Lesson 6.27.0 KANG KONG - Ipomoea aquatica

FOOD FOREST COURSE

AGRO-ECONOMY

Lesson 6.27.0 KANG KONG - Ipomoea aquatica

 

Kang Kong or water spinach is also a valuable addition to the Permaculture Garden and can be easily grown in the frog ponds that grace the food forest garden.  A Permaculture friend has had an abundance of Kang Kong growing in merely a wet soil area for years now, so it doesn’t necessarily need a pond to grow in but it does need the moist conditions to thrive.  Kang Kong is also referred to as swamp cabbage, but the name isn’t appropriate for such a slender and fine tasting green.

 All around Southeast Asia, Kang Kong is grown as a spinach; and it is a very popular source of greens in the Philippines.  The taste is mild and is excellent for using in a quiche.  Spinach such as silver beet has a high oxalic acid content and consequently, I avoid growing it, as when I eat even a small amount it seems to turn my mouth inside out.  I find that Kang Kong is lovely and mild to eat in any quantity.  When harvesting the leaves, just to pick the trailing vines from the garden. I then hold them over the kitchen sink and cut off the individual leaves with a pair of scissors.  The stalks take too long to cook otherwise.

Kang Kong is a relative of the sweet potato and their leaves have a similar texture when cooked but the taste is quite different.  However, both leaves make for delicious cooked greens.

Kang Kong can be propagated by seed; cuttings or root divisions and it can happily grow either in water or in very damp ground.  Once Kang Kong is established in the ground or in the pond, it will come back year after year as it re grows from the original plants or by self-seeding.  Kang Kong makes an annual reappearance when the night temperatures warm up and flowers will appear on the vines to mark the end of the growing season.  Kang Kong has the same morning glory type of flower as the sweet potato.

During the growing season it is best to harvest the vines often to stimulate extra lush new growth so adding lots of organic fertiliser will be of benefit to the plants.

 

Kang Kong unfortunately is prone to grass hopper attack occasionally but that is why we should have various sources of greens available at all times to make sure we always have something to tuck into! Text from the roots, Elisabeth Ferkonia (Aus.) PDC studied with Bill Mollison.

   

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