2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
In the last summer month, you need to hurry up in order to have time to collect another crop of vitamin greens. In early August, you can sow spinach. To ensure that you get an enviable mass of green culture, you should select varieties with a short growing season
Features of growing spinach
Spinach is a cold-resistant plant. Despite the fact that the seeds germinate at an air temperature of at least + 2 ° C, tender shoots can withstand a drop in the thermometer to -5 ° C. At the same time, the optimal conditions for the cultivation of spinach are formed when the weather is pleasing with its moderate indicators, and outside the window is + 15 ° С. Therefore, in regions with hot summer conditions, sowing spinach in the middle of the season will be unproductive. In addition, another plus of breeding the crop in August is that the flowering shoots of spinach with a shorter daylight hours do not tend to appear soon.
Soil requirements
It is recommended to allocate highly fertile soil rich in humus for spinach. The optimal types of soil for it are loam or sandy loam soil. The soil should be neutral, acidic soils of this greenery are not suitable.
As for crop rotation, spinach can be alternated with any crops. The only exception is the Haze family, to which spinach belongs. In our gardens, beets and Swiss chard are their frequent representatives. You cannot grow spinach where quinoa has recently grown.
Sowing spinach
Spinach is sown not only in August, but also in early spring. Crops in the beds are done in rows. A distance of 15-20 cm is maintained between them, and the seeds are placed in grooves at a distance of 5-7 cm from each other. The sowing grooves are made no more than 2 cm deep.
Features of spinach care
Spinach is an early ripening crop, and the first crop can be harvested as early as 4-5 weeks after sowing. It should be borne in mind that in case of prolonged dry weather, it will be necessary to water the beds. Spinach is relatively moisture-loving, and does not require abundant watering. But if you forget about it during the dry season, you can lose your crop. Under such conditions, the plant gives its maximum of its strength to form an arrow, and from this it becomes unsuitable for human consumption. Leaves not only lose their taste, becoming coarser, but also accumulate a high content of oxalic acid, which in large quantities is harmful to the body.
Under favorable conditions, shooting occurs after about a dozen true leaves have formed on the rosette. There is no need to bring this up. The stage of technical maturity begins when it is possible to count at least five leaves in an individual plant.
Harvesting and storing spinach
For eating in the near future, the plant is cut with a sharp knife at the very root with a whole bunch. Pulling spinach straight out of the ground by the root will keep it fresh a little longer. The spinach, wrapped in a plastic bag, can be kept in the refrigerator for a while.
You can get the most of the health benefits of eating spinach raw. Therefore, it should be added to vegetable salads or combined with meat ingredients. In second place in terms of the content of nutrients will be spinach in fresh frozen or dried form.
But this does not mean that you should limit yourself only to this way of eating spinach. It is canned, used for making sauces and mashed soups. Also, original fried, baked, stewed dishes are obtained from spinach. It is worth trying instead of the usual potatoes or porridge as a side dish for a meat or fish dish, prepare an unusual spinach appetizer.
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