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applestar
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Spinach

Jan 23 soaked spinach seeds for 20 hours then drained and allowed to dry in somewhat humid
condition for 24 hrs.
Little printing paper packets of spinach seeds
Little printing paper packets of spinach seeds
Then sowed to sprout in low to mid-70's location
Spinach on Jan 29 starting to sprout
Spinach on Jan 29 starting to sprout
>> moved to lower shelf -- temp mid to upper 60's
Spinach on Feb 1
Spinach on Feb 1
...expecting to grow to two true leaves then uppot and move out to garage V8 Nursery...
...OR if feasible and conditions are favorable, then plant outside under a protective tunnel...

Rairdog
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Does soaking them help with seed heads? I went 9 for 9 with razzle dazzle and 7 for 9 with bloomsdale saved seed in the DE...but lots of seed heads and the slow them down quite a bit compared to non-seed heads.

Susan W
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I just gotta ask...... If you planted spinach seeds in 60's -70's (night-day), wouldn't they be up in about a week?
I don't do spinach in spring, but may again in the fall. I direct planted late Aug in 4 16" containers that had been vacated by the basil that went south. My problem was squirrels, so got wire racks over the pots until plants were bigger. They are going along now, would do much better if I cultivated and thinned and paid attention! Perhaps next week when we should have a few pretty days in a row.

catgrass
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My experience with spinach is that it needs cooler temps than 60-70 to grow well. Mine have been planted about 3 weeks and are about 2" tall. We've had several nights close to the 30's, but they seem ok

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applestar
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18°F this morning ...can still get down into the negatives -- even spinach won't survive without good protection, and I haven figured out how yet.

In spring-sprummer, using ordinary methods, very short harvest period then too hot. In sumfall-fallinter, too hot / spotty germination, then quick arrival of hard freezes that slow them down before they are much size (If they can only overwinter!)

So, I'm trying to grow them to size that can survive the less severe 20's that should be coming along by mid to late February. 8) Until then, I'm going to put them in the garage V8 nursery where it was 32° this morning -- hovers in 30's to 40's for the most part.

Do you think they can go out there already?

Soaking, then drying a bit with plenty of moist air, then planting, etc. was described as "priming" and said to improve germination rate and speed. It's possible the softened seed coats fell off easier, too.

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rainbowgardener
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I think the spinach would be ok in the garage spot if you can manage hardening them to it a bit. Leave them out there just a few hours the first time and then gradually increasing over the next few days.

I do spinach every spring, but I also find it bolts quickly. That's why I am trying some indoors this time, see if putting transplants out gives them a bit more time. But for me spinach works WAY better planted late fall, so that it just gets well started and then shuts down for the winter. It over-winters well and then has a long growing season starting in late winter, gets huge and very productive. Ends up bolting about the same time the spring started stuff does, so it has a much longer season.

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jal_ut
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Have not grown spinach in pots nor indoors. Can only tell you what works for me.
Spinach is a cool weather plant and we are after the greens, so plant outdoors early
in good fertile soil.
Keep watered well. You want to push it for the greens. About all you need do is keep
the weeds at bay, and keep it watered then harvest. When harvesting may as well
take the whole plant. I have never had secondary growth amount to anything worthwhile.
If you see seed plumes starting, harvest.
Make a new planting every two weeks in Springtime.

Why does spinach bolt? That is its mission in life to make seed. Just plan on it.

Newbiegardener22
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rainbowgardener wrote:I think the spinach would be ok in the garage spot if you can manage hardening them to it a bit. Leave them out there just a few hours the first time and then gradually increasing over the next few days.

I do spinach every spring, but I also find it bolts quickly. That's why I am trying some indoors this time, see if putting transplants out gives them a bit more time. But for me spinach works WAY better planted late fall, so that it just gets well started and then shuts down for the winter. It over-winters well and then has a long growing season starting in late winter, gets huge and very productive. Ends up bolting about the same time the spring started stuff does, so it has a much longer season.
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?

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jal_ut
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I planted a row of spinach seed last fall when I was planting the garlic. Then it snowed. I guess we will just wait and see if it comes up when the snow gets off?

john gault
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A little Trivia... What edible weed tastes like Spinach....
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Chickweed :D

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Gary350
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john gault wrote:A little Trivia... What edible weed tastes like Spinach....
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Chickweed :D
Chickweed grows good in TN and better in AZ. The Mexican people love to eat Chickweed. If you do not water your AZ yard Chickweed is the only thing that grows, it sends a root straight down then the plant grows across the yard like a big spider web. Water your AZ yard then you get a nightmare of Chickweeds the soil must be full of millions of seeds. Chickweed makes a good salad, it is good on Tacos. Chickweed is a lot easier to grow than Spinach.

SQWIB
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john gault wrote:A little Trivia... What edible weed tastes like Spinach....
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Chickweed :D
And stinging nettles.

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jal_ut
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Have not seen Chickweed. Had to look it up. OK, don't send it over here. I have enough weeds!

OK, 23 degrees F at 8:30 AM with 3 inches of fresh snow on the garden. I won't be planting for a while.

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rainbowgardener
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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?

That was when I was in zone 6. People talk about planting spinach in the fall, they usually mean Sept to harvest in late fall. That works too. But I was specifically talking about doing a second fall planting, late Oct or early Nov. Yes it survived under deep(ish) snow (like a foot or two, we didn't get six feet of snow) and ice. And I didn't give it any protection, except some mulch.

People don't understand how cold hardy cold hardy is!!

imafan26
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Spinach is definitely a cool weather plant for me. I don't do anything special, except put down extra seed. I direct sow them in the garden, and I have to cover them to keep the birds from eating the seeds. They might acutally benefit from soaking, but I usually don't soak any seeds anymore, not even cilantro.

What does matter is variety. Some just do better. Melody does better than Bloomsdale long standing, it might be that Bloomsdale is designed for a cooler area. The tropical spinaches will go crazy and just need to be cut back like NZ hot weather spinach, malabar (a bit slimy but has pretty berries), Okinawan spinach, gynuura (also on the slimy side if it is overcooked), Okame, and Tahitian taro (grown for its leaves not the root).

We use a lotof other leafy green more than spinach. Sweet potato leaves, is not exactly spinach and it doesn't taste like it but it is a leafy green for salads and side dishes. Squash and pea shoots, moringa (marungay leaves and fruit), ung choi (swamp cabbage), are other tropical greens that are common in the market.

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rainbowgardener
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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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