Fall in love with Spinach
(Page 3 of 5)
Steve Bellavia, trials manager at ohnny's Selected Seeds in
Albion, Maine, also grew fall spinach a couple of years
ago, planted in August. While many of the varieties he
planted were impressive for their tenderness and yield,
Steve was most struck by the performance of 'Spinner.'
"[It] grew to a nice full size, was dark green and
flavorful, and was the best variety in the whole trial," he
says.
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Many people believe savoy spinach varieties taste better
than smooth-leaf types, but that doesn't seem to be true
with fall crops. In our trials, the smooth-leaf varieties
'Olympia' and 'Viroflay' both got rave reviews for flavor,
while the standard savoy variety, 'Bloomsdale Long
Standing,' and its modern semisavoy cousin, Tyee,' both
proved less flavorful.
KEEP YOUR SEEDS COOL
Bellavia also reminded me of one of the pitfalls of
planting fall spinach. When he planted a fall-spinach plot
in early August, the soil was somewhat dry and then
received 1/3 inch of rain; daytime temperatures hovered in
the low 80s for a couple of weeks. Although the soil never
became excessively dry, the spinach came up rather
sparsely. Of course this can happen with any crop when You
allow the seedbed to dry out after planting, but this is
especially problematic for spinach when the weather is hot.
Spinach seed doesn't germinate well a bove 75 degrees and
won't come up at all when soil temperatures are above 85
degrees. One way to get a good stand of spinach when
planting in late summer is to water it lightly on hot days.
This will cool the sod enough to get a good stand
established.
If you use this trick, try to plant into raised beds in the
best-drained spot in your garden to reduce the risk of root
rot. A well-drained soil also will stay warm longer,
enabling the spinach to grow a little more before the
season comes to an end. A soil with lots of mature compost
worked into it is very desirable, as spinach is a very
heavy feeder. We also found not all spinach varieties
planted in early August fared as well as some of our big
winners like 'Olympia' and 'Spinner.' David and I have had
the early August plantings of savoy varieties 'Long
Standing Bloomsdale' and 'Coho' bolt by early September
Why? Presumably because in our locations the day length was
still long enough in mid-August to trigger flowering. By
trying a number of different planting dates throughout
August we've found planting between August 15 and 20 seems
to be the best time of all for Northern gardeners. You'll
avoid the hottest days of early August, which can be tough
on spinach germination, and you'll avoid possible bolting
problems if you're in the higher latitudes of the North.
Certainly we've found that all the best fall varieties did
well planted in mid-August.
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