Last edited by shiny on November 11, 2026. View history
Spinach
How to sow spinach: Direct seed outdoors, thin to 15cm when seedlings are 3cm high
Sun requirement for spinach: Plant in Full Sun
Spinach is an annual plant whose deep green leaves are eaten as a vegetable. It grows best in cooler weather. It can be eaten raw or cooked.
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For spinach, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 2°C and a shortest growing cycle of 40 days at its best temperature, about 580 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your spinach will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
by shawnacscott,
This weekend I had two full days to really focus on the yard, and I made the most of it. With the intermittent help of several others over the course of the weekend, I got both easement planter boxes filled with compost and soil, cleaned up and weeded the alley, got the stump pulled from the coni…
lettuces
arugula
mustard
sunflowers
dill
onions
beets
tomatoes
fenugreek
bell peppers
okra
artichokes
mint
lavender
spinach
basils
thyme
parsley
zucchini
peas
calendulas
by gotica,
I finally got frustrated enough to establish one of the raised beds the other week, using a combination of enriched coir and compost.
I've sown Purple Haze carrots, brussels sprouts, purple broccoli, peas, turnips, english spinach and have transplanted two [zucchini](/crops…
spinach
zucchini
strawberries
by inkstone,
I originally wanted to do this yesterday but it rained in the morning so that kinda put a damper on things.
So I did it all today instead! A bunch of the seeds I wintersowed in the milk jugs and soda bottles were getting crowded so it was time to move them to their bigger (permanent) containers….
spinach
mizuna
arugula
tatsoi
lettuces
radicchio
broccoli
Malabar spinach
okra
parsley
anise
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 40 to 120 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Spinacia oleracea L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Caryophyllidae Caryophyllales Chenopodiaceae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: 0 °C, rest: -7 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | acaulescent (or rosette plants) |
| Optimal soil depth | shallow (20-50 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, light |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Resources outside Growstuff.
Jerusalem artichoke
leek
Photos
milki harvested 1 handful, weighing 0.01 kg.
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