How to Grow Spinach Plants: The Complete Guide (2024)

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Spinach tolerates full sun to light shade; prepare soil about a week before planting by mixing in compost. Alternatively, prepare the soil in late summer or early fall, when spinach can also be sown where winters aremild.

When to PlantSpinach

• Spinach requires 6 weeks of cool weather from seeding to harvest; this generally spring or fall, though many gardeners have better luck in thefall.
• Although seeds can be started indoors, it is not recommended, as seedlings are difficult totransplant.
• In the fall, sow seeds when the soil is 70°F or cooler. See our fall planting calendar.
• Many gardeners can grow spinach throughout the winter if they protect the young plants with a cold frame or thick mulch, then remove the protection when soil temperature in your area reaches 40ºF in spring. Remove the mulch to harvest some spinach, then replace themulch.
• If planting in the early spring, sow seeds as soon as the ground warms to 40°F. (Cover the soil with black plastic to speed itswarming.)
• To distract leaf miners, sow spinach seeds and radish seeds in alternate rows. Leaf miner damage to radish tops does not affect their rootgrowth.
• Common spinach cannot grow in midsummer as it’s not cool enough. (For a summer harvest, try New Zealand Spinach orMalabar Spinach, two similar leafy greens that are more heattolerant.)

How to PlantSpinach

• Sow seeds 1/2 of an inch deep every 2 inches and cover with 1/2 inch ofsoil.
• Plant in rows 12 to 18 inches apart or sprinkle over a wide row orbed.
• Sow every couple of weeks during early spring for a continuousharvest.

• Water spinach to keep soil constantlymoist.
• Use row covers to maintain cool soil and deterpests.
• When seedlings sprout to about 2 inches, thin them to 3-4 inches apart. You can eat thethinnings.
• Beyond thinning, no cultivation is necessary. Roots are shallow and easilydamaged.
• Water regularly andmulchto retainmoisture.
• When plants reach one-third of their growth, side-dress with a high-nitrogen fertilizer, as needed. Nutrient deficiencies may appear as yellow or pale leaves, stunted or distorted growth, a purpling or bronzing of leaves, leaves dropping early, or othersymptoms.
• In early spring and late fall: Spinach can tolerate the cold; it can survive a frost and temps down to 15ºF (-9°C). (See local frost dates) Young spinach is more tender; cover if cold temps are in theforecast.

There are four main types of spinach suited for spring and fallplantings.

• Baby-leaf style spinach is tender, with small-size leaves. The variety ‘Baby’s Leaf’ is good for containers; ‘Catalina’ is heat-tolerant and resistant to downymildew.
• Savoy spinach has curly, crinkled, dark-green leaves, e.g. ‘Bloomsdale.’ The ‘Winter Bloomsdale’variety is a crinkled-leaf, fall variety, tolerant to mosaicviruses.
• Semi-Savoy has slightly crinkled leaves and can be difficult to seed. ‘Melody’ is resistant to cucumber mosaic virus and downy mildew; mildew-resistant ‘Remington’ will grow in spring, summer, or fall; ‘Tyee’ can beplanted in spring or fall, and is resistant to downymildew.
• Smooth- or flat-leaf (also called plain leaf) varieties have spade-shape leaves. ‘Giant Nobel’ is a plain leaf variety and an heirloom that is slow to bolt; ‘Nordic IV’ isbolt-resistant.
• Malabar Spinach (Basella alba), a vine, and New Zealand Spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides), a perennial, are two heat-tolerantleafy greens that resemble common spinach; both are heat-tolerant. Grow them in the summer, when common spinach can’t take theheat.

• Harvest a few outer leaves from each plant (so that inner leaves can develop) when leaves reach the desired size, or harvest the entire plant, cutting the stem at thebase.
• Don’t wait too long to harvestor wait for larger leaves. Bitterness will set in quickly after maturity. Be aware of day length and heat: Increasing daylight (about 14 hours or longer) and warmer seasonal temperatures can cause spinach to bolt (develop a large stalk with narrower leaves and buds/flowers/seeds), which makes the leaf tastebitter.
• If spinach starts to bolt, pull the plant and use the leaves. Or try to slow the bolting: Pinch off the flower/seed heads, keep the soil moist, and provideshade.

How to StoreSpinach

Fresh spinach leaves are good for up to a week. Too much moisture hastens its demise. So store fresh spinach unwashed and don’t wash until ready to use. Pat dry with a paper towel and put in a freezer bag with the towel to absorbmoisture.

Given its short shelf life, spinach is perfect for freezing. Wash, trim off ends and yellowing leaves, blanch, and pack into freezer bags. See how to freeze spinach.

Catherine Boeckmann