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TheEasyGarden - Gardening ForumEasy - Fun - Fulfilling... How Gardening Should Be |
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I LOVE spinach and I have NO luck with it! I planted it in Feb this year because it was so warm. I put it in a raised bed up by the house, and kept it covered to keep it from getting too cold. It took FOREVER to sprout - not until March - and now it's bolting! It's Bloomsdale long standing. Should I try another variety, or is there something I'm doing wrong? 
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I always believe in trying different varieties. Especially if you are having trouble with a crop. If it's too late to try again wait until fall and try several kinds. Different years can bring different results for any crop. Some years I get 3 pumpkins some 35. Try a company that is close to you -maybe it's your climate. I would also try a shadier part of you garden.
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Well Kate, I have trouble with spinach bolting also.
One thing, I left Bloomsdale Long-standing a long, long time ago. I figure that one part of that name is right, the other is wrong. (Uh oh, there I go reading into names . . . 
)
Hector . . . how's that for a name (?) . . . worked well for me - for the long-standing part. I don't see it on the market anymore. I began to use Unipak 151 about 10 years ago and it does fairly well in my garden (despite it's weird name 
).
I am pretty sure that this is where I got the idea to try Unipak: Colorado State University (click)
Steve
Last edited by digitS' (05/03/2012 9:06 pm)
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The only way I've had any luck with spinach (or lettuce, for that matter) is to plant it in the fall. Usually try to get it in mid-Sept. I've had the best luck putting it in pots in a sheltered spot...think nxt to a brick wall. It grows a little bit in the fall and seems to like cold and snow. As soon as things start to warm up, it takes off and we usually have greens in March. If I plant in the spring, I get flowers.
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I must be the odd one out... or the consistent day night temps between 30-60 for like at least 4 months of the year may help, but the bloomsdale long standing seems to work for me. I've put them in buckets as starts, begining anywhere between october and may. They do plenty of freeze thaws through winter and seem to survive it. Our freezes are not too bad though, just a few days below freezing, pretty much never into the teens.
I get hand sized leaves off of them about twice before they bolt, and sometimes after i lop their post bolt heads off, they just send up more leaves before bolting again. Might just be the climate difference that makes it hard.
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I've been there with many greens.... I did find the baby spinach I bought last year to grow fast and do well, less likely to bolt or go bitter at the first signs of warmth. I harvest the outside leaves continuously as I need them, and not the whole plant so I get a long harvest time out of the spinach. Then I let it bolt to have seed for the next year. Worked well this year and last! 
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We don't bother to plant it anymore for all the reasons discussed above but when we have had good crops is was when we had plenty of manure in the bed. It seems to do best with a lot of nitrogen. FWIW.
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Growing the spinach is quite a difficult task. I had also tried it before a few months a go but i also failed there. Since that i haven't tried it at all. I had tried to grow it hydroponically indoors.
Last edited by jakesebastin (06/21/2012 8:45 am)
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Wah! 
I can't grow spinach either! I have planted in fall and it did nothing until spring, then it took off and bloomed! I have planted in spring and got dead seedlings. So I buy the bags of fresh spinach or the frozen little boxes. Had spinach/sausage/cheese omlettes for supper tonight and used the frozen boxed spinach.
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It's your weather. Here where it's coo, it's very easy to grow greens year round.
Mary
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