Also known as German mountain spinach or Saltbush , it’s an annual cool season herb that tolerates warm weather well. Unlike spinach, these will not bolt easily in our climate.
They came in variety of colors, red, magenta, yellow, copper or golden and can be eaten fresh in salads (goes well with sorrel) or cooked.
Mature plants are tall, standing at 4 to 6 feet in height (1 to 18 m) and 0.4 m wide, thus should not be grown in small pots if grown in soil.
Although drought hardy, they tasted better when well watered. These plants are not fussy, can be grown in full or partial shade.
They can be enjoyed fresh in salads or cooked.
GERMINATION NOTES
The seeds germinated overnight in very moist environment, following Kale’s method.
Sowed on June 7 2019 and germinated overnight. We attained 100% success with these seeds.
Growing this salad from seeds is an interesting experience. One cannot tell what color the seedlings will be until they germinated.
My green orach seem weaker than the red and failed to grow.
The seedlings grew very quickly. There was visible spurt in growth within 2 days.
I love the vibrancy of their hues. In texture and taste, they were similar to baby spinach without the pain of growing cool seasoned vegetables in tropical climate.
Definitely a house favorite salad choice from now.
Green / Yellow hue Orach
Seeds were sowed on July 23 2019 and they germinated overnight, on wet medium.
Leaves texture is soft and tasteful as salads as young as this plant.
OBSERVATION
Rooting from cutting of these plants did not work. Both cutting and parent plants died. It seem it is best to grow from seeds.
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