Greens & herbs
Spinach
Bolts in summer heat; spring and fall crops.
- Outside
- Direct Apr, then Aug to Sep
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun; afternoon shade stretches spring
- Water
- Even moisture every 5 to 7 days; never let it dry
- Harvest
- 40 to 50 days
Care
- Water
- A cool-season crop grown in spring and fall: soak the bed every 5 to 7 days, more often in a warm stretch. Being small and shallow-rooted, it wants steady, even moisture rather than the deep-then-dry swing bigger crops take, since dry soil trips the bolt as fast as heat does. Never let it run dry.
- Sow
- Direct sow a half inch deep, seeds an inch apart, from April in cold soil and again mid August for the fall crop. Thin to 3 to 4 inches for baby leaf, wider for full rosettes.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost or castings worked in at sowing usually carries this fast, light feeder. If the leaves pale during a long picking, a half-strength fish and seaweed drink greens them back up. Skip the heavy nitrogen.
- Ready
- Take the outer leaves once they are big enough and leave the crown to refill, or shear the whole rosette at the base. Pick ahead of any seed stalk; the flavor drops the moment one lifts.
- Trouble
- Bolting is the main enemy, and both heat and dry soil rush it, so sow in the cool shoulders and water evenly. Pale blotchy tunnels: leafminer, strip the mined leaves and cover the next sowing. Downy mildew in wet spells: grow a resistant pick and water at the soil, not the leaves.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 3–5 gal bag.
- Water
- A bag dries faster than a bed, so every day or two in warm weather. About 20 to 30 sec on the shower dial until the seams drip, and still never let it run dry or it bolts.
- Feed
- A bag leaches, so a half-strength fish and seaweed drink every couple of weeks if the leaves pale.
- Sow
- Several plants a few inches apart per 3 to 5 gallon bag, picked cut-and-come-again from the outside.
Spinach is a cool-weather sprinter sown twice, in April for May and June salads and again in August for fall. Summer is deliberately skipped, since long June days flip it to seed no matter the variety.
Growing
Direct sow in April as soon as soil can be worked; spinach germinates in cold that stops everything else. Sow again from mid August into September for the fall crop, which picks through October and often November. A bed edge or a 3 to 5 gallon bag, plants an inch or two apart, harvested cut-and-come-again from the outside. Water and a little afternoon shade stretch the spring picking, but once a plant lifts a seed stalk, clear it and move on. The fall round tucks in wherever a summer crop just came out.
Varieties
Space and Corvair are smooth-leaved and slow to bolt; Bloomsdale Long Standing is the crinkled classic; Auroch shines in the cold tail of fall.
Pests
Spinach leafminer turns leaf patches into pale blisters in May; pick off and trash mined leaves to break the cycle, and netting stops the fly outright. Slugs work the fall crop after rain, so a ring of iron phosphate bait or a bare, mulch-free strip keeps the leaves whole.
In the kitchen
Spring leaves are salad. The fall leaves come thicker and sweeter and wilt into eggs, pasta, and saag, cooking down twelve to one, which the garden already planned for.