When may be the right time to sow Malabar Spinach and Culantro?

14 years ago

Can someone who planted malabar spinach and culantro let me know when do they usually sprout for you and at what temperature were they sown with success?

I asked this question in another forum by mistake since these two probably would get more interests in the Asian Vegetables Forum. I got some help at the other forum but would appreciate more information before I use up all my seeds from the packages for testing. Here's the abstract of my question:

This year I got almost 100% germination on all the seeds I started with the wet towel method, except for Malabar Spinach (red vine) and Culantro (Eryngo). So far, zero germination after almost one month. The seeds were all in the frig for a few weeks, then went into the wet towel. The wel towel with seeds were then placed in sandwich boxes with clear lid, on top of the furnance which maintains about 70F.

For half of the malabar seeds, I also tried scratching their hard shells. Neither the original seeds nor the scratched ones germinated. I tried both light (green house window) and no light (furnace room) and no luck.

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Any help is appreciated!

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Comments (10)

denninmi
14 years ago
I haven't ever tried Culantro, I do know what it is, though. I just grow regular cilantro.

Malabar spinach is a heat lover -- soil temps should be in the low 70's for good germination. I'd use a heat mat if possible.

Don't put it outside until nights are reasonably warm (over 60 if possible) and no danger of frost (probably not applicable to you in California, but a big issue here).
bluebirdie
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for your advice!

One of the Malabar seeds finally sprouted today. You're right on temperature. My environment was probably too low (70F) so it took so long.

Frost is definitely an issue here this year (and last night). Good warning. I will pot it indoor and wait for a month before moving out.

No sign for Culantro. I'll wait.
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I'm south Asian and my mom has been growing Malabar spinach for the last 15 years, she lives in NJ. I also grow them and I live in NYC. Just germinate them indoors and wait till warm weather to put them outside. I usually pot my spinach and throughout the whole summer cut them and cook them. My mom plants them directly in the ground after germinating them. We don't eat this spinach raw it has a very distinct strong taste raw.
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daninthedirt, There is not a lot of info out there about wintersowing them, and you may be right about the seeds possibly not surviving freezing temps --- although, often seeds will come through a winter just fine even though the parent plants would certainly not be able to; witness the hundreds of volunteer tomato seedlings that pop up in my garden every spring. So I will be experimenting. I'll put a couple of milk jugs out at the beginning of the winter, and then again in early spring, maybe April-ish or so, and see what comes up. And then we'll know. What's great about wintersowing of course is that whatever the seed needs: stratifying, scarifying, soaking, or whatever, it's going to get it. And the fact that you had such difficulty getting it to germinate, but then all those volunteers came up makes it seem all the more likely that that's the direction to go. Dave, I just bought a couple of packs of seed online. The s&h per pack was as much as the packs were themselves, and I ended up paying $10 for 2 packs of seeds. That's a lot! So in general I feel that if the seed is available at my local vendors I'll happily buy it, but if I have to pay twice as much to have it shipped, I'd rather not.
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bluebirdie
Original Author
14 years ago
This morning when I checked the box, all culantro seeds in the towel germinated overnight. So far 100% of culantro seeds from evergreenseeds germinated. One malabar seed germinated out of 20 so there's still hope.

I guess maybe both culantro and malabar prefer a little higher temperature than 70F so they took longer to sprout.
merrybookwyrm
13 years ago
I've only sprouted malabar spinach seeds once. The malabar spinach seed took 4 days to 5 weeks to sprout. They were in barely damp potting seed mix in pots in a house 75F to 78F. Think they really do like the heat to germinate. All but one of the seeds came up before a week's time. That last one took five weeks in the 70F to 89F outside, and I had given it up. :-)
bluebirdie
Original Author
13 years ago
Yes you're right. Malabar really needs it warm. Even after they're sprouted, they're not taking off because our weather has been 50-70s. I'm wondering why our local farmers' market farms have beautiful Malabar, and how were they able to grow them given the farming area are only 1-2 hours away.
tubby51
13 years ago
Hi,
I'm a new member and I live in Oxfordshire, England. I have been growing Malabar Spinach (Basella Alba)the green stemmed version for about 20 years.
In early April, I soak seeds overnight in lukewarm water, then sow them in a seed compost and put it into a heated propagator (70F). They'll take from 3 weeks to sometime in Summer! I prick out those that have germinated, but still keep the pot of seeds in the propagator until mid-May, more might germinate. I then pot them on into a 4' long by 10" tall tub and grow them on in an unheated greenhouse until mid-June. After that the tub goes on the patio through the summer.
When the day length gets shorter, I pot a plant up and bring it into the house (mid Sep?) and I collect seeds from that plant in Spring the next year and so on..
bluebirdie
Original Author
13 years ago
Hi tubby51, Thanks for the details. It's taking forever here in California for me to germinate Malabar seeds too. I'm wondering for your potted Malabar, did it die off over winter? Or will they survive indoors so you can replant next spring (it's much faster that way)?
guavalane
13 years ago
Here in Los Angeles we are having a milder than normal summer, with the highs only in the 80s. I just planted mine this morning, without knowing how difficult they can be. There were 20 year old seeds and went into the ground directly. I'll post the progress, if there is any.
sapota
13 years ago
Did you really mean 20year old seeds?
guavalane
13 years ago
Bluebirdie, how is your malabar spinach?

Sapota,yes, I'm lucky that 20 year old seeds sown on Aug 6 had almost 90% germination rate..

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I think I'll cut them tomorrow to encourage side shoots. Any suggestions?

When may be the right time to sow Malabar Spinach and Culantro?

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When may be the right time to sow Malabar Spinach and Culantro?

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denninmi

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