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rainbowgardener
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Re: Spinach

Lamb's quarters is the weed that is known as wild spinach .

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Gary350
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I don't have much luck growing spinach. If I plant it in spring by the time it starts looking good it is 100 degrees and it goes to seed. If I plant spinach in late Aug or early Sept seeds will not germinate in 100 degree weather they do better in pots inside the house. Once plants are up I move them outside for morning sun and shade after lunch but 100 degrees makes them go to seed. If I plant spinach later in the fall it just sets there in cold weather not growing. I would love to grow spinach if I could. I ate a whole can of Popeye spinach 2 nites ago for dinner only 68 cents per can.

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rainbowgardener
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"If I plant spinach later in the fall it just sets there in cold weather not growing."

And then what? IME late fall can be the best time to plant spinach. For me, it sprouts and grows a little and then it does just stop and sit there, dormant I guess. But then in late winter, once the days are getting longer, it starts growing again. And then it grows and grows for a very long season. It doesn't bolt until the same time the spring planted spinach does, when it is getting hot, meaning it has two or three extra months of growing.

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Gary350
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In the past I have had better luck with Rainbow Swiss Chard than Spinach. I don't know why there is such a difference in Rainbow Swiss chard vs Green Swiss Chard but there is a world of difference much better flavor. I would have had spring, beets, spinach, chard but that 4 degree weather we had a month ago killed it all. Bibb lettuce is the only thing that survived. It is funny I use to have my best luck with cold weather crops when I never tried very hard I use to throw seeds in the snow they come up when weather gets right.

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rainbowgardener
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Definitely! I still have swiss chard growing in my garden and thriving that I planted last spring! It is biennial and will bolt this summer, then I will plant more. But yes, swiss chard is my absolute favorite thing to grow. It just goes and goes, through frost and heat and drought and rain and very little bothers it.

Spinach is much finickier and even the "long-standing" varieties that are supposed to be more heat tolerant bolt as soon as it gets hot.

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jal_ut
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"What zone are you in? I have read a lot about planting spinach in the fall. Does it survive winter even under deep snow or do you mulch it/grow in cold frames?"

Here zone 5. I planted some spinach seed about first of December. Just went out and looked. Yes, it is up. The snow just got off the lot. Ground still too wet to go plant, so this Fall planted spinach will certainly be ahead of any Spring planting.



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