On Thu, 27 May 2004 03:48:55 GMT, fitwell
wrote:

I find that the bought varieties of spinach just don't last long
(except the organic ones). I've become fed up with this whole thing
so I started planting spinach indoors in peat pellets. I live in a
bachelor apartment and there is no way for me to have a garden so this
has raised a few questions (which I wouldn't worry about at all, of
course, if I had access to a garden and could plant that way).

Just how does spinach grow?
Depends on the variety. But, they are day length sensitive, once the
day length has reached so many hours of light, they tend to just bolt
right to flower and set seed. They also like cool growing conditions,
and of course, they require BRIGHT light growing conditions. I've
never tried to grow them indoors of course, but if you have a cool
room where you can hang some 4' light fixtures over some tables full
of pots for them, or go hydroponic, but I think it would perhaps be
cheaper to either go buy the stuff from the store the day you want to
use it. They don't keep long in fridges for many reasons. If you do
opt for growing it, keep the florescent lights about 2" above the
pots, and then about that far from the growing points of the plants as
they grow.

Self defrosting refrigerators work by blowing cold air and then
periodically blow hot air into the fridge and freezer to dissolve any
frost that's formed. In the process the dry out all your food too,
they're horrible to keep produce in for very long if you don't have a
real crisper drawer that has a controlled humidity level and doesn't
get the hot air, but even still.. nothing lasts as long in a
self-defrosting refrigerator, even the ice cubes are ruined in
freezers, they slowly are "freeze dried" out of existence and taste
nasty long before the process is completed.

I store stuff in plastic bags with paper towels in them to help keep
buildup of condensation to rot things so quickly, and wash the greens
after you take them out just before you're going to eat them .. but..
basically just buy them no more than a day before you're going to eat
them.


As to the sizes.. well Dad grew some Giant Nobel spinach one year that
had leaves 12 to 14 inches long and 6 to 8 inches wide at the largest.
He'd planted them in the fall and they came up then went dormant until
growing conditions were right in the spring and then they just took
off and got HUGE. They were great on tuna sandwiches on leaf folded
to get it to fit on the bread was sufficient! Sometimes half a leaf
if it was a small slice of bread.

Usually they get a few inches wide to the monsters above, all depends
on the plant.. and some plants can get a couple feet tall/long as
they flop over. Once the weather is too warm and days too long, then
folks switch to warmer weather substitutes, New Zealand "spinach"
malabar spinach, and such.

If you choose to try it, you should read up to see what the optimal
"day length" is, and temp that they like and then put them in a room
with A/C and only artificial light you can control I'd think. LOL I
don't like spinach *that* much ;-)

Janice

Does it become bush-like? or is it a stalky type of plant with many
leaves?

I don't know what to expect as I've never grown spinach at all before
(or any other type of lettuce, fruit or vegetable lol).

Also, probably my biggest concern is how many plants will I need to
furnish me with a couple of handfuls of spinach a day for a salad??
The next concern is how long any given plant may last ... is it a
perennial, I believe the term is? In other words, will one plant just
keep going and going ... that way, if I knew that that was the case,
it would just be a question of finding out over time how many plants
I'd need going at the same time in order to rotate "harvesting" leaves
from each one.

Thanks so much! I appreciate any info anyone can provide this garden
vegetable newbie!