Greens & herbs
Spinach
A fall and winter green here; the heat bolts it, not the cold.
- Outside
- Direct Sep to Oct, again Jan to Feb
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Even moisture; dry soil trips the bolt
- Harvest
- Nov to Dec, then Mar to Apr
Care
- Water
- Even moisture on a small, shallow-rooted plant: water the fall rows in the dry spells between fronts, keep the winter bed damp, and never let a stand run dry, because dry soil trips the bolt as fast as heat does. Little and often beats one deep soak.
- Sow
- Direct sow half an inch deep and an inch apart, thinned in stages to a hand-width for full rosettes: the main round September into October, again on the winter lists in January and February. Sow thick; the thinnings are the first salad.
- Feed
- Compost or castings in the row at sowing usually carries this fast, light feeder. If a long-picking stand pales, a half-strength fish and seaweed drink greens it back up; skip the heavy nitrogen.
- Ready
- Take outer leaves and let the crown refill, or shear whole rosettes an inch up; always pick ahead of any seed stalk, since flavor drops the moment one lifts. The fall round cuts into the winter greens season and the late-winter sowing fills spring.
- Trouble
- The state sheet names the enemy outright: high temperatures and long days of summer cause spinach to bolt, which is why every sowing here sits between September and February. A stand lifting seed stalks is finished; clear it and let malabar take the summer shift.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 1–3 gal bag.
- Water
- A bag dries faster than a bed, so every day or two in warm weather and every couple of days in a dry winter spell; never let it run dry or it bolts.
- Feed
- A half-strength fish and seaweed drink every couple of weeks if the leaves pale; a bag leaches with every watering.
- Sow
- The Texas container guide lists spinach at 1 gallon; sow several plants a few inches apart across the bag and pick cut-and-come-again from the outside. Winter bags overwinter here like the beds do, wanting only drainage for the rains.
Spinach inverts into a fall and winter green here: sown in September and October and again in late winter, bolted out of the summer that ends it.
Growing
The state greens sheet plants spinach as early as the soil can be worked in spring, or in August and later in the fall, and the county's lists resolve that to the rounds that matter here: September into October, then the winter lists into February. The ground never freezes, so the fall sowing cuts through the winter greens season instead of racing a June that would end it. Keep the seedbed damp while it comes up, thin in stages, and eat the thinnings. The state sheet's own summer rule closes the other end: the crop steps aside in May, and the malabar row takes the summer shift.
Varieties
The Central Texas list names Bloomsdale savoy, Regiment savoy and Space. Bloomsdale is the old crinkled savoy; any of the three is the right packet, and none is billed heat tolerant, which is honest: the calendar is the heat strategy.
In the kitchen
The winter salad bowl's tenderest leaves, cut through the cold months while the fruiting crops wait out the gap. Surplus wilts into eggs and simmered pots, cooking down hard enough that the bed was already sized for it.