There are few things more satisfying than walking out into your own garden to harvest for the next meal. But if you have not yet played around with cultivating your own food, spinach is a great place to start as it is one of the easiest vegetables to learn how to grow.
Plus, spinach can be used in the kitchen in such a wide variety of ways! From incorporating it into a homemade filling, or cooking it into a creamy spinach side dish to eating it raw by shredding it into a scrumptious salad.
Temperatures
Spinach plants require colder weather, especially during their first few months of growth. In general, the plant grows best in temperatures between 10°C and 15°C.
Once grown, spinach plants will generally survive in most climates. However warm weather will cause the plants to send up a flower spike and go to seed (also called bolting), which results in the leaves developing a biter taste.
Although spinach can tolerate a light frost, excessive exposure will damage the leaves.
Sun
Spinach like full sun but will also tolerate partial shade quite well. Ideally, the plant should get at least 4 hours of direct sunlight per day however it will survive with less. On the other hand, if given even more access to sunlight your spinach should flourish.
Water
In general vegetable plants prefer to be planted in a well-drained medium that is not left soaked in water. This is because too much dampness creates the ideal environment for pests and diseases to develop and grow.
So, although spinach prefers to have a consistent supply of moisture, similar to many leafy plants, it will not do well if overwatered.
Plus, spinach roots tend to stay fairly shallow, so ideally the plant should be lightly watered on a regular basis as opposed to heavily watered on the odd occasion.
Soil
In line with most food crops’ requirement for soil with good drainage, spinach prefers loamy soil. Furthermore, the pH of the soil should ideally be neutral. Avoid soil that is too acidic or alkaline.
Space
If planting from seed, sew them one to two centimetres deep. Each plant should be allowed a fair amount of growing room around it, so try to keep at least 18 centimetres between each of them.
