Vegetable · Aizoaceae
New Zealand Spinach
Tetragonia tetragonioides
Set this heat-loving summer green at the garden's edge and gather tender leaves long after true spinach has bolted.
Full sun
Every 4–7 days
50–86°F · 10–30°C
50–70 days
Overview
As the summer heat retires true spinach for the season, New Zealand spinach steps forward to fill the gap in the kitchen garden. It isn't a spinach at all, but an easy, sprawling member of the fig-marigold family from the coasts of New Zealand and Australia, where it grows wild on dunes and shingle. Cooked, the thick, soft leaves offer the familiar comfort of spinach for the summer table.
In the bed it works as a living groundcover, spreading low and wide into a green mat a few feet across rather than rising into the scene. It settles happily into the hot, dry, sun-baked corner where more delicate greens sulk, and it takes the salty, alkaline soil of a coastal plot in its stride. Pinch the tender growing tips as part of the daily garden round and it keeps offering fresh shoots, tying the plot to the kitchen right up to the first fall frost.
One note shapes how it fits into the routine: the raw leaves hold oxalates and saponins, so this is a green for the pot rather than the salad bowl in quantity. A brief blanch in boiling water and a pour-off of that water make it good eating, a small ritual that rewards the cook with a crop that keeps producing when the rest of the bed has faded.
Care
The short version: give it a full-sun, warm spot with steady water through summer for the finest leaves. Feed it monthly with a nitrogen-rich fertilizer, allow it plenty of room to spread, and keep gathering the tips so new growth follows.
Light
Give it a full-sun spot for the fullest, most flavorful leaves, though it will accept partial shade and keep producing where the bed is part shaded. The more light the corner catches, the more tips there are to gather.
Water
Once settled it takes heat and drought in its stride, yet the leaves eat best and stay tender with steady, even moisture through summer. Water every 4 to 7 days, easing toward the shorter interval in a heat wave or in light, sandy ground.
Soil
Plant it in well-drained sandy loam enriched with plenty of organic matter. A pH of 6.5 to 7.5 suits it, and unlike most greens it makes peace with alkaline and even salty soil along the coast.
Temperature
This is a warmth seeker, at home from about 50°F to 86°F (10°C to 30°C) and at its best in the heart of high summer. Frost brings it down, so wait for warm soil before setting it out.
Humidity
Ordinary garden air around 40% to 70% is all it asks, and it stays relaxed across that range. There is no figure here to fuss over.
Feeding
Keep it fed for the lush, leafy look, since a hungry plant pales and bolts early. A nitrogen-rich fertilizer each month through the season, roughly 1/4 cup of N per 10 feet of row, sustains the growth and helps stave off premature flowering.
Pruning
Here pruning and harvest are the same graceful task. Cut or pinch the top 4 inches of the growing tips often, and the plant answers with tender new shoots and stays productive rather than running to seed.
Size & spacing
The plants stay low at 12 to 24 inches (30 to 60 cm) tall while spreading into a mat 3 to 4 feet (90 to 120 cm) across. Set them about a foot apart within the row and leave roughly 3 feet between rows so the trailing stems have room to roam.
When to plant
New Zealand spinach keeps to the warm-season calendar and has no patience for frost. Start transplants indoors a few weeks ahead, move them into the garden once the cold has passed and the soil has warmed, then gather young leaves and tips through the height of summer until the first fall frost closes the season.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Sow: Start transplants indoors 3-4 weeks before the last spring frost
- Plant: After the last frost when soil is warm; soak the hard seed in water ~24 hours before sowing and plant about 1 in deep
- Harvest: Harvest young leaves and growing tips continually through summer heat until the first fall frost
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 9–11
Temperature: down to -7°C
Troubleshooting
This is an unfussy, good-tempered plant, and most of what troubles it is either surface-level or a matter of appetite. Knowing the few signs below lets you tell the genuine problems from the ones the plant will quietly grow past.
Leaves fading to a pale yellow as new growth stalls
A faded, tired look to the foliage, along with slow regrowth after cutting, tends to trace back to nitrogen deficiency, and an underfed plant is quicker to bolt and flower. A side-dressing of nitrogen fertilizer, about 1/4 cup of N per 10 feet of row each month, restores the deep color that makes the bed look its best, with the soil kept evenly moist in between. That steady monthly feed keeps both the color and the harvest going all season.
Fix:
- Side-dress with a nitrogen fertilizer
- Apply about 1/4 cup N per 10 ft of row monthly
- Keep soil evenly moist between feedings
Foliage peppered with small circular holes
A scatter of little punched holes across the young foliage usually signals chewing beetles, most often flea beetles that hop onto the tender leaves. It reads as more of a blemish than a real setback, and a strong, well-fed plant carries on and covers it. Lay a floating row cover over the seedlings early in the season, and reserve hand-picking or treatment for the point where the holes start to outpace the fresh growth.
Fix:
- Tolerate minor cosmetic damage; vigorous plants outgrow it
- Use floating row cover over young plants
- Hand-pick or treat only if damage becomes heavy
Stems sprawl and flop across the ground
The low, wandering spread is part of the plant's charm rather than a flaw to correct. It keeps a naturally trailing, weak-stemmed habit and settles into a low carpet 2 to 3 feet wide instead of holding itself upright, and tight quarters only exaggerate the effect. Give each plant 12 inches within the row and 3 feet between rows, let the stems roam across open ground where they look their best, and pinch the tips to encourage a fuller, bushier form.
Fix:
- Allow 12 in within rows and 3 ft between rows
- Let stems trail into open ground or train through other vegetation
- Harvest tips to promote bushier branching
Toxicity
This is food rather than poison, with one gentle qualification. The leaves hold natural oxalates and saponins, which is why they are cooked rather than eaten raw in quantity, and the same compounds make the raw greens a mild caution for pets and livestock about the plot. Cooking the leaves for the table and keeping large raw helpings away from animals keeps the whole household at ease.
Toxic to
Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Safe for
People
Cats Mild
A passing nibble from a garden cat rarely comes to anything. Only when one eats a good deal of the raw, oxalate-rich leaves might it drool or turn a little queasy, and the plant isn't a listed ASPCA toxin.
Dogs Mild
A dog that helps itself to a big serving of raw leaves may pick up a mild stomach upset from the oxalic acid and saponins. The odd small taste in passing tends to come to nothing.
Horses Mild
The soluble oxalates make the raw greens a poor idea in quantity for horses, since a steady high-oxalate diet can interfere with how they take up calcium. An occasional mouthful is unlikely to trouble a healthy animal.
Rabbits Mild
Portions are best kept small. The oxalate load means the raw leaves shouldn't anchor a rabbit's diet, though a little alongside other greens is generally tolerated.
Livestock Mild
Grazing animals can take some in stride, but the oxalic acid mounts up when they feed on large amounts day after day. It suits a varied diet rather than a role as the main forage.
Birds Mild
Backyard hens and other birds peck at the foliage happily enough, though the raw leaves are best offered sparingly on account of the oxalates.
People Edible when cooked
At the table this is a green for people, safe and appealing once cooked. Blanch the leaves for 1 to 3 minutes and pour off the water to soften the oxalates and saponins, and keep raw amounts light if you are prone to kidney stones.
Blanch leaves in boiling water about 1-3 minutes and discard that water before eating to reduce oxalate and saponin levels; avoid eating large amounts raw, particularly for people prone to kidney stones.
Helpline numbers
United States
ASPCA Animal Poison Control: (888) 426-4435 (fee applies)
Poison Control: (800) 222-1222
Canada
Poison Centres: 1-844-764-7669
Varieties
The choice here is a slim one, since New Zealand spinach almost always arrives as the plain species. A name or two still appears in the seed catalogs for those who go looking.
Maori
This named selection surfaces in extension references, though nearly all New Zealand spinach reaches the garden as the plain, unimproved species.
Common (species type)
The wild-type species is the form most gardeners plant, since named cultivars of this green are few and far between.
How to propagate
Bringing New Zealand spinach into the garden is a simple affair, and it starts with seed. The one detail worth knowing is how to encourage the hard seed to sprout on schedule.
SeedEasy
After the last frost when soil is warm, or start indoors 3-4 weeks before the last frost · About 1-3 weeks to germinate (faster if seed is pre-soaked); roughly 50-70 days to first harvest
This green is raised from seed, and the one preparation worth making is soaking the hard, knobby fruit in water for about 24 hours before sowing. Set it roughly an inch deep and thin the seedlings to a foot apart. Germination arrives in 1 to 3 weeks, sooner from pre-soaked seed, and the first harvest of leaves and tips follows in about 50 to 70 days.
Myths
New Zealand spinach is simply real spinach under another name.
The name flatters the resemblance, but the plant belongs to the fig-marigold family (Aizoaceae) and claims no kinship with true spinach. Its real place in the garden is as a heat-tolerant summer substitute, carrying on through the warmth that sends true spinach to bolt.
The greens belong in the salad bowl, raw and unrestricted.
With oxalates and saponins in the leaves, this is not a green for the salad bowl in any quantity. Blanch them for 1 to 3 minutes and pour off the water before serving, and keep raw portions modest.
Like winter spinach, it carries on through frosty mornings.
This is a tender warm-season crop, and a frost will kill it outright. Wait to sow or transplant until the last frost has passed and the soil has warmed.