How to Grow Green Garden Spinach

I’ve been told that spinach is easy to grow but mine is always a failure. What am I doing wrong?

You could be growing the wrong type (see ‘Spinach or spinach beet‘, right). Spinach beet is the best kind to grow. It tolerates most types of soil, although it does not like one which is very acid. It grows best in full sun.

Your spinach bed should be prepared well before you sow the seed. Dig in plenty of compost and then add a dressing of 2:3:2 at the rate of 75g per metre. If your soil is very acid, give it a light dressing of dolomitic lime about four weeks before preparing the bed. Spinach beet likes a pH of about 6-7.

Because it germinates well, the seed is usually sown directly into the bed, although you could sow it into seed trays, if you like. The seeds are large and easy to handle and should be sown as thinly as possible — about 10cm apart — and covered lightly with fine soil. They should germinate in about a week. After about another two weeks, thin out the seedlings to allow the plants enough room to develop, leaving about 20 cm between them. (The thinnings can be replanted.) Feed the plants regularly with a liquid foliar feed.

The first leaves should be ready to harvest in about eight weeks, and you should pick the outside leaves regularly. Don’t cut them with a knife, but twist them off, rather like rhubarb leaves, and always leave four or five stalks in the centre to promote regrowth. Once the plants start to produce flower stalks, they will deteriorate rapidly and at this stage they should be discarded.

Spinach or spinach beet

What is the difference between spinach and spinach beet — and which is the best one to grow?

The plant which most of us call spinach is, in fact, a type of garden beet — Beta vulgaris cicla — which is also known as Swiss chard or silver beet. It has large, crinkly leaves, which have prominent leaf ribs. The leaves are only harvested when they are of a good size — usually about eight weeks after sowing. True spinach (Spinacia oleracea) has smaller, arrow-shaped leaves which are usually smooth or only slightly crinkled, depending on the variety. It is a cool-season crop and is usually only grown during the winter. Spinach beet can be grown almost throughout the year, although winter is the least favourable growing season. It is not only much easier to grow than true spinach, it will also give you a higher yield.

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