Have you tried - or heard of - malibar?

Shufigo

Active Member
I have a friend who has malibar - a semi tropic spinach substitute - that the deer eat to the ground every year. He has volunteered to plant some new shoots in my main food plot when they emerge. Supposedly it is constantly regenerating and grows up as a vine and forms a mat when the deer cannot reach it. Does anyone have any information on it?
 
I grow Malabar spinach, which is not spinach at all, at my home. I eat it like you would spinach. It's from India and loves hot dry weather. It also germinates very late in the season making competition a real issue. I've tried tossing some seeds in my food plot, even tried fencing an area, but it doesn't seem to like competition much. If you can get it started it grows very rapidly. I would definitely cage them. Mine is on a trellis just off my deck and reaches the eves of the house withing a few weeks.
 
Jeff,, thanks so much for the reply. I'm guessing establishment won't be a problem if he's bringing me viable plants. And, yes, the area is limed, fertilized and fenced. I'd be planting it right next to the fence (to be a trellis) on the inside. No competition planned but I may add some vegetables once it's growing on its own. How do you harvest to eat? Just the leaves like spinach?
 
Jeff,, thanks so much for the reply. I'm guessing establishment won't be a problem if he's bringing me viable plants. And, yes, the area is limed, fertilized and fenced. I'd be planting it right next to the fence (to be a trellis) on the inside. No competition planned but I may add some vegetables once it's growing on its own. How do you harvest to eat? Just the leaves like spinach?
Yes, I eat the leaves just like I would spinach. Usually in a salad. When the berries set in late summer the leaves turn bitter.
 
So basically edible kudzu?
That's what I got out of my internet search. Seems chancy to me and I'll pass on this one. Full disclosure... I fight too many invasives so I'm pretty sensitive to introducing another. I may be somewhat over cautious.

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That's what I got out of my internet search. Seems chancy to me and I'll pass on this one. Full disclosure... I fight too many invasives so I'm pretty sensitive to introducing another. I may be somewhat over cautious.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

I have kudzu in spots...
You are not being over cautious
 
That's what I got out of my internet search. Seems chancy to me and I'll pass on this one. Full disclosure... I fight too many invasives so I'm pretty sensitive to introducing another. I may be somewhat over cautious.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
We fight invasives because those before us weren’t cautious...
 
Any invasive properties?
None that I am aware of. I've had it growing in the same small spot each year just off my deck. It hasn't popped up anywhere else. As hard as it is to get started and it's intolerance of competition I cannot imagine it would be invasive.
 
None that I am aware of. I've had it growing in the same small spot each year just off my deck. It hasn't popped up anywhere else. As hard as it is to get started and it's intolerance of competition I cannot imagine it would be invasive.
Thanks for the reply. Just curious what part of the country you are in? Plants behave differently in different zones...

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