feb 18 | Apr 1–Apr 8 | Jun 10–Jun 17 |
| 9a & 9b | Jan 4–Jan 11 | Feb 22–Mar 1 | May 3–May 10 |
| 10a & 10b | Dec 19–Dec 26 | Feb 6–Feb 13 | Apr 17–Apr 24 |
| 11a & 11b | Nov 20–Nov 27 | Jan 8–Jan 15 | Mar 19–Mar 26 |
Harvest dates are about 70 days after the sow or plant-out date, not after starting seeds indoors.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Malabar Spinach plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 2 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 6-10 ft.
Varieties worth considering
- Red Malabar spinach (Basella rubra): Johnny's Selected Seeds sells this red-stemmed form as its main Malabar spinach offering; the growing requirements are the same as the plain green form, so this is what most gardeners plant. (source) Buy seeds: True Leaf Market · Burpee
Why each variety is listed comes from the source shown next to it. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement. The buy links are separate from those sources: they go to seed suppliers that sell that exact variety, and we may earn a commission on some of them.
Where to buy Malabar spinach seeds
The varieties we recommend above each have their own buy links, for the suppliers that sell that exact variety.
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing Malabar spinach" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Malabar Spinach: A heat-loving vining green, not a true spinach, with a mild flavor and a texture that holds up better than actual spinach once summer gets hot.
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