Fall in love with Spinach
(Page 2 of 5)
Taking a tip from commercial spinach farmers who plant
their fall crop a full eight to 10 weeks before the first
hard frosts, I tried planting a number of spinach varieties
between the first and the third weeks of August. This
method has worked so well I have been spreading the news to
my spinachgrowing friends in other parts of North America,
and all of us have been amazed at our shared success. We've
been comparing notes on what varieties work the best, and
here's what we've found:
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BOUNTIFUL FALL VARIETIES
I've grown a wide range of spinach varieties, both
open-pollinated and hybrid, smooth leaf and savoy (wrinkled
or curly), in my fall gardens. The first thing I learned
was that varieties I knew well from spring planting
performed differently in fall, For example, in spring
'Olympia' grows faster than the classic bolt-resistant
standard 'Tyee,' but in hot August weather, 'Tyee'
out-yielded 'Olympia.' I've had similar success with the
semisavoyleaf variety 'Indian Summer,' which like 'Tyee'
quickly produced baby-leaf cuttings by the end of August
and nice fullgrown leaves by midSeptember.
Other varieties that did well from early August plantings
(August 1 through 10) were the smooth-leaf varieties
'Viroflay,' 'Space,' and 'Olympia.' While these are not as
fastgrowing as 'Tyee' in August, they seem to really come
into their own with the cooler weather of September,
sometimes producing leaves that are 5 to 6 inches in
diameter by late September. In several regions 'Olympia'
performed superbly from August plantings, producing the
largest yields of all the varieties tested. 'Viroflay' and
'Olympia' also proved to be especially tasty varieties when
harvested in late September and October.
'Winter Bloomsdale' didn't grow fast, but chugged along and
kept producing succulent savoy leaves into the cold days of
October. David Cavagnaro, a skilled vegetable gardener and
photographer, has also tried his hand at planting spinach
in August in his gardens in Decorah, Iowa. David is very
enthusiastic about the tremendous yields he gets in late
September from his early August plantings. He says it is by
far the best spinach he's ever grown. Some leaves are the
size of his outstretched hand. "Even the big leaves are
still succulent and juicy and are really fun to pick," he
says. Smooth-leaf 'Olympia' and 'Space' varieties were also
the best yielders in my own garden in Bellingham,
Washington. In late September both grew to sizes most
gardeners only dream about.
Out on the East Coast, C.R. Lawn of FEDCO Seeds in
Waterville, Maine, had a similar experience, with 'Olympia'
outperforming all others in his fall garden. C.R. praises
the whole idea of fall spinach. "There's nothing like the
spinach you harvest on those crisp fall days. By the time
it's ready, the weather is cool and there's plenty of
moisture that's what spinach really likes."
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