spinach
Spinach From Seed to Harvest
SEED
SPROUT
SEEDLING
MATURE
Overview
A cool-weather, fast-growing vegetable, it yields many leaves in a short time in the mild weather of spring and fall
Level of Difficulty: Easy to Grow!
Plant Spacing: 6 inches
Days to Harvest: ~45 days from seed
Plant Care Basics:
Sun - Full sun to partial shade
Soil - Requires well-drained soil in high organic matter
Water - Needs consistent moisture, ~1 - 1.5 inches per week
Planting + Growing
Growing spinach in the garden is easy when planted under the right conditions. Spinach likes full sun to partial shade. Your soil should be loose enough to drain well. Spinach can grow crowded, but leaves will be smaller. To optimize growth and a bountiful harvest, follow the spacing guidelines below.
Starting from Seed. If you're starting from seed, plant 1 - 2 seeds about 1/2 an inch down in a small container of soil. Water the soil and place it in a sunny area. Check the soil daily to water if necessary. Once your seeds sprout and have true leaves, transplant them outside or into a larger container with about 6 inches of space in between each plant.
Starting from Seedling. If you picked up a spinach seedling from Sweet Water's seedling pick up, plant the seedlings into soil, allowing ~6 inches of spacing between each plant.
Container growing spinach. Spinach will grow in an 8-inch pot. In larger containers, like a garden bed, you can plant more than one spinach, 6 inches apart from each other
Other notes...companion plants. Beans, eggplant, leeks, lettuce, pease, radish, strawberries. Avoid growing spinach with potatoes.
Harvesting
You can begin to harvest your greens when your spinach plants looking full and leaves are abount 3 inches long. Cut the outer leaves first to allow the tender inner leaves to grow. Be careful to not damage the plant’s center.
Always take the largest, oldest leaves and leave the young ones to continue growing. If you harvest carefully, the new leaves will grow and provide leaves to harvest for many weeks. Rinse off spinach leaves and store them in the refrigerator in ventilated plastic bags.
Cooking
More info coming soon....
Links to More Resources
More info coming soon....