How to grow spinach in home garden
How to grow spinach in home garden (Soil, Types, Planting, Care, Harvest)@PlantFarmEat
Quick guide:
• You can direct seed spinach.
• Spinach is day length sensitive.
• Spinach can grow new leaves after the first harvest, especially if you harvest individual leaves at the "baby" stage, so multiple harvests are possible.
• You can cook spinach, as well as eat it raw.
Grow Spinach
• Spinach is a leafy green in the amaranth family, grown in many gardens.
• Spinach leaves can be eaten raw or cooked, including the “crown” of the plant, the area where all the leaves emerge at the soil.
• While spinach is always available in grocery stores and on restaurant menus, growing spinach can be very difficult for gardeners.
Soil
• Have your soil tested.
• Spinach will do best in soil with pH between 6.5 and 8. Apply phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) according to soil test recommendations.
• Improve your soil by adding well-rotted manure or compost in spring or fall. Do not use fresh manure as it may contain harmful bacteria and may increase weed problems.
• Do not use any fertilizer containing a weed killer, as it may kill your vegetable plants.
Types
• Spinach is day length sensitive. Spinach plants respond to increasing day length by “bolting:” sending up a flowering stalk and setting seed. In hot weather, plants respond more quickly to the day length signal. Drought can also accelerate bolting.
• During May, the days are much longer than the nights. If the weather turns hot, or the planting gets dry, a spinach planting will stop leaf production and grow a flowering stem. In June, the plants tend to bolt even in cool weather.
• Growers breed and select spinach varieties for resistance to bolting.
Planting
• Direct seed spinach for a summer crop, sow seeds as soon as the soil is workable in the spring. For a continuous spring supply, plant spinach seeds every one to two weeks, until outdoor temperatures reach 80°F. For a fall crop, sow seed two months before the average first frost date.
• Spinach planted in August for a fall crop will grow under shortening days, and will not bolt. It is best to wait until mid-August or later to sow the fall crop of spinach, to avoid summer heat.
• Plant seeds 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep, in rows 18 to 30 inches apart. Thin spinach to 2 to 4 inches apart.
• Use a floating row cover to protect the seedlings from cold weather and insects. Once the weather has warmed, remove the row cover or replace it with a lightweight mesh cover, so the plants do not have exposure to too much heat. A lightweight cover will continue to protect the plants from flea beetles and leaf miners.
Watering
• For best quality, highest yield and to delay bolting in spring, make sure you provide enough water for spinach plants.
• If the planting does not receive one inch of rain each week, soak the soil thoroughly at least once a week.
• If your soil is sandy, it is important to water more often than once a week.
• An inch of water will wet a sandy soil to a depth of ten inches, a heavy clay soil to six inches.
• Use a trowel to see how far down the soil is wet. If it is only an inch or two, keep the water running.
Weeds
• Frequent, shallow cultivation with a hoe or other tool will kill weeds before they become a problem. Be careful not to damage the plants when cultivating.
• Mulching with herbicide-free grass clippings, weed-free straw or other organic material to a depth of 3 to 4 inches can help prevent weed growth, decreasing the need for frequent cultivation.
Harvesting
• In spring, harvest single leaves as soon as they reach a usable size by pulling them from the plants. Spinach can grow new leaves, especially if you harvest individual leaves at the "baby" stage, so multiple harvests are possible.
• If you notice a spinach plant bolting, the rest will soon follow, so harvest all of them.
• You can pick the fall crop leaf by leaf, or you can harvest the whole plant by cutting it off at or just above the soil surface. This later crop of spinach is likely to grow much larger leaves and crowns than a spring crop. As cold weather sets in, a floating row cover can protect the plants from freezing, giving them a chance to grow
• Spinach will only last for a few days in the refrigerator. Harvesting when plants are cool, rather than in the heat of the day, running leaves under cold water and immediately refrigerating them, will make it possible for spinach to last a week.
• For a large end-of-season harvest, freezing is the best way to preserve leafy greens.
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