Growing Orach – What You Need to Know

Have you heard of orach? This awesome annual vegetable is relatively unknown, but it’s an easy replacement for spinach that can handle the heat, and it isn’t bothered by pests. Interested in growing orach in your garden? Keep reading to find out all about this fantastic vegetable.

Growing orach is really easy, and I’m surprised this vegetable isn’t more well-known. This post will cover what orach is and the reasons why you should grow it. It’ll also cover the basics of planting orach and how to add it to your garden.

By the end of this post, you’ll be ready to plant orach in your garden.

But don’t forget to grab your free, easy-to-print cheat-sheet that gives you the rundown on orach, plus a bonus list of other self-seeding vegetables that, along with orach, would make a great addition to any property or garden.

What is Orach? (And Why You Should Grow It)

Orach is an annual vegetable also known as mountain spinach. It lives up to its nickname. It tastes a lot like spinach, and it cooks up like spinach, too. But it’s much hardier and more resilient to heat than its celebrated counterpart, making it a lot easier to grow.

Orach grows straight and tall, with stalks towering up to 10 feet (3 meters)! But usually it only reaches about 4-6 feet (1.2-1.8 meters).

Native to Europe and Asia, orach was widely cultivated around the Mediterranean region until the spinach came onto the scene and became more popular.

I like spinach as much as the next person, but orach has some major advantages. It handles heat much better than spinach, and unlike spinach, it retains its flavor even after it bolts. You can keep harvesting orach all summer long. (After a while, the older, larger leaves do get a bit tough for raw eating. But they’re still great in soups, curries, pastas, and other cooked meals.)

Orach is sometimes described as having a slightly salty taste. (Some people notice it more than others—I’ve never noticed it.) But otherwise, it’s an excellent alternative to spinach.

I love the colors of orach. It comes in a variety of colors. Dark red is most common, but it also comes in green, yellowish green, and a mix of all 3 colors.

I really like the look of orach in the garden. It adds a great splash of color.

In my own garden in western Washington, slugs and pill bugs can be an issue. But I’ve found that orach is rarely ever bothered by these pests. This makes it a great “green” to grow if you have wet springs that result in slug issues.

Basics of Planting Orach

The best way to grow orach is from seed. In my own garden, orach seeds germinate very easily and quickly. Just follow the instructions on the seed packet, and you should be good to go.

The main thing you need to be careful about when growing orach is how big it gets. Orach doesn’t tend to fall over, since its central stem will get thick. It can easily shade out other vegetables, so make sure to plant it where its height won’t cause problems for your other plants.

Orach also self-seeds very easily, and it may come up the next year in areas you don’t expect. (Its seeds have a small, paper-like disk that helps them blow in the wind.)

I’ve found that a layer of mulch will easily suppress any volunteer orach. Though if you plan for it, like you would with other self-seeding vegetables you could plant orach once and then never have to replant it! Just let the volunteers do the work.

If orach comes up in an area you don’t want it, you can let it grow for a bit and then harvest the whole plant.

If you harvest it while it’s still young, the central stem won’t be tough yet, and you can eat it along with the leaves.

You can also collect seeds at the end of the summer and plant them in the spring, like normal. If you buy seeds from the store, the paper like disk will be removed from the seeds. But I haven’t noticed this disk hindering germination, so don’t worry about removing it from the seeds you collect.

Harvesting and Using Orach

Harvesting orach is very simple. Just wait for the plant to get about 6 inches tall, and then you can start harvesting the leaves. Move from plant to plant so you don’t take off too many leaves from any one plant.

Your orach will continue to grow, and soon they’ll have dozens of large, colorful leaves coming off the central stem. New leaves will grow as you harvest the old ones.

As with any vegetable, it’s best to harvest in the morning or evening, and not in the heat of the day.

You can throw orach leaves in a salad to add a nice splash of color, or you can cook with them. Orach can be used for any recipe that calls for spinach, and it also works as an alternative to other greens like chard.

Get started With Orach

So, are you ready to start growing orach in your garden? Orach is an excellent, time-honored vegetable that would make a great addition to any property.

Orach stands up to pests, handles the heat, and produces a bountiful harvest. When you grow low-maintenance vegetables like this, you’re not only saving yourself time and energy—you’re making your property more resilient by working with nature.

Plus, since it’s a self-seeding vegetable, once you start growing orach, you’ll be set for years to come.

Have you grown orach? Let me know in the comments below!