Amanda B
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Cilantro and spinach bolted

Unfortunately my spinach and cilantro bolted :( My spinach had finally started to grow back from the rabbits feasting on them and then instantly bolted. My cilantro hasn't even reached the harvest date and is starting to sprout the snowflake looking leaf no flowers yet though so I cut them down not sure if that will work but it's worth a shot. I know why they bolted it's insanely hot which is not seasonable for the time of year. We've had days where the humidity has made it feel close to triple digit temps. Now I'm looking for something else to plant that grows quickly and tolerates heat. Any suggestions?? Also when is a good month to try and plant spinach again? Thanks in advance.
*we've also had a lot of rain this month as well

imafan26
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Yeah, I cannot grow cilantro or regular spinach in summer. It is just too hot, even slo bolt cilantro bolts in 6 weeks.

I can grow spinach substitutes like NZ hot weather spinach, which is much more productive and perennial and in need of control where I live. I just looked at your forecast. You are much more North than I am but your daytime temperatures are a tad higher than mine.

Cilantro can grow in partial shade, maybe you can grow it indoors if it is cool enough. Some people here have luck growing it at the higher elevations in shady spots even in summer with midday sprinkling of water to help it cool down.

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rainbowgardener
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Yup, they are cool weather crops; they are done as soon as it gets hot.

Good things to plant now would be beans, cukes, summer squash, melons, corn, carrots. If you want more greens, plant swiss chard, which unlike most things tolerates both heat and cold.

You could probably plant spinach seed again as early as August, for a fall crop (by the time the spinach is maturing, weather should have broken, so it won't bolt so quickly; the heat doesn't bother the seeds). Personally I think the very best way to plant spinach seed is in Oct. It will sprout and grow a little bit and then go dormant. But it is incredibly cold hardy and frost tolerant and will sit there through snow and ice and whatever. Then it late winter it will start growing again. By the time you would be planting your spring spinach, you will be harvesting the fall sown stuff and it will last a whole lot longer and be way more productive.

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jal_ut
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Give beets and chard a try for greens. Summer squashes like crookneck and zucchini work in the warm weather if you want something to fill the space?

Amanda B
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Thanks everyone!!! This is what I planted this year:
tomatoes, jalapeños, peas, squash (2 varieties), mini pumpkins, hooligan pumpkins, ornamental gourds, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, sweet peppers, Caesar lettuce, lettuce, spinach, onions and finally cilantro.
The zucchini is doing beyond fantastic as is everything else except the cilantro, spinach, and the peas I'm not sure how they are doing as I've never grown them before they've grown into healthy looking bushes but I see no signs of pods.
How does Swiss chard taste I've never eaten it before. I'm thinking of planting more green beans in place of the spinach bc the rabbits got them pretty good and I'm not sure what the harvest will be from them this year. Thanks again for sharing with me!!

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GardeningCook
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Chard is right up there as one of my favorite greens, & I use it frequently!! There are many varieties (the multicolored types are my favorites - am growing "Neon Lights" this year), but both leaves & stems are all mild-flavored regardless of color. Think spinach with the very tiniest underlying flavor of beets (to which Chard is closely related). But they're not too "beety", so do give them a try even if you don't care for beets. My husband really dislikes beets, but loves Chard. At the baby stage they can be used raw in salads or quick-sautéed/stir-fried whole; older stems/leaves are at their best cooked.

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rainbowgardener
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RE: " This is what I planted this year:
tomatoes, jalapeños, peas, squash (2 varieties), mini pumpkins, hooligan pumpkins, ornamental gourds, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, sweet peppers, Caesar lettuce, lettuce, spinach, onions and finally cilantro." Does finally cilantro just mean it is at the end of your list or was it actually planted last. Was all of this planted more or less at the same time? That is the problem why some things didn't last very long.

Peas, lettuce, spinach, cilantro are all cold hardy crops, frost tolerant, but can't stand heat, are done about as soon as it warms up. They would all be planted "as soon as the ground can be worked," which for me is about a month earlier than my average last frost date.

Tomatoes don't go in the ground until danger of frost is past. Peppers need the soil and night temps a little warmer than tomatoes. Squashes, pumpkins, gourds (all in the cucurbit family) are the warmest of warm weather crops. They probably wouldn't go in the ground until at least a month after the average last frost date, when the soil has had a chance to warm up well.

Onions, if you are talking about seed would be planted in the fall to over winter and be harvested the next summer. Onion sets can be planted in the early spring with the other cold weather crops.

The better you get the timing, the more success you will have.

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jal_ut
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Tetragonia tetragonoides

You might also try New Zealand Spinach?

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GardeningCook
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Yup - New Zealand Spinach is another one of my hands-down favorites. I don't care for it raw, but cooked it can stand up to (& even surpass) true Spinach any day. Has a firmer texture & doesn't break down quite as much as true Spinach. And it LOVES the heat. Only drawbacks are that it tends to be a slow & sporadic germinator, & does supposedly take awhile to reach a harvestable size. I think the seed packet I recently received said something along the lines of "70 days to harvest". But perhaps that's just if you plan on harvesting the whole plant at one time (they get quite large) instead of just the tender tips that I've been able to buy at our local farmers market.



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