Growing Spinach, also English spinach

Spinacia oleracea : Amaranthaceae / the amaranth family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N Dec
      P       P P      

(Best months for growing Spinach in USA - Zone 5a regions)

  • P = Sow seed
  • Easy to grow. Sow in garden. Sow seed at a depth approximately three times the diameter of the seed. Best planted at soil temperatures between 50°F and 77°F. (Show °C/cm)
  • Space plants: 8 - 12 inches apart
  • Harvest in 5-11 weeks.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Broad beans (fava), cabbage, cauliflower, celery, eggplant (aubergine), onion, peas, strawberry, santolina

Your comments and tips

23 Apr 09, Jackie (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
I have had good success with Yates "Winter Queen". I plant the seeds in my own seed raising mix (mushroom compost & blue metal dust). I use 4 inch pots & stand them in a container of water to keep the mix moist until the plants germinate and show their first two leaves. Then I take the pots out of the water and just sprinkle them each day until they are ready to transplant. It seems that every seed I plant germinates when I do it this way.
26 May 09, Dean (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
hello,i have tried growing spinich & other leafy greens but they keep getting eaten throughout the night,i have plenty of snail bait around & don't think its snails & carn't see any other insects around.may be witchety grubs in soil.can u tell me a natural insecterside or other method to adress this problem please.i live in northern NSW on the coast
08 Jun 09, Natalie (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Dean, i have found my greens were getting eaten over night aswell and found the culprit....a little black insect which curls up(about the size of a green pea). It burrows under ground under the plant and comes up when the soil is interrupted. I've no idea what the insect is but it decimated my chinese cabbage crop. If anyone knows what this insect is and how it can be erradicated without the use of pesticides, that'd be great.
26 Oct 15, Julie (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Hi Natalie. If the insect everyone suspects are slaters just be careful what product you do buy from any garden department. I read a product last week that was especially for slaters but when I read the fine print it said it couldn't be used on edible plants. Best to ask the garden staff for sure.
09 Jun 09, JPVD (Australia - temperate climate)
Hi Natalie; Sounds likeyou got 'slaters' baby! Hard to kill...apparently can be 'managed' with things like upturned lemon rinds and potatoe peels. They go under at night for the moisture and in the morning you can get quite a few to destroy! I hate 'em; cuz they are greedy and seemingly unstoppable. Best to bring on the seedlings in safe seed-trays somewhere and plant them out when they are quite large.
10 Jun 09, Mark (Australia - temperate climate)
Hi Natalie, We had a really bad problem with slaters which can easily be overcome by decreasing the amount of mulch (thats where they live) and or using a product called Multiguard by Multicrop. It is excellent in controlling slaters and snails and doesn't impact on the beneficial animal in the garden and breaks down into an iron chelate. Good luck.
02 Jul 09, Hannah (Australia - tropical climate)
Living in Darwin, and would love to grow spinach/baby spinach, but can't seem to get it to grow in our hot climate! Any tips/suggestions on how to keep it alive would be appreciated!
04 Jul 09, Barb (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
HI Hannah, Traditional spinach struggles in a hot climate - I grow it in winter in Sydney, but summer it only survives in cool shade. Fortunately there are various hot climate 'spinach' options: Egyptian spinach (Malu Khia) likes hot climate, and I think Ceylon spinach is another. Seeds obtainable from www.greenharvest.com.au - they're QLD based, so they're seeds should be acclimatised to tropics/subtropics.
07 Jul 09, Sherran (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Help!! We want to get hold of the old fashioned long leafed spinach, a sweet juicy tender skinned purple grape. And can any one recommend a nice, sweet , juicy miniature manderine.
18 Sep 09, jennie (Australia - temperate climate)
my spinach seems to be dying all my other plants are fine ( herbs and vegtables) but its only the spinach that is dying they have shade area ,that gets a good amount of sun and alot of space what do i do my nursery don't know either i have tried alot of seedlings but still only the spinach die ?? could it be seasol?
Showing 11 - 20 of 114 comments

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