Spinach in Spring

Hey gardeners!

March doesn’t always feel like spring (it can still be pretty chilly outside, especially around here). Luckily, some crops appreciate that! In particular: spinach likes cooler temperatures, which makes it ideal for early spring gardening!

Spinach seeds like cool soil temperatures when they’re germinating: between about 45 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s recommended to plant them roughly 4 to 8 weeks before the average last frost date. In our area, that means spinach seeds can be planted in late March or early April.

You can find last frost dates by zip code here — Binghamton’s is around May 7th: https://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates/zipcode.

Here’s another link to an approximate planting calendar by zip code. It’s pretty handy!

https://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-calendar/zipcode )

For the first few weeks, keep a clear plastic cover over the seeds. This will act as a sort of greenhouse, making sure they don’t get too cold — although spinach seedlings can tolerate temperatures of 15 or 20 degrees Fahrenheit, the ideal growing temperature is around 50 or 60 degrees. Also, make sure the soil stays moist — you can even remove the cover on rainy days. If the spinach seedlings dry out, they will “bolt” (grow a central stem to produce seeds) and become bitter.

When the leaves have reached a good size: harvest the outer ones first by snipping them off at the base, leaving the center intact. This allows the plant to keep growing new ones (and you to keep collecting them!).

You can keep harvesting spinach leaves as long as they taste good — the plants will bolt eventually, as days get longer and temperatures warm up (usually by the end of May), but when exactly to stop harvesting is largely up to personal preference. Then, you can either let the spinach go to seed (and collect them for future use!) or replace it with a crop better-suited to summer temperatures.