Susan, I love Spinach also but have a hard time getting it to come up, it seems as tho the ground is either too hot or too cold. I have to mulch all my greens to help keep the grit off them.

Larry

Susan,

I love spinach cooked or raw, but it takes up more space in the garden than I'm generally willing to give it, so most years I don't even plant it. The last year that I grew a big crop of spinach, I had it in a raised bed that was 4' wide and 30' long. We ate a lot fresh spinach and froze maybe a dozen quarts of it or so, but I just feel like I can get so much more of a harvest out of that space by planting something else there. It also is very time-consuming to wash and rinse it, wash and rinse it, wash and rinse it and then spin it dry in the salad spinner. Mulching well helps a little, and so does harvesting using the cut-and-come-again method since you're not yanking up roots and scattering soil, but it still takes quite a lot of labor to get the spinach clean. It is very labor intensive from the point of harvest onward and I just have other, more productive ways to spend my time.

The only savoy types I've grown in recent years were Tyee and Nobel Giant and they were good. For a smooth leaf, we usually planted Bloomsdale Long Standing, America or Melody. In our garden, the smooth-leaved types do better than the savoys.

Down here in southern OK, it can be very challenging to get a good spring spinach crop especially if we're having roller-coaster weather with temps varying wildly in March and April. Since both hotter temps and longer daylength contributes to bolting, getting a good harvest is highly dependent on having some cooperation from the spring weather.

Spinach works a bit better as a fall-planted crop here in our part of the state. It overwinters well here probably 7 or 8 years out of 10. I don't know if that is true for the more northern portions of the state. I usually grow Swiss Chard as a replacement for spinach since it takes heat better and doesn't bolt, or sometimes grow malabar spinach or tetragonia. Lambs quarters is a good late winter/early spring substitute and my dad always grew it instead of spinach.

I checked the OSU guide to see what varieties they recommend and this is what I found: Ambassador, America, Bloomsdale, Chesapeake, Coho, Fall Green, Grandstand, Melody and Ozarka II.

Spinach germinates well when the soil is in the right temperature range (and when the soil is moist) but poorly if the soil is too hot or too cold or too dry.

Tbe optimal daytime soil temperature for great germination of spinach is 50 degrees. At 50 degrees, you'll see about 90% germination in less than two weeks. At slightly higher daytime soil temps, you might get slightly quicker germination, but less of the spinach will germinate. For example, Tom Clothier's data base shows that spinach seed will germinate in only 7 days at 59 degrees, but only 82% of the seed germinated. At 68 degrees, you'll get germination in only 6 days but only 52% will germinate. So, you'll have the highest germination rate at 50 degree soil temps but faster germination at a lower germination rate at 59 through 86 degrees. Once soil temps are above 86 degrees, spinach seed goes dormant and won't sprout. That means a fall crop generally has to be planted pretty late.

One way to ensure better germination is to put your seed in a cup of water in the refrigerator and let it sit there for 24-48 hours just before planting. Sitting in that cold water for a limited period of time speeds up germination by breaking dormancy.

Dawn

The only spinach I've grown in the last few years was in the cold frames last winter and it did great. I would have to go look and see what varieties I grew. Jay

It looks like the OSU fact sheet recommends all 3 varieties of the smooth leaf that you've grown, Dawn. I may just give it a pass unless I come across some cheap seeds of those varieties on the seed racks.

I did read about the difficulty in germinating Spinach seed and wondered if I should start it inside where my temps approximate 70 degrees, and then plant it outside. I would soak the seed first, of course. I thought about the cut-and-come again variety that you mention, Dawn, but are you talking about Tetragonia tetragonoides, or New Zealand Spinach, which is similar and considered a Spinach alternative? It is more heat tolerant, drought tolerant, and insect and disease resistant, from what I have read about it.

I also considered baby Spinach, varieties which actually are dwarf and not just regular Spinach picked early, like Burpee's Baby Leaf. It's an early crop variety (30 DTM).

I may well go ahead an try to sow indoors and transplant. It might take to wintersowing, too, around end of February to early March. I'll have to think about it.

Larry, I will grow mine in containers and mulch them, so maybe that will help with the "grit" - ugh! Nothing worse that biting into gritty Spinach, is there?

Thanks for the input everyone.

Susan

Susan, If you will remind next month when I am getting things ready for the seed swap, I will send you some seeds. I only have Bloomsdale Long Standing, I think.

Susan,

Yes, when I mentioned teragonia, I was referring to three one commonly called New Zealand spinach. I like malabar spinach even better. It is very ornamental with its red stems. If you grow it on a trellis, you get a lot of yield from a very small space.

Dawn

I actually grew Malabar Spinach, the red variety, several years ago, but only as an ornamental. Didn't taste it or anything. Maybe I'll try the green variety this time around.

Carol, thanks so much for the offer. Would love some to try. I have heard that Spinach seed doesn't stay viable for very long - about 1, maybe 2 years max.

I ordered the Swiss Chard seeds so I will have to try that in salads as well.

Susan

Dawn, is malabar spinach more like spinach or chard, taste-wise? We love raw spinach and like it cooked for some things but have come to admit that we just can't stand chard in any way. I'd sure love to find vining options for all of the veggies I grow for a few reasons. Of course, not everything will vine but to add vining greens? I'd love that!

Diane

Diane, I'm going to plant the Malabar Spinach for use in salads. I just read, though, that cooking it is not the best way to use it - it is mucilaginous when exposed to heat and gets more so the longer you cook it, too. So, nix that idea for me.

I wasn't going to grow enough Spinach for cooking anyway, so will just use the young leaves of the Malabar Spinach for fresh use.

Susan

Diane,

I am not good at describing subtle flavor nuances, but I'll try. I don't think malabar really tastes like spinach or swiss chard as I find it more bland than both of them when eaten raw. It is fairly bland but with a touch of a sort of peppery flavor. I like it better when used as a spinach substitute in recipes where the flavor doesn't have to stand on its own. When sauteed with olive oil and garlic, it isn't bad.

Having said that, none of the so-called spinach substitutes taste at all like spinach to me. Of course, that just might be my taste buds because some people think they do taste like spinach. It also might be a climate thing where malabar, tetragonia or other spinach substitutes taste different/better if grown in milder climates.

Malabar, when cooked, is sort of slimey. If you can imagine spinach crossed with okra (in terms of sliminess, not flavor), then malabar spinach is what you'd have.

If you don't like Swiss Chard, you still might like beet spinach, aka Perpetual Spinach. To me, it tastes less like Swiss chard than any other chard does and tastes a bit more like spinach. Seeds for it are not easy to find, but usually Fedco or The Cook's Garden or other companies offer seed of it as a spinach substitute.

I consider the spinach substitutes to be substitutes in terms of being a green that grows in heat but not in terms of flavor. I'm not a big grower or eater of lots of greens after the cool season passes because none of them taste good to me once they're growing in even just medium-hot weather. Tim loves salads though, so I'm going to try harder to grow a better variety of salad greens for him this winter/spring.

For the record, I don't much care for any of the amaranths grown for their leaves in summer either.

Dawn

Thanks, Dawn & Susan! I might have to give it a try for my salads. I wouldn't like the slime factor so not even bother with that. *gag* Thanks for the other suggestions, too!

Diane