These days, we are busy harvesting tomatoes, peppers, squash and apples, but did you know it is time to begin planting spinach? It is one of the easiest and healthiest leafy greens to grow. When you produce a crop of spinach, you are producing an abundance of vitamins and minerals. The deep green leaves are packed with vitamins A, C and K1. Folic acid, iron and calcium are included in the mix as well. And spinach is so easy to prepare in the kitchen. It is excellent in salads, on sandwiches as a lettuce replacement and mixed in stir fry dishes, soups and casseroles.
There are a couple of reasons why fall-planted spinach is a good idea. First, it is very tasty and succulent when grown in cooler weather. Chilly weather makes the leaves sweeter and crunchier. Second, the dreaded leaf miner, a worm that tunnels through the leaves, is not a challenge.
Fall and winter spinach is fairly easy to grow, especially once the rainy season begins. Soil preparation is important. Container grown spinach should have a top quality potting soil mixed with high nitrogen fertilizers like chicken manure and blood meal. Spinach grown in the ground needs the same fertilizer. The high nitrogen fertilizers are what make the big, fat leaves deep green.
When it comes to pests, slugs and snails are the usual suspects, especially if the weather is warm and rainy. But, the summer leaf miner pest is not a problem during the late fall and winter. Evidence of leaf miner is when leaves are damaged and have brown squiggles. This is from a fly laying eggs on the leaves and then the worm tunneling into the leaves to feed.
Terry Kramer is the retired site manager for the Humboldt Botanical Garden and a trained horticulturist and journalist. She has been writing a garden column for the Times-Standard since 1982. She currently runs a gardening consulting business. Contact her at 707-834-2661 or terrykramer90@gmail.com.
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