Spinach

How to propagate spinach

This family — the amaranths, beets, chard, spinach and their wild cousins — is grown from seed sown right where it'll stand. The grain amaranths and quinoa throw enormous seed heads you can harvest by the handful and re-sow for free. Beets and chard seed are actually little clusters, so each 'seed' can send up several seedlings you'll need to thin.

Growing spinach in Texas

Give it full sun to part shade and rich, well-drained soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.

This is a cool-season crop. On the Texas Gulf Coast that means your real windows are fall and late winter, not summer — sow as the heat breaks in September–October and again in late winter, and you'll harvest through our mild winters while the rest of the country is frozen out.

Keep moisture even, especially while it's young — deep, less-frequent soaks build better roots than a daily sprinkle.

Harvesting

Figure on roughly 37–50 before you're harvesting. Harvest at peak and keep harvesting — most vegetables produce harder the more you pick, and one left to over-mature tells the plant its job is done. The part you're after: leaves.

Making more for free

Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.