Best fake spinach for FL summer

[kapps]

Longevity spinach will handle full sun like a champ while Okinawan spinach likes it a little bit more shaded. These will take over an area and crowd out most weeds. I have them planted under most of my fruit trees.

[Julie]

Unfortunately tatsoi doesn't grow here in the summer as far as I know.  Maybe it's possible to create a microclimate.

[Julie]

I'm going to try amaranth/callaloo this summer as well.

[turtle_hermit]

I am in zone 9b, tatsoi grows very well over the fall/winter along with kale, chard, cabbage, etc.
Callaloo grows great over the summer, but will spread aggressively if it goes to seed.

[Pan Dulce]

I just came across Talinum paniculatum, common names are Fame Flower, and Jewel of Opar. The leaves taste just like the baby spinach I buy at Publix. It’s native to South and North America.

[ericalynne]

Yes, I’ve been growing Tallium paniculatum, jewel of opar, for years. The leaves are much like spinach…a little thicker, but tender and sweet. Flowers are tiny, bright pink, born on terminal panicles. The seed capsules are small, round and hot red. The seeds are numerous and minute.

It is supposed to be perennial, but mine do not seem to come back. It self-seeds, but not in the bed they were growing in. They pop up everywhere else, however.

[countryboy1981]

Does anyone know if any of these varieties are low in anti-nutrients such as oxalate acid?

[TheVeggieProfessor]

As a vegan, I take great affront to the term "fake spinach"

Anyway we like the sissoo spinach, and our tree kale has been going off, though it isnt very spinach-y


I tried the bele but it was super slimy and pretty bitter. Will try again in a soup or something.

Can you please share what tree kale you are having success with? What is the heat and humidity like for you in the summer? Here we have high humidity and most tree kales are not very happy.

[MadFarm]

Kangkong water spinach has my vote for best taste

[Satya]

as long as you have taro (colocasia esculenta) they all can be cooked, it just varies by cook time. the bun-long Chinese taro is known here in hawaii as one of the most favorable with the shortest cook times. can be fully edible in 20 minutes of boiling. about two months ago i was desiring leaves. i went out to some of my plants and harvested a large pot full of leaves. we cooked them for 4 hours and it still had some slight itch. we cooked it another two hours the second day and still had some light itch. nothing horrible, but enough to notice. ive decided not to eat that one anymore. most of the small sized taro corms sold in stores/farmers markets here is the bun-long variety.
if youre up on your botany you can figure out what variety you have. but being on the mainland im not sure what other cultivars you have. we can narrow things down pretty quickly here in hawaii by assuming most are local varieties plus only a few commercial non-hawaiian cultivars. heres the best site ive found for information.
http://bentut.github.io/kupunakalo/index.php/kalo_varieties/detail/bun-long/index.html
id prefer to collect a specimen from a known cultivator and be sure about variety rather than messing around with unknown varieties. but ive yet to come across for sure known edible leaf varieties. ive found other taro relatives for short cook times, but for some reason taro is a hard one for me to find. even here in the apex of ancient taro cultivation

I also haven't had luck with cooking colocasia leaves - oxalates never broke down, however long I cooked it. When I was in India, I was taught a very cool recipe with chickpea dough wrapped in colocasia leaves and refried. They didn't have the slightest oxalic tingle. Maybe different species of colocasia? Unfortunately I have no way to check now, but the dish was delicious. Wanted to replicate here but no luck.

[Pan Dulce]

Here are some quick pics of the of my Talinum paniculatum in a 7 gallon pot. Just placed some white plastic under the pot to collect seeds. I purposely quit taking care of it back in late July to see what it could handle, I already have some other small plants to replace it if needed. It’s lost some color, but that’s due to being potted up in mostly yellow sand and no fertilizer since July. I’m planning to sprout a bunch of seeds and see how they taste in that form as well.