Can you help me with this problem? I have been fighting it for 4 years. I sprayed with neem, treated the soil with hydrogen peroxide, and treated the seeds with hydrogen peroxide. I grow it in a 20 gal pot. I do not water the leaves. It does get rained on periodically. the humidity here isn't bad so far this year. I'm just including that because I thought maybe it was high humidity. We are in a dry time so far this year and it is already May 31. I'm at a loss . Can I eat it if I cut the circles out?

It looks like your Malabar spinach has Cercospora leaf spot disease. It's common on beets and chard too.

https://ag.umass.edu/vegetable...

Thank you I am going to try some seeds in another pot. I will treat this batch just to see if I can get rid of it.

This disease isn't coming from infected seeds, it is airborne, and probably on the surface of your soil, or on other plants in your garden. You need to spray something on the leaves to prevent it.

I'm using a biologic fungicide called Actinovate. I've used it for years on my orchids, but it is an organic-approved solution for this type of disease on edibles, too. I get it off amazon. I'm in Sarasota, too, my Malabar spinach so far is completely clean and I haven't had to spray it yet. But yes, the leaves are fine to eat if you just remove the spotted parts.

Thank you so much for the information. The new plant I have in another spot on my patio has no dots on it so I am sure it is in the soil or the seed. I took a batch of seed and soaked in hydrogen peroxide to see if that will make a disease free seed . I will plant and see . If not may I ask for a few new seeds from a heathy Malabar to plant. this is my email if you chose to contact me . I will pay postage.

Rose, it's not a good idea to give out your e-mail address on a public forum like this. Please go back and edit it. I have written it down, but you may get all sorts of spam from doing this. Use the private message feature "Tree mail" (the little blue envelope icon, upper right) on this site for private communications.

The disease is absolutely not in the seeds, it is an airborne fungal infection. "The spores easily move through wind and free moisture" i.e. humidity helps it spread. You need to remove all the leaves that have it from your garden to get rid of the airborne spores from it. The new plants will be infected if it floats around to them at some point. I'll be glad to supply you with some seeds from my plants, but that's not going to help if you still have diseased plants in your garden.

I will do that and start over . Thank you so much.

I pulled my malabar up and planted seeds in new pots with new dirt. They are foing beautifully so far . The vines are at least 10 feet and no spots Simple solution found. thanks all.