Spinach spikes
Growing spinach for the first time this year, and the plants are doing
well. In the last couple of days, the plants have started to develop small spikes which I presume will be flowers. Someone suggested to me that this might be a bad thing ie that I should remove the spikes. Is this correct? Thanks, Will |
Spinach spikes
Growing spinach for the first time this year, and the plants are doing
well. In the last couple of days, the plants have started to develop small spikes which I presume will be flowers. Someone suggested to me that this might be a bad thing ie that I should remove the spikes. Is this correct? Thanks, Will If the spinach is running to seed it is a lost cause. Sounds like you haven't been watering it well enough / often enough. I'd plant some more. If you allow spinach to dry out too much, it thinks it is going to die, so it quickly goes into flowering mode before it dies. -- Drakanthus. (Spam filter: Include the word VB anywhere in the subject line or emails will never reach me.) |
Spinach spikes
In article , will
writes Growing spinach for the first time this year, and the plants are doing well. In the last couple of days, the plants have started to develop small spikes which I presume will be flowers. Someone suggested to me that this might be a bad thing ie that I should remove the spikes. Is this correct? The appearance of spikes means that your spinach is trying to develop seed heads - i.e. bolt. That is a perfectly natural thing for the plant to do as part of its life-cycle, but it does not help your aim of having spinach for culinary use. Take off the spikes as they show and you can extend the cropping life of the plant/s, but eventually nature will have its way and your spinach will go to seed. You may have started your spinach seed too early. If you manage your spinach carefully by sowing seed late in each spring, you can have fresh green leaves all year round. You could save seed from your own plants, but purchased certified stock usually gives more reliable results. -- Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs. |
Spinach spikes
In article ,
Alan Gould wrote: ... Take off the spikes as they show and you can extend the cropping life of the plant/s, but eventually nature will have its way and your spinach will go to seed. You may have started your spinach seed too early. If you manage your spinach carefully by sowing seed late in each spring, you can have fresh green leaves all year round. ... Well, I have never succeeded. As the weather warms up and the air becomes drier, the plant will stop putting out large, fleshy leaves, whether you remove its flower spikes or no. And I have found that, in dryish years, sowing late merely means that the spinach bolts before it is large enough to be worth picking :-( If you can succeed in a dryish year on sandy soil in the east, please tell us how! Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
Spinach spikes
In article , Nick Maclaren
writes If you can succeed in a dryish year on sandy soil in the east, please tell us how! Sow the seed singly in 3.5in. polypots in mid to late May - keep the seedlings growing on without any checks. Plant them out with as little root disturbance as possible. Don't allow the leaves to become over large before picking them. If you don't succeed with true spinach, try leafbeet/perpetual spinach instead. We can have spinach, leafbeet and curly kale available for fresh picking all year, but we don't need all three nowadays, so we dispense with the spinach. We don't have sandy soil here, we are on maritime clay over limestone. -- Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs. |
Spinach spikes
"Alan Gould" wrote in message ... In article , Nick Maclaren writes If you can succeed in a dryish year on sandy soil in the east, please tell us how! Sow the seed singly in 3.5in. polypots in mid to late May - keep the seedlings growing on without any checks. Plant them out with as little root disturbance as possible. Don't allow the leaves to become over large before picking them. If you don't succeed with true spinach, try leafbeet/perpetual spinach instead. We can have spinach, leafbeet and curly kale available for fresh picking all year, but we don't need all three nowadays, so we dispense with the spinach. We don't have sandy soil here, we are on maritime clay over limestone. -- Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs. My leafbeet/perpetual spinach is bolting (general neglect and abuse) - if I remove flower stalks etc. will it soldier on? i.e. is it different from 'normal' spinach and keeps growing after flowering? |
Spinach spikes
In article , "David W.E. Roberts" writes: | | My leafbeet/perpetual spinach is bolting (general neglect and abuse) - if I | remove flower stalks etc. will it soldier on? | i.e. is it different from 'normal' spinach and keeps growing after | flowering? I think that leafbeet ss Beta vulgaris, in which case it is a biennial (not an annual like spinach), so the answer would be "No, in that respect, it is the same." The truly perpetual spinaches are perennials like Good King Henry. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
Spinach spikes
In article , David W.E. Roberts
writes My leafbeet/perpetual spinach is bolting (general neglect and abuse) - if I remove flower stalks etc. will it soldier on? i.e. is it different from 'normal' spinach and keeps growing after flowering? Once your leaf-beet begins to run to seed its productive life is drawing to a close. Taking the flower stalks off will keep it going a little longer but by that time you should have that following year's plants ready to start cropping. It can be picked on a 'cut-and-come-again' basis all through the year -- until it runs to seed that is. -- Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs. |
Spinach spikes
In article , Nick Maclaren
writes The truly perpetual spinaches are perennials like Good King Henry. Winter and summer spinach are Chenopodiaceae in the same family as Good King Henry, beetroot, quinoa, swiss chard, ruby chard etc. They are perennials, best grown for cropping purposes as annuals or biennials. -- Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs. |
Spinach spikes
In article ,
Alan Gould wrote: In article , Nick Maclaren writes The truly perpetual spinaches are perennials like Good King Henry. Winter and summer spinach are Chenopodiaceae in the same family as Good King Henry, beetroot, quinoa, swiss chard, ruby chard etc. They are perennials, best grown for cropping purposes as annuals or biennials. Are you sure? CTW says that Beta vulgaris can be a perennial, but my guess is that it is still monocarpic. I have never seen Spinacia oleracea described as other than an annual. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
Spinach spikes
"Alan Gould" wrote in message ... In article , Nick Maclaren writes If you can succeed in a dryish year on sandy soil in the east, please tell us how! Sow the seed singly in 3.5in. polypots in mid to late May - keep the seedlings growing on without any checks. Plant them out with as little root disturbance as possible. Don't allow the leaves to become over large before picking them. If you don't succeed with true spinach, try leafbeet/perpetual spinach instead. We can have spinach, leafbeet and curly kale available for fresh picking all year, but we don't need all three nowadays, so we dispense with the spinach. We don't have sandy soil here, we are on maritime clay over limestone. -- Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs. My leafbeet/perpetual spinach is bolting (general neglect and abuse) - if I remove flower stalks etc. will it soldier on? i.e. is it different from 'normal' spinach and keeps growing after flowering? |
Spinach spikes
In article , "David W.E. Roberts" writes: | | My leafbeet/perpetual spinach is bolting (general neglect and abuse) - if I | remove flower stalks etc. will it soldier on? | i.e. is it different from 'normal' spinach and keeps growing after | flowering? I think that leafbeet ss Beta vulgaris, in which case it is a biennial (not an annual like spinach), so the answer would be "No, in that respect, it is the same." The truly perpetual spinaches are perennials like Good King Henry. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
Spinach spikes
In article , David W.E. Roberts
writes My leafbeet/perpetual spinach is bolting (general neglect and abuse) - if I remove flower stalks etc. will it soldier on? i.e. is it different from 'normal' spinach and keeps growing after flowering? Once your leaf-beet begins to run to seed its productive life is drawing to a close. Taking the flower stalks off will keep it going a little longer but by that time you should have that following year's plants ready to start cropping. It can be picked on a 'cut-and-come-again' basis all through the year -- until it runs to seed that is. -- Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs. |
Spinach spikes
In article , Nick Maclaren
writes The truly perpetual spinaches are perennials like Good King Henry. Winter and summer spinach are Chenopodiaceae in the same family as Good King Henry, beetroot, quinoa, swiss chard, ruby chard etc. They are perennials, best grown for cropping purposes as annuals or biennials. -- Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs. |
Spinach spikes
In article ,
Alan Gould wrote: In article , Nick Maclaren writes The truly perpetual spinaches are perennials like Good King Henry. Winter and summer spinach are Chenopodiaceae in the same family as Good King Henry, beetroot, quinoa, swiss chard, ruby chard etc. They are perennials, best grown for cropping purposes as annuals or biennials. Are you sure? CTW says that Beta vulgaris can be a perennial, but my guess is that it is still monocarpic. I have never seen Spinacia oleracea described as other than an annual. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
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