On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 17:55 +0000 (GMT), (Steve
Harris) wrote:

Anyone grow this? The description in the Chiltern Seeds catalogue makes
it sound tremendous but that's true of a lot of their seeds :-)

Also known as tree spinach. I grew some this year, from seed
purchased on a whim (as one does) from a stall at a garden show. It
went up to about 5 feet as advertised. Quite attractive with its very
colourful foliage but may not have thrived as well in the pot that I
grew it in as it would have in a bed. I never got round to eating any
this year and it is still sitting in the yard, recently gone to seed -
I must go out and see if there is any left to collect so that I can
give it a better go next year. The problem with growing spinach-like
leaves is that there is a critical mass below which it isn't worth
bothering to harvest and cook them. Although you could probably
continue to harvest new leaves from these plants throughout the season
(it went for a long time before going to seed), I don't think a single
magentaspreen will ever yield enough for a family meal unless you cut
the whole plant. You can apparently also eat them as a salad leaf,
which might be a more practical use for a single plant, but we didn't
do that either.
--
Stuart Baldwin
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