Water Spinach ( aka Kongxin Cai, Ipomoea aquatica, Kang Kong, Water Morning Glory)

Bought seeds from Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/812699754/water-chinese-convolvulus-morning-glory?ref=yr_purchases

Timeline (26 days to harvest):

- 7/1/20: planted seeds

- 7/3/20: first sprouts appeared!

- 7/8/20: pretty much all of the seeds had sprouted

- 7/11/20: starting to get first set of true leaves

- 7/21/20: germinated second set of water spinach

- 7/27/20: first harvest of water spinach!

- 8/14/20: second harvest of first batch, first harvest of second batch (18 days since last harvest)

- 9/6/20: third harvest (23 days since last harvest)

- 9/28/20: fourth harvest (22 days since last harvest)

- Since then we've had some weird cold 30s weather, and they've been a bit stagnant, but still alive and growing (as of 11/1/20)

2021:

- 3/14: sowed seeds after soaking

- 3/17: sowed second set of seeds after soaking

- 3/21: first set of seeds started germinating (we had some cold weather so may have delayed it)

- 3/24 ish second set of seeds started germinating

TOP LESSONS:

- Soak seeds for 24 hrs before planting for best results

- Plant them 1/4" into the soil. Videos I had watched showed them just sprinkling the seeds on the top - that's fine, but when I watered them, the seeds went everywhere so they weren't as neat.

- Plant more than you think you need! I had two buckets of these going (~30 seeds?) and it wasn't quite enough for a meal - they shrink a lot when you cook them (sautéed with garlic and chicken broth)

- Harvest by cutting above the node where the lowest leaves are - you'll get a lot of regrowth! I think I've already re-harvested them about 4+ times throughout the summer, which is great, and the regrow quickly (~3 weeks between harvests)

- Grows just fine throughout the hottest parts of summer; next year I'll start growing them way earlier (got the seeds late in the planting season)

This is a great veggie in my opinion - it grows quickly, can be harvested several times, and is RESISTANT to Texas heat! It also didn't have too many problems with pests really either (hopefully I don't jinx myself for next year).

Fun fact - it's know as "kongxin cai" in Chinese, which literally translates to "hollow vegetable" because the stems are hollow and the plant can float in aquatic environments!

Based on my research there was conflicting information on how much water it would need...but since it's called "water spinach" and partly an aquatic vegetable, I figured it would do best watering more liberally. That said, it still grew like a weed during the hottest parts of our triple digit summer.

I'll definitely need to devote a big part of my garden to this come spring! Bonus - one of my husband's favorite vegetables.

After soaking the seeds initially for 24 hrs, you could even see some of them had already started to sprout. Talk about instant gratification.