Have you tryed chard instead? You plant it once and while a few of the plants may bolt, it usually lasts all season.

Have you considered growing indoors?

Under a fluorescent light fixture (one cool blue bulb, one daylight bulb) in two 30" x 7" x 5" planter boxes, this is 10 days ago:

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and today:

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I wonder if it would work for spinach.

Frankly, we live on spinach in the early season before our lettuce is ready to take over.

I don't even try to push spinach once warm weather hits. I see that as one of the primary reasons for growing my own garden. WE try to eat seasonally.

Sorry, held down the caps button too long.

We try to eat seasonally, meaning we eat whatever is best from the garden or orchard at a given time. Not necessarily when it is supposed to be best.

For example, my winter squash vines finally gave in to the squash bugs last week. I had to get the squash out, or lose them all. some were still too soft for storage, so we have been gourging on wonderful winter squash recipes all week. We normally don't get to enjoy these until mid-winter. Well that's how it goes sometimes.

I always try to have spinach very early and very late season. I am buiding an unheated greenhouse this year to try to overwinter spinach with some protection.

I'm planning to build a plastic covered tunnel to extend my season for growing greens. Maybe in Southern California a shadecloth covered tunnel would be advantageous to cut down on the heat.

Jim

Jimster, I planted spinach in the fall. Picked until hard freeze. Mulched it with straw, and then started having spinach again by mid february. Zone 7 Arkansas. Possibly in a cold frame it would last all season unless, like last year, we had ice on the ground for a solid week. Pretty unusual for us.

Thanks for all the great feedback!

"Have you tried chard instead?"
Swiss chard is an outstanding crop in its own right, as is kale. I am currently growing Bright Lights and Giant Fordham Swiss chard, and red Russian kale. As a spinach replacement, chard and kale can only go so far. There is nothing that matches the buttery, silky goodness of spinach.

"Have you considered growing indoors?"
Pardon the pun, but this is a bright idea. I can set up 4Â double strip shop lights for $20 a pop. I have a fairly bright south facing fishroom that I use for seed starting in the winter as well. It would be a slight adjustment to utilize the room for year round plant growout.

"We try to eat seasonally."
Yes, I am thankful for anything that the good earth gives me. But at the same time most of us like tomatoes on a salad even though lettuce is a cool weather crop and tomatoes are warm weather crops. Neither one will ever be at their peak seasonally, at the same time here in So.Cal.

Gardening is a form of cheating in a way. We constantly look to extend growing seasons and maximize yields. We are "leveraging" the abilities of plants for our benefit, often times stretching the limits of certain crops. IÂm full onboard with pushing the limits of spinach.

"Maybe in Southern California a shadecloth covered tunnel would be advantageous to cut down on the heat." That, or maybe limiting the plants to morning exposure. I've had my best results with portable shallow wide containers. But any old hot spell will twart my best efforts. :)

This year I tried Bloomsdale that is touted as being slow to bolt. Well it sprouted, sent out two or three leaves and then shot up seed stalks. I pinched the stalks and now they are doing fairly nicely. Maybe this will be the year for spinach...

All the bad spinach news lately has encouraged to give growing it one more try. I love spinach but I haven't been able to grow it successfully. I've always tried it in the spring, though, which I've learned is probably too hot for it, so I'm planting some now and probably through December.

"I need the slowest to bolt spinach on the planet."

Does your county's cooperative extension have a website? Maybe they can recommend a variety that does particularly well there. I also think your idea to expose the plants to morning sun is a good one. My lettuce always does best with early morning sun.

I used to grow Melody spinach which was slow to bolt in my climate. It gave me great salads and then a lot of spinach to cook and freeze. Unfortunately a bout with kidney stones convinced me that eating a lot of spinach was a basic error and I've not grown it since. Ok in small quantities but if I have a row of it in the garden, small quantitites is not where I'm at. Chard is comparatively low in oxalates.

fliptx,

The Spinach variety listed by Travis County (Austin, TX) Master Gardeners is Melody. The planting dates I've seen for Houston are October - January. Other than that, it would need to be grown indoors.

I've got some Melody and Renegade. I'll report back in a few weeks to say how they're faring!

Back in Miss'ippi, my grandma would grow her spinach at the edge of the woods. Well, all her greens actually. I'm pretty sure it would have been east of the woods, meaning they would be shaded by mid afternoon. (Not sure if I have my compass right as to which direction the old home place faced) I'm thinking this spring, I will try a greens garden down the east edge of the house. It will be fully shaded in late afternoon and evening but should get a good 6 hours of morning light.

I have spinach growing on my balcony. I planted seeds back in March. It's growing very enthusiastically, and is now beginning to bud (flowers, I assume). A friend came over, saw it, and griped that the spinach was no good now, I should grow some more, it shouldn't be budding, complain complain complain. What should I do with it?

It's not fair! Here I am in a cool damp temperate climate looking at two tiny leaves and a flower stalk on every spinach plant. Every few years I try again and then remember why I gave up on spinach.

I planted "space" spinach (that's the name of the type, I got it from Johnny's seeds) in November and it did very little until February when it really took off. I've been in spinach ever since and even though we had a string of 80-90 degree days back in March, no bolting. Only now am I seeing that they are getting ready to go to seed. Maybe try a bolt-resistant variety like "space"?

I started mine indoors in early March (8-10 weeks before the last frost), put them out in April, and had good-sized plants by early May. Their first two weeks outdoors were under row covers, which protected them from freezes, wind, and sun. That's given me a couple of months of spinach (I harvest a few leaves from each plant at a time). I suspect that's the best I can do here in the spring.