How to Grow Spinach

If you love spinach salads and eggs Florentine, you owe yourself a big patch of Popeye's favorite food. Spinach needs cool weather to thrive, but if you choose planting times carefully and look for heat-resistant varieties, you can grow it anywhere in the country.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Bypass Pruners
• Compost Makers
• Fertilizers
• Fish Emulsions
• Floating Row Covers
• Garden Spades
• Garden Trowels
• Mulch
• Plants
• Shovels
• Spinach Seeds
• Limes
• Plants
• Shovels
• Limes

1. Choose a site that gets full sun in cool weather and partial shade in warmer temperatures. Soil should be light, fertile and moisture-retentive, with a pH of 6.0 to 7.0.

2. Dig in plenty of well-cured manure to ensure the right soil conditions and to provide the nitrogen necessary for good leaf production.

3. Sow spinach seeds directly into the garden as soon as the ground can be worked, normally anywhere from four to eight weeks before the last expected frost. (Because spinach resents transplanting and seeds germinate well in temperatures as low as 50 degrees F, there's no advantage to buying plants or to starting seed indoors.)

4. Plant seeds 1/2 inch deep and 2 inches apart in wide rows. For a continuous harvest, sow every two weeks until daytime temperatures start to average 75 degrees F.

5. Begin sowing fall crops in mid-August in cool climates, later in warm ones.

6. Thin seedlings to 6 inches apart when the plants are 4 inches tall. Be ruthless; crowded plants are more likely to bolt (go to seed prematurely), and you can use the cuts in salads.

7. Keep the soil moist, and feed plants manure tea or fish emulsion every 10 days until they're 6 inches tall (see "How to Make Manure Tea").

8. Mulch established plants to conserve moisture and deter weeds, and cover the area with floating row covers to discourage insects.

9. Cut spinach leaves as you need them from the outside of the plant, or harvest entire plants when they reach maturity and before they begin to flower. (If you see buds starting to form at the center, cut the whole plant immediately.)

Tips & Warnings

• To get a jump on spring planting - and to avoid digging in the mud - get your furrows ready in fall. Then as soon as the ground thaws, you can simply drop in your spinach seeds (see "How to Plant Vegetable Seeds Outdoors").
• Spinach comes in two leaf forms: Smooth-leaved varieties are sweet, tender and perfect for salads; savoy types have thicker, crinkly leaves that hold up better when cooked.
• In hot parts of the country, look for early-maturing, bolt-resistant varieties such as 'Melody' (savoy-leaved, 40 days), 'Bloomsdale Long Standing' (savoy-leaved, 45 days) or 'Sohshu' (smooth-leaved, 40 days). Check a comprehensive garden book or seed catalog for many more suggestions.
• If your spinach seeds germinate poorly, or leaves have yellow or brown margins, it means the soil is too acid. Adding lime or wood ashes will correct the imbalance, but be sure to test the soil before you plant: Spinach rebels if the pH goes much over 7.5 (see "How to Have Your Soil Tested").