Growing English Spinach

Latest Update 26th January 2020.

English Spinach

• English Spinach is a cut and come again vegetable, similar to silverbeet, but much more compact and slower growing.
• Despite its slightly higher nutyrient value, I prefer to grow silverbeet because it's more productive, less likely to run to seed in warm weather and we prefer its taste.

Details.

• Binomial Name:                                            Spinacia oleracea.
• Family:                                                          Amaranthaceae.
• Variety:                                                         English Spinach.
• Crop Rotation Group:                                     Light Feeders.
• Garden Bed Type:                                          Ecobed.
• Plant Spacings:                                             200mm. 
• Minimum sun per day:                                    4 hours.
• Weeks to harvest:                                          18 weeks.
• Good Companions:                                        Beans, beetroot, sage, onion, potato, nasturtium.
• Climate:                                                        Warm temperate.
• Geography:                                                   Southern hemisphere. 

Nutrition.

• This food is very low in saturated fat and cholesterol. 
• It is a good source of thiamin, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium, and a very good source of dietary fibre, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin B6, folate and manganese. 
• More from nutrition data.self.com.

Maintain Healthy Plants

• This blogpage explains how I maintain healthy plants.  It describes how soil is prepared prior to planting, how to regulate the sun's intensity and how to help protect and feed plants through their leaves.

Propagate Plants Efficiently

•  This blogpage explains how I propagate seeds in a purpose built propagator.

Propagation Plan 2020.

• This blogpage tells you when to sow seeds.

Services Plan 2020.

• This blogpage tells you when to make compost and plan other garden/household related activities.

Growing Instructions.

• Sow a few spinach seeds in a drill in an EcoPropagator.  Cover with a light layer of sieved homemade compost and water them in well with captured rainwater.
• As soon as they are established, and have grown 4 leaves each, plant the best 4 of them into a prepared Ecobed about 200mm apart.  Water them in well with captured rainwater.

Harvesting and Storage.

• Once the English Spinach approaches maturity, begin to harvest the outer leaves a few at a time.  They will supply leaves for many weeks before the plants start to set seeds.
• You can store surpluses in your freezer.  Simply wash, roughly chop the leaves, blanch them (2 minutes in boiling water), dry and pack them away in large plastic zip bags in a freezer.

Organic Pest Control.

• English Spinach, like most vegetables, is vulnerable to attack from certain pests in my garden.  My blog on "Controlling Garden Pests" explains a little about these pests and what to do to protect plants from them.  For details click on the appropriate link below.
• Slugs and snails. 
• Caterpillars.
• Whitefly.
• Greenfly.
• Root knot nematodes.