New Zealand Spinach Plant – 1 Small Plant

Sold as a single small New Zealand Spinach Plant. Tetragonia tetragonioides is a leafy groundcover also known as New Zealand spinach, Warrigal greens, kōkihi (Māori language), sea spinach, Botany Bay spinach, tetragon and Cook’s cabbage. It is native to New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Chile and Argentina.

New Zealand spinach is a perennial vegetable. It is a low-growing, weak-stemmed leafy plant that can spread several feet wide and grow to one foot tall. It has succulent, triangular- to oval-shaped leaves that are pale to dark green and grow from 2 to 4 inches long. The leaves of New Zealand spinach are smaller and fuzzier than those of regular spinach. New Zealand spinach has small yellow flowers and conical capsules.

New Zealand Spinach Culinary Uses

• It is grown for the edible leaves, and can be used as food or as an ornamental and delicious ground cover.
• As some of its names signify, it has similar flavour and texture properties to spinach, and is cooked like spinach.
• Like spinach, it contains small amounts of oxalates; its medium to low levels of oxalates need to be removed by blanching the leaves in hot water for one minute, then rinsing in cold water before cooking.

Growing New Zealand Spinach

• Plant New Zealand spinach in full sun as it loves hot weather, but where summer heat is very intense, it’s best to plant New Zealand spinach where it will get some partial shade in the afternoon.
• New Zealand spinach prefers moisture-retentive, well-drained soil rich in organic matter.
• The pant is weak-stemmed and will appear to trail across the garden.
• Can be successfully grown in containers, if you do not want it to trail across the garden.
• New Zealand spinach prefers a soil pH of 6.8 to 7.0.
• Prepare planting beds with well-aged compost.
• New Zealand spinach is not frost hardy like true spinach, so plant the New Zealand spinach plant in the warm part of the year when regular spinach will not grow.
• The plant is drought tolerant but the leaves will not be as tender, so do water the plant regularly.
• Mulch to retain soil moisture.
• Few insects will bother it, not even slugs and snails.
• This is a perfect spinach type of plant, to grow in South Africa’s hot weather.
• New Zealand spinach requires 55 to 65 days to reach harvest.