Growing Spinach in Kentucky
Ok, I admit this is a fairly narrow discussion. However If anyone has any suggestions for growing spinach in areas of similar latitude and biome to KY I would be interested in hearing about in.
I have heard comments ranging from, 'You can't grow spinach in KY" to "Its persnickity"
Thanks John
I have heard comments ranging from, 'You can't grow spinach in KY" to "Its persnickity"
Thanks John
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Walker on -
Dear Penelope,
that would be true if I could get it to germinate..........
pax
John
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Permalink Reply by Penelope on -
Won't germinate? How odd. I know I have mixed luck with it. I've tried several varieties and can't say one is better than another. while mine looks horrible - bolts immediately, my daughter's, just six blocks away is awesome (as the kids say these days) -- large, curled leaves that look just like the photos in the catalogs. I've decided it's because of full sun. She has it and I don't. So perhaps my plants push to go to seed because of the stress of trying to get more sun.??? i don't think our soils are too different -- mine might be slightly heavier, more clay -- and parts of the yard were used for tossing clinkers from a coal stoker by former owners years ago; I still dig them up occasionally (my little house is at least 100 years old) -- is that the problem? Weeds grow really well, however. My new garden boxes are bypassing my regular soil now, however, at least for vegetables.
One year I thought my lettuce and spinach weren't germinating. I would check out the row every morning looking for signs of life and discovered quite late that tiny grey slugs were eating it off as fast as it came up. It was an odd year of no homegrown lettuce -- unimaginable! Thankfully, the farmer's market saved my palate.
Is there a chemical germinating inhibitor in your soil? Gremlins? Leprechauns? Have you consulted the almanac for your region? My mother in law had great gardens and swore by the almanac planting times.
Spinach has oxalic acid, like rhubarb leaves but not in as large a quantity -- could that combine with something in the soil when the seeds get damp? i am obviously not a chemist.
Well, this was a rather useless ramble, but illustrates some of the questions I ask myself when a crop fails.
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Permalink Reply by Brook on -
John, I've been singularly unsuccessful trying to grow spinach. \
I don't have trouble with it germinating. But it never gets very big. And, as with most hardy greens, one of our problems is that we typically have 36 hours of spring and then we're into high summer.
Have you tried making a seed tape with the seed? Sometimes that helps.
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Permalink Reply by Penelope on
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Your spinach problem keeps floating through my mind, especially yesterday as I planted some spinach seeds in one of my garden boxes a variety I've never tried before, something like "red tropper"??? I don't have the packet handy at the moment. I realized that spinach is a cool weather crop. Perhaps you're planting it when the soil is too warm. Most years I plant spinach and mesclun/lettuce in the fall and it germinates in the spring when it's good and ready. This season, I didn't do that because 2007 was a year of much turmoil and psychic interruption. Since some seeds, apples for instance, need periods of cold before they'll germinate, maybe even putting seeds in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks would help.
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Permalink Reply by Penelope on
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the more i think about it. when i start apple seeds (and i've done this about three times and have actually harvested apples from such trees that were planted 20 some years ago up on the prairie), i put them in a plastic bag with a bit of damp sterile potting soil and put them in the refrigerator. in a few weeks they sprout, then i plant them. perhaps sprouting spinach seeds before planting them will help.
am i nuts? (wait, don't answer that) :)
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Permalink Reply by John Walker on
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Dear Penelope,
You're not nuts. Jerome Lange actually suggested the same thing.
If the spinach I planted yesterday doesn't come up by next W/e I will try this.
pax
John
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Permalink Reply by Plumtreed on -
I know it is an 'aged' thread but it is nice to get involved in a discussion on growing things!
Where we are in Australia we have cold winters, including a snowfall or two each year, and very hot summers. In the summer months we grow Silverbeet, a type of Spinach or Seakale, and sow seeds for English type Spinach in the Autumn to mature during the cold season. The Silverbeet is sown in punnets to get a good start and the seedlings, often 'double-rooted' , are planted after turning in a handful of Dolimite.
Spinach does not like acid, dry soil. Seeds should be sown very thinly and well watered. We have varieties of spinach growing right through our cold season. We often grow it between the rows of beans, peas and broccoli.
Have you tried Silverbeet during your summer, they are very much less likely to bolt and are v.easy to grow!
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Permalink Reply by Brook on
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Nice suggestions, Plumtreed. However, the biggest problem we have in the international gardening world is the use of common names instead of biological ones. Too often the same word is used referring to a different plant.
Your post is a good example of this, as the plants you name, while commonly called spinach, are unrelated to it, and to each other.
Seakale is a brassica, botanical name Crambe maritima. Silverbeet is a chenopodiaceae whose botanical name is Beta vulgaris. Silverbeet is considered to be a kale, by many authorities, because they use that designation for any such plant grown just for its greens.
Silverbeet, btw, is a hardy plant and will not tolerate Kentucky summers. It's a good choice, however, for spring and fall (the same times spinach would grow).
True spinach is also a chenopodiaceae, but both its genus and species are different, being Spinacia oleracea.
There are several other plants with the word "spinach" as part of their names, such as Malobar and New Zealand spinaches. But they are even more unrelated to true spinach than the first two.
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Permalink Reply by Plumtreed on
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You are right of course, pls substitute Beta vulgaris var.Cicla for Silverbeet and Spinaccia Oleracea for Spinach.
Anyhow, my suggestion was to try Silverbeet as a substitute for Spinach because we grow it through our very hot summers. This suggests, that it may, with some care, grow in your area as an alternative for the ' hard-to-strike' Spinach. "Fordhook Giant" is the type often grown.
We grow our Spinach throughout our winters...May, June, July, August.
We are harvesting the Silverbeet we planted in the summer and should be able to do so for some time yet. We used to get two seasons from the Silverbeet plants but the drought we have had seems to prevent this.
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Permalink Reply by John Walker on
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Thanks to all.
A sub theme for this thread seems to be emerging and that is what does well in hot and cool weather?
With the statistically measurable potential of changes in climate that may or may not have anything to do with the activity of Homo sapiens or their agricultural, industrial, military, liberal /libertarian terrorist activities ( ;), it is worthwhile begetting a heads up of crops that may do when, if or when seasons, wherever, get hotter, drier, cooler, wetter. (I'm jus'coverin' bases here).
I look forward to Brook's suggestions about what we can do as gardeners to prepare for the future.
pax
John
PS, Thank goodness for Linnaeus
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Permalink Reply by Brook on
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Maybe it's our humidity, then, in conjunction with the heat? Or possibly the intensity of the sun (which can affect plants irrespective of temperature)? All I know is that, from a culturing point of view, the only difference between beets and silverbeet is that one has bulbous roots and the other merely greens.
Down here, both are grown as spring and fall crops, but do not do well in the summer.
Greens are very popular in the American south, and are an integral part of "southern" cuisine. Although beets are eaten, the most popular of the hardy greens is turnip. Like beets, they come in both versions, and many southerners are unaware of the fact turnip roots are edible. Like the others, however, turnip greens are a spring and fall crop.
Collards are our summer green. And if there's anything tastier than the pot likker left over from cooking a mess of collards and ham-hocks I don't know what it could be.
How hot is hot by you? Here, on average, our summer temperatures would be in the low to mid-90sF (I have no idea what that is in C), with occasionaly forays into the upper 90s and, rarely (thank goodness), triple digits. Humidity typically parallels the temperature, and something like 97/97 is not uncommon.
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