Early Planting of Spinach

[NJCher]

I ran across a sidebar in a gardening book which tells about how to plant spinach early, so I decided to do it.

snip

Spinach can be sown in winter, even on frozen soil, as long as you cover the seeds with some thawed soil. It's easiest to sow in a pallet collar or other kind of grow box because you can regulate the temperature with a lid. How to:

Scrape off any snow on the ground. pour on a 3/4-1 1/4 inch layer of compost in soil. Make rows and lay down spinach seeds 4 inches apart. Cover with soil and then with a layer of snow. instead of watering. The sun will eventually melt the snow.

Cover with a transparent lid, for example, an old window or a frame with an attached plastic sheet. The seed will be fine even if the soil freezes. Once spring arrives, the seeds will germinate and you can count on an early harvest.

Here's where I planted mine and how I covered it:

Below are two elevated raised beds that get excellent sun. They had to be weeded of daisies and compost applied:





I thought about this plastic cover, but opted for another:



This is the one I went with because it's easier to access. It is nothing more than a plastic storage bin turned upside down.



I planted my spinach and other lettuce seeds on Jan. 20. I'll be checking for seedlings in the next few days. I'll post back when they come up.

[niyad]

1. Looking forward to your report!

[Diamond_Dog]

2. You don't have any snow there, Cher?

I love fresh spinach! Hope your project yields lots!

[NJCher]

3. So far no snow

As a matter of fact, there was just a segment on our local NPR (WNYC) about how so far this year there has been no snow. We have had regular rain, so it doesn't seem like last year's drought.

I am taking advantage of it and getting my beds ready when we have good weather, like today when it is 43 and sunny!

[IbogaProject]

4. Where in NJ?

Like which county? I'm just curious as I'm from near Philadelphia, and the weather varies widely over the range of the state.

[NJCher]

6. Essex

A very blue county. 🙂

[IbogaProject]

9. Burlington county originally

I was asking about your climate zone more than political lean of your area. When I lived there my district was R until Andy Kim came along and maybe a little redistricting reflecting the Blueing of the state.

[NJCher]

10. I understood that

If I can work it in that I live in a blue area, I do. I've had my day in red states and it's such a luxury to be able to say that I live in a blue area. Anyway, Zone 6.

I've met Andy Kim and he has come to our teacher's union meetings twice now. So glad he won again. He is such a nice person, very sincere about his job, and comes from a family that truly values education.

[MissB]

5. I started to do winter sowing last year

it is pretty much this.

Enjoy the early crop of spinach!

[NJCher]

7. I used to do winter sowing

I learned a lot from that experience. Will write about it when I’m on my computer instead of this iPad.

[MissB]

8. I look forward to hearing about it! I had great success last year, particularly with squash

It did feel odd sowing the seeds in January, but I also had super strong and healthy plants growing outside way before I would've previously even thought to sow seeds directly. Best part is that I could just pop them out of the containers and put them in place without having to transition them to outside conditions.

I am still doing peppers, tomatoes and eggplant indoors - mostly because I have a fairly short growing season here. I pick mostly early varieties and give them a good head start inside. I wish I could do them outside, but they wouldn't pop up in time to harvest tomatoes.

[NJCher]

11. the thing that surprised me about winter sowing

was how long it took for some of the seeds to sprout. If I had put them directly in the bed, I would have given up hope and re-planted. As it was, they sprouted, but so much later than I expected.

So I got lots of plants like you did, but there were a few that took forever.

i agree that the fact that they are hardy and don't have to be babied is one of the best things about winter sowing.

I'll be doing peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes indoors, too. I have a couple warming mats that I put them on and almost always have good results from that.

Did you learn about winter sowing from Trudy at GardenWeb? That was a long time ago that I learned about it!

[MissB]

12. I too use heat mats inside

I set them up last weekend- and then started about 30 types of peppers, tomatoes and eggplants

I didn’t know her from Gardenweb! But her method (and some of her videos) are on a Facebook page called Winter Sowers. I came across the page last year.

[NJCher]

13. I'm going to check that out

That's where she got started with winter sowing. I and hundreds of other poster told about our winter sowing exploits at GardenWeb. I quit following it when someone bought out GardenWeb.

You are getting and early start, but maybe not. Depends on your zone. I'll start my peppers on Feb. 10.

I got such a great eggplant crop this last year. Here's a pic of some of my eggplants:



This is actually the first time I've ever had a good eggplant crop. Why? Because before I only grew one or two plants. I learned you have to grow a lot of them. I had about 15 this year.

I also grew Japanese eggplant that turned out beautifully.

[NJCher]

14. checked out the Facebook Winter Sowing group

It takes a lot to get me to Facebook, but for gardening, I'll do it!

There was a big smile when I saw all those photos of labelled seeds planted in milk cartons and other types of containers sitting in the snow. What a great experience that will be for those gardeners this coming spring! Imagine checking them every other day or so to see what's new!!

Also, it made me feel good because I know there are other gardeners who are as nuts as I am about gardening.

It was also fun to see how inventive some people are, like the person who tied the plastic bags to a pole to hold them upright.

Anyway, thanks for mentioning this and I encourage anyone else who needs a winter gardening lift to check it out.