Spinach has a multitude of uses in the kitchen, from side salads, soups, chip and vegetable dips, to stuffings for all forms of entrees. If you're growing spinach at your house, you can savor all these with fresh produce from your own garden. And as a bonus, it actually grows fairly quickly, from seed to harvest in just six weeks. Moreover, it's a cool-weather vegetable to help you fill out your garden and rotate crops during the cold months, which is great to condition and renew your soil.

Spinach History

Spinach comes from southwest Asia and the Middle East, but was made popular through cultivation in the Mediterranean region, where it was first grown as a crop. Before this, it was solely found in the wild. It spread first through India and over to China to the east, and then to the Mediterranean and Europe in the west, ending up in France and England in the 1300s. It wasn't until five centuries later, in the 1800s, that spinach made the trip to the new world and North America.

Although best well-known for its iron content, spinach has many other good vitamins and minerals. It's got a lot of Vitamins A, C, and K, plus folate (Vitamin B), so it's one of the healthiest vegetables to eat.

Growing Spinach

Starting with the soil, you will want to have a high loam content, with a high level of nitrogen. The pH should be approximately 6.5. Spinach is fairly sensitive to acidity, so you'll want to get your soil analyzed to confirm the pH is high enough (low pH is acidic, high pH is basic, and 7.0 is a neutral pH). As mentioned before, spinach prefers cool weather, so your soil doesn't need to be too warm to get started - 50F should suffice, but try to be sure you don't encounter huge temperature swings and big frosts in the coming weeks.

Next, check out your seeds to make sure they're not too old. Although they can stay viable for a couple years, for highest germination probability, don't use seeds that are more than one year old. Seeds from a plant permitted to bolt from last season's plants are preferred. To plant the seeds in the soil, put them about 1/2 inch deep, spaced at 5 inches, and approximately a foot between rows. Spinach seedlings have very fragile roots, so you want to keep handling and transplanting to an absolute minimum. Having ample space for each seedling ensures you won't need to do any thinning or handling of the young plants.

Once in the ground, just make sure that the spinach gets enough water. It needs at least 0.75 inches each week.

Diseases and Problems

There are 2 common issues to know about when growing spinach. The first issue concerns molds and fungi. Spinach loves cool and damp environments, but so does fungus and mold. Take the proper precautions to make sure that water doesn't stay longer than needed. This includes ensuring that the area is well ventilated (the spacing should help with this) and well drained. You can also do your manual watering in the late morning, to promote evaporation. Secondly, if your spinach grows slowly and shows indications of yellowing leaves, you may be using a soil that's too acidic, as mentioned above. Prevention is the best solution here, so you may want to get your soil analyzed before growing.

Harvesting

One nice thing about spinach is that the leaves are edible at any point during the growing process. Typically 1-1.5 months is the right time, but try harvesting some younger leaves to test out the flavors and timing in your garden. Once you harvest the leaves, try not to handle them too much to avoid damage.

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