Robert,

I don't know if there is one that is 'best' because their performance can vary so much every year depending on the weather. I've always had great success with Bloomsdale Longstanding, Melody and America.

The varieties recommended by OSU for home vegetable gardens are: Ambassador, American, Bloomsdale, Chesapeake, Coho, Fall Green, Grandstand, Melody and Ozark II.
I've linked the OSU Fact Sheet on Commercial Greens Production because it lists their recommendations for commercial crops.

Willhite Seeds sells a variety called Nobel Giant which is supposed to be a very vigorous producer, but I've never grown it.

I also think you could trust any spinach variety sold by Johnny's Selected Seeds as they cater to small market growers. Every variety of theirs I've ever grown has produced very well so I have a high level of trust in their variety choices even though their climate is very different from ours.

If you're planning on planting fall/winter spinach, that must mean you're expecting rain to fall sometime in the next 6 months. I hope you're right about that. : )

Good luck with the spinach.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: OSU Greens Factsheet

Uggg, pdf file on dial up.Have to look at that at the store.

here are the vareities i can order through my distributor. I may have some noble giant in a seed display already.
GS4751 SPINACH, BLOOMSDALE SPINACH BLOOMSDALE 1LB BG
GS4711 SPINACH, GIANT NOBLE SPINACH GIANT NOBLE 1LB BG
GS4761 SPINACH, HYBRID #7 SPINACH HYBRID #7 1LB BG
GS4681 SPINACH, NEW ZEALAND SPINACH NEW ZEALAND 1LB
I just copied the bulk, i can get them in prepackage also.

i was just courious as to what was popular that folks would recognize.

I think everyone would recognize Bloomsdale, but only gardeners likely would recognize any of the rest, and how many they'd recognize likely would vary depending on how much spinach they've grown.

New Zealand Spinach is a warm-weather spinach substitute, but it isn't actually spinach. It is tetragonia, and you plant it in springtime around the date of your average last frost. Some people like it better than spinach, some say it tastes like spinach, but I prefer regular spinach or nothing at all.

To save you from having to go look up the pdf. file while you're at the store, here's the commercial varieties that OSU recommends:

Savoy Supreme
Chesapeake
Hybrid No. 7
American (long standing)
Grandstand
Ozarka
Green Valley
Iron Duke
Coho
Kent
Fall Green

Hope that helps. You're making me hungry for fresh spinach from the garden....which is months away here!

Dawn

Busy1 - I plant Bloomsdale Long Standing. Willhite has 1 lb for 7.50 and 5 lbs for 27.50 of Bloomsdale and Nobel Giant, then they have a hybrid for more. They are a good company.

Here is a link that might be useful: Willhite

Soonergrandmom, i have ordered from willhite in the past,but i will be ordering from my supplier at quite a bit cheaper price. I get quite a bit of stuff from BWI.

I know some of you have a hard time finding certain items in your area that i can get. The trouble is the logistics between us. Some items you can get cheaper at big box stores, some items are not normally carried there. You can got to the BWI website and see their products, just not the price. Some items they have listed may not be in stock.

I can add them to my order and see how many are available and price( i can always delete), or call and see when they expect it to be in stock.

I am not trying to sneak my business into this site. I just want you folks to know that if there is something you really would like to have, let me know and i will see what i can do. All you have to say is not interested if you feel it is too much.

I consider you folks generous in your time and information.I just know how agrivating it is to try and find a product that you prefer.

Busy1 - Good enough, I just wanted to give you another option. Since you buy in quantity, I'm sure your pricing beats ours, but since you said you only have dial-up at home, I thought that was an easier way to tell you.

I would probably only use the computer at work.....I hate dial-up.

I have used BWI seed many times from the co-op's along the Okla. Ark. bordor, all were great.

Well Soonergrandmom, I'm still on an antenna for tv, old tv with the converter box now that everything is digital. The signal comes and goes and sometimes this dial up internet beats nothing.

My cell phone is a tracfone, so nothing fancy there.

And i do visit seed company sites to mainly review the vareities as BWI does not go into much detail on their description.Most of the time they dont have anything other then a name. I have seen where they get some of their seed from Willhite.

I felt really bad this morning watering that I have vacancies in the garden and I have spinach wanting to be planted. I have started my cabbage and broccoli indoors. Is it too hot to plant spinach and lettuce outside?
I have a well, thankfully, so I can water.