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
- Soak the bed deeply and let the surface dry between soaks, the deep soak that drives the taproot down; sprinklings leave roots shallow. Never let a stand run dry going into a warm spell, because water stress hastens the bolt behind the heat.
- 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
- A nitrogen-hungry leaf crop, whatever its quick turnaround suggests: the state sheet says it grows best with plenty of fertilizer, worked in at sowing and sidedressed about a month later. Compost first; if a long-picking stand pales, a fish-and-seaweed drink greens it back up.
- 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 state sheet's fall window opens the September sowings and the county's October list follows: October into November, then the winter lists into February. The ground does not freeze solid, 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; Space is billed heat tolerant and slow to bolt, which makes it the natural early-fall packet; any of the three is the right packet.
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.