Sorry for a total newbie question...
I really want to grow Spinach this fall. I would love to start from seed and I have never done this before, nor have I ever grown spinach!
I live in Northern California and I know spinach is a good fall plant. My question is when and how should I go about starting the seeds? I plan on moving them to where my carrots come out, this is okay, yes?
Any advice is greatly appreciated... I am getting some mixed information when I google my questions.
According to Sunset's Western Garden Book, you live in Sunset climate zone #14, whose growing season ends approx. mid-November and re-commences late February/early March.
Sunset says that spinach can grow to its mature size of 6 to 12 inches within 7 weeks. I've never given spinach that chance, myself; I harvest from the outside in! But if this is accurate, then I'd suggest planting seeds mid-August to -September, one week apart, for succession purposes. This should provide a few weeks of fresh spinach harvests from mid-October to -November, and perhaps earlier harvests of young spinach, which is my downfall.
I'm confused, though. Carrots are generally thought of as a cool-weather vegetable, yet your plan is to sow the spinach *after* the carrots finish. Can you provide more information on this plan? (Especially in Sacto, definitely hotter than the Bay Area, carrots may suffer during the summer. We lived in Rancho Cordova for two or three years when I was a kid, so I know about that heat.)
Just in case you plan to save seeds from the carrots, a couple of the carrot plants will need to be left in the soil until next year, because carrots are biennial, developing their flowers and then seeds in the second year of growth.
Eliot Coleman, in Four-Season Harvest, has this to say about carrots and the season: "Carrots suffer when soil temperatures are too warm. Mulching in warm weather will improve growing conditions, but carrots are at their peak during the cooler months of the year" (pp. 163-164).
Hope the carrots live up to your hopes, and the spinach likewise.
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
Sunset says that spinach can grow to its mature size of 6 to 12 inches within 7 weeks. I've never given spinach that chance, myself; I harvest from the outside in! But if this is accurate, then I'd suggest planting seeds mid-August to -September, one week apart, for succession purposes. This should provide a few weeks of fresh spinach harvests from mid-October to -November, and perhaps earlier harvests of young spinach, which is my downfall.
I'm confused, though. Carrots are generally thought of as a cool-weather vegetable, yet your plan is to sow the spinach *after* the carrots finish. Can you provide more information on this plan? (Especially in Sacto, definitely hotter than the Bay Area, carrots may suffer during the summer. We lived in Rancho Cordova for two or three years when I was a kid, so I know about that heat.)
Just in case you plan to save seeds from the carrots, a couple of the carrot plants will need to be left in the soil until next year, because carrots are biennial, developing their flowers and then seeds in the second year of growth.
Eliot Coleman, in Four-Season Harvest, has this to say about carrots and the season: "Carrots suffer when soil temperatures are too warm. Mulching in warm weather will improve growing conditions, but carrots are at their peak during the cooler months of the year" (pp. 163-164).
Hope the carrots live up to your hopes, and the spinach likewise.
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
Thank you both so much for the information. I guess I was thinking my carrots would be ready by the time we were ready to plant the spinach. Which is probably very wrong! 
I have room to make my garden area bigger so I may just need to do this sooner than I was expecting. We eat so much spinach it's so silly not to.
I have room to make my garden area bigger so I may just need to do this sooner than I was expecting. We eat so much spinach it's so silly not to.
There's nothing stopping you (or any gardener!) from harvesting baby carrots. They're quite yummy. But if you were hoping for fully mature carrots before planting spinach, there could be some disappointment.
Glad to hear that there's more area available to you.
Could I arrange for maybe 50 to 100 sq ft? 
Sacto is only 1.5 hours up the road, and it's a reverse commute!
Cynthia
But if you were hoping for fully mature carrots before planting spinach, there could be some disappointment.Glad to hear that there's more area available to you.
Could I arrange for maybe 50 to 100 sq ft? Sacto is only 1.5 hours up the road, and it's a reverse commute! Cynthia
I find that spinach seeds germinate better if they are soaked first. I plant spinach, tatsoi, okame, hon tsai tai, in sections about two weeks apart from each other. It takes a lot of spinach to make a meal, but I forgot that similar growing vegetables cannot be planted at the same time otherwise they mature in the same week too. So I have to remember to space them apart as well.
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applestar
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This is an older thread, but the title is perfect, so I'm going to add to it --
I've always had trouble getting spinach to germinate. I recently heard that they germinate better if soaked for 24 hrs first THEN germinated on moist paper towels in the fridge. I tried soaking then Spoonzipped mine, except I forgot about the soaking spinach seeds which I put in the butter keeper on the fridge door, so it wa more like 48 hrs later that I put them on rinsed sand-sized DE on plastic spoon heads inside a seed zip bag and a larger zip bag for fishing lures (rig bag).
Then somebody stuffed something on top of them and I forgot again... And of course this was one time I didn't label the zip bags with the date.
But I think it's been 2-3 days
...I should have planted these today, but I didn't get the chance 
I've always had trouble getting spinach to germinate. I recently heard that they germinate better if soaked for 24 hrs first THEN germinated on moist paper towels in the fridge. I tried soaking then Spoonzipped mine, except I forgot about the soaking spinach seeds which I put in the butter keeper on the fridge door, so it wa more like 48 hrs later that I put them on rinsed sand-sized DE on plastic spoon heads inside a seed zip bag and a larger zip bag for fishing lures (rig bag).
Then somebody stuffed something on top of them and I forgot again... And of course this was one time I didn't label the zip bags with the date.
But I think it's been 2-3 days -
rainbowgardener
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I plant spinach directly in the ground and don't have trouble with it. I do think most seeds do better with being re-hydrated before planting. Big hard seeds I soak for 24 hours. Stuff like the spinach seed I just soak for 3-4 hours, just to get it well moistened. My spinach popped up in just a few days and is doing great.
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ButterflyLady29
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