Growing Spinach: Right and wrong ways and little pointers to help you along

Vegetable Gardening Home

GROWING SPINACH

Remember what it did to Popeye? Even kids will love spinach when you let them see a couple of cartoons featuring Popeye first.

The Latin name for spinach is Spinacia oleracea and it is a cold climate loving plant that will not do well at all in the warmer climates.

There are many varieties of spinach, but most of them belong to either the Smooth Leaf category or the Savoy category which features crinkled leaves that are thicker and darker than the Smooth Leaf.

Best soil for growing spinach:

The soil in which you locate your spinach patch must be in a well draining soil. Spinach grows best when planted in a well-fertilized loam that has a high pH factor.

Loosen the soil to a depth of about 10 inches. Fertilize and add a few inches of soil. Keep in mind that the plants do best in a high nitrogen atmosphere. You may start the spinach seeds indoors, but they will be ready to transplant in about 2 to 3 weeks.

Most people plant their seedlings about 1 to 1 1/2 feet apart, and once those begin to grow well, it’s common to reseed the area so that there are younger and older plants to cultivate later.

The plants will continue to grow well into fall in this way. When the plant produces flowers and seeds, it’s referred to as the plant “bolting.” Unless you wish to have seeds for planting the next year, it’s time to harvest those plants.

In extremely hot days, the plants do best when shaded and watered well, because again it’s not very good at weathering extreme heat. 55 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit, is the preferred soil temperature for spinach.

Water only in the mornings to discourage mold, wilt and a number of other fungi, as well as mildew and slugs.

If there are wild rabbits in your area, they will raid your growing spinach patch regularly. Rabbits are extremely resourceful and will unfortunately find a way into any patch unless protected by a rabbit fence.

Leaf miners will also eat spinach, thus if you should find any via looking at the leaves and seeing their pale tunnels, you may pinch them off and remove the affected leaves.

Slugs, on the other hand, may be killed by leaving beer-baited traps, and for some reason they just love beer!

Once you are happy with the sizes of the leaves of the growing spinach plant, it’s time to begin harvesting the outer leaves by pinching them off. Leave the center, which is called a “rosette,” to encourage new growth.

When the plant produces flowers and seeds, it’s referred to as the plant “bolting.” Unless you wish to have seeds for planting the next year, it’s time to harvest those plants completely when they develop a large central stem.

Frost is the spinach’s best friend, as a frost will allow the growing spinach to produce sugar, which is considered nature’s antifreeze, but the sweetness of the spinach heightens the taste of it and therefore you’ll do well to raid your own crop immediately following a frost.

The spinach will be at the peak of its good flavor then, so you may wish to blanch it and freeze it for use during winter.

Spinach Powder Cert. Organic (Spinacia oleracea) 1 lb: C This is Starwest's nitrogen-flushed double wall silverfoil pack. Spinach Flakes or Powder can be substituted for fresh spinach in most recipes, and can be used as a delicious, nutritious additive to soups, stews, pies and quick recipes.