- Type:
- Annual
- USDA hardiness zones:
- -
Also known as Mountain Spinach, French Spinach and Giant Lambsquarters.
Orach is a spinach-like salad green often mistakenly thought of as a warm season plant but it actually is a cool season plant that is slow to bolt. Mild flavored leaves are harvested into the summer. Varieties with colored leaves make beautiful ornamental selections, but chose a planting location carefully as it can grow to 4 to 6 feet (1 to 2 m).
- Easy
Orach has the best flavor when grown in spring and fall but due to its heat tolerance you will still be harvesting it well into summer past when your spinach has bolted. Start your first crop 2 to 3 weeks before the last frost and stagger plantings after that until the weather gets too warm. Plant again in mid-summer for fall harvest. Sow seed just under ½ inch (1 cm ) deep 2 inches (5 cm) apart in rows 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 cm) apart. Keep plants closely spaced and when they get to 4 to 6 inches (10 - 15 cm) harvest by cutting leaves an inch (2.5 cm) or so above the soil as needed. Plants can be spaced at this height instead 6 to 18 inches (15 to 45 cm), collecting thinnings for eating. As the plants mature harvest the young, tender leaves and leave the more mature ones to feed the plant. Pinch out flowers before they develop to keep growth vegetative and increase lateral growth.
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