Tag: spinach

Harvested Spinach – May 10

dougthegardener Leave a comment

Yesterday the spinach planted on April 6 was ready to eat! The spinach is Baby’s Leaf Hybrid which, according to Dona, is delicious. Much better than store-bought…and no pesticides or other chemicals. Since spinach thrives in cool weather I will plant another batch in late summer and hope a freeze does not occur in the next 30 days (the planting-to-eating time lapse). So the package was right – 34 days in this case.

To harvest we nipped the leaf by hand near the base of the plant. Do not pull or else you may end up with the entire plant! Fortunately all the leaves are various sizes so spinach will be on the table for the next few weeks. It has been dry so the spinach gets watered every few days.

I hand-picked the weeds near the spinach and used a small rototiller in between rows. Pea vines are the most notorious weeds this time of year.

Doug

Growing Spinach

dougthegardener Leave a comment

spinachWe have had very good luck with spinach. In fact last year we couldn’t give it away fast enough – and just from one packet of seeds.

The seeds are sown when the soil is ready for planting in the spring (4 weeks before last frost – middle of March where we live). Seeds can be sewn in late winter over frozen ground and they will germinate in the spring but we do not prep the soil until spring – disc then rototill it.

Spinach likes well-drained soil, ample moisture, and full sun. The seeds germinate in soil as cold as 50 degrees F.

Planting

I take a 1×1 board and dig a furrow 1/2 inch deep with its edge. The seeds are dropped in 1 inch apart and covered with soil and watered. The plants are thinned to 3 inches apart when they are an inch tall. The rows are 1 foot apart and I plant a successive row 7 days apart.

Fertilizer

I generally sidedress spinach with 10-10-10 fertilizer when the plants are a few inches tall.

Harvesting

Spinach is best when harvested young. I snip or pinch the leaves off and bag them. The leaves need to be washed before eating because they collect grit during rain. Spinach is ready to harvest in about 40 to 50 days depending on the variety. When the seedstalk forms, in late spring, harvest the remaining crop as the plant deteriorates quickly.

P.S. Rabbits like spinach.

Doug