Hi everyone Ive just bought one each of these plants & havent got any growing instructions.
Have looked online but all abit vague.
Was wondering if anyone here has grown them & if it is best to use containers for them etc?
Thanks for any help
red veined sorrel has seeded itself in my strawberry patch. Looks like a dock plant, leaves look OK but don't taste of anything nice, and definitely not like sorrel. Disappointing
When the red veined starts to look tall like a dock with spikey leaves it's running to seed - I think that's why yours doesn't taste nice. Mine tasted sorrelly, but I think it's a cool, spring grower not so good at this time of year.
My red perilla never germinates so I don't know much about that.
i couldn't detect any taste at any time really.
It is a perennial, so you only have to sow it the once though
Yes, it's a perennial, but they do say it's best to sow annually and eat the leaves small. I do know what you mean, when they're large they're not pleasant. The small leaves from spring sowings definitely taste pleasant and lemony (to me).
The perilla would be fine in the ground, sunny is best but some shade should be ok. If it's too shady it will lose the red colour. I would give it about a foot of space.
If you are growing it for the leaves, pinch out the top after four or five sets of leaves. All parts are edible although the flavour is not nearly as good as the green type.
Red-veined sorrel is really easy to grow, I sowed a short row three years ago and it is still going strong. I keep it well cut back and eat the young small leaves, it's not terribly nice but at least there's always something fresh.
For me the taste is too strong, bitter even. But we are all different ;)
Hi everyone, thanks for all your replies. Ive tasted the small leaves on the red sorrel plant I bought & actually really like it, thought it would liven up salads.
Thanks schw for the info on growing the perilla, its already at the stage where I need to pinch off the top so Im really grateful you took the time to give me this info
I love my patch of red sorrel and it makes a lot of sorrel sauce throughout the year (rarely eat it raw), and I think it looks pretty as well, it will grow almost anywhere so you can find a difficult spot for it - never been able to get get red perilla germinated for some strange reason but red orach, that's another thing, if you like the 'reds' then may I suggest you try that as well :)
well I have managed to germinate the Perilla (unlike last year) and was wondering what to do next so thanks!
1066 :)
Quote from: small on June 13, 2010, 21:51:48
Red-veined sorrel is really easy to grow, I sowed a short row three years ago and it is still going strong. I keep it well cut back and eat the young small leaves, it's not terribly nice but at least there's always something fresh.
French or Buckler leaf sorrel has the best flavour IMHO but it dies back completely in the Winter, survived through last one though..
I don't fine the red as nice... :-X
I'll second the comment about Red Orach. One plant left to seed has produced enough seedlings for half our allotment site!
It's very decorative and tasty too - sort of salty taste, great in a mixed salad
I have grown both re and green what is it you need to know.XX Jeannine
I tried growing perilla once and it was utterly tasteless - like eating damp cigarette paper.
On the other hand some friends in Crete grew some that had an interesting taste somewhere between lettuce and parsley.
I don't know whether it was a different kind (there are different kinds - not just colour) or the climate that made the difference.
Incidentally, orache is even more tasteless than bad perilla - and it is a terrible weed that seems to be able to seed at almost any size.
Cheers
The only time I saw it the plants had taken over an entire plot
Quote from: Vinlander on June 18, 2010, 00:24:18
IIncidentally, orache is even more tasteless than bad perilla
I have to stop you right there :D
This is my third year of growing Magenta Magic; the first two years I would have agreed with you, although I wouldn't say it is bland, more it has a slightly soapy taste, though it'll do in a crisis.
But this year I sowed massive quantities of seed in a square metre in very early spring on very rich soil and cropped it at the first rosette stage, pre secondary branches, steaming it like spinach and I was bowled over with the flavour - a very intense spinach type taste but with extra saltiness.
We love spinach here, but the demands were all for this and not that which I had also grown in abundance.
I believe it is partly the early sowing, it seems to be best as a cool weather crop plus the rich earth but most of all and this is something I distinctly noticed as soon as it starts to make secondary branches the soapy taste arrives.
I think like a lot of these less common vegetables we don't know how to crop it or eat it - if you grow it tall and pick leaves it's not pleasant, but adequate. Crop the rosettes which are quite sizeable and beefy and don't reduce nearly as much as spinach (in this strain anyhow) and it's a different story altogether.
p.s. it's a useful 'weed' during the hungry gap you can get a decent meal from around the plot and it's only shallow rooted so by no means annoying and it's absolutely beautiful the way it glows from my plot in early spring.
Cheers
thanks for the extra info Earlypea - I think mine might have been planted too late for this year, but I'll try again next ......
1066 :)
Quote from: 1066 on June 21, 2010, 07:55:47
thanks for the extra info Earlypea - I think mine might have been planted too late for this year, but I'll try again next ......
1066 :)
1066 - I don't know whether you have the magenta magic one, but it's volunteers pop up so incredibly early, quite unlike the instructions on realseeds website and seed packets. Last year late Feb, even this year very early March, just when the brassicas start to rise so it makes it very useful. As soon as I see a couple pop up, I sow.
thanks again, I don't think I'd realised how hardy it was, so again useful to know it can be sown in a "hungry gap"
1066 :)
Quote from: earlypea on June 18, 2010, 07:41:45
I think like a lot of these less common vegetables we don't know how to crop it or eat it - if you grow it tall and pick leaves it's not pleasant, but adequate. Crop the rosettes which are quite sizeable and beefy and don't reduce nearly as much as spinach (in this strain anyhow) and it's a different story altogether.
How right you are with your first phrase!
'Course some of my favourite discoveries about common ones are pretty odd - like the only way I like chard stems is raw chopped finely crosswise in coleslaw - though when the water is off down the allotment it can be a useful salty drink (if you chew them and spit the strings out).
Weird eh?
Cheers.