Saturday, May 25, 2013

Bolting Spinach

  Well you know what it means when spinach starts to "Bolt"? It means its time to harvest it all!
But what is bolting? In a little 2'x2' patch, I harvested close to 10 gallons of spinach in all! Bolting is when agricultural and horticultural crops prematurely produce a flowering stem (or stems) before the crop is harvested, in a natural attempt to produce seeds to reproduce.
What causes Spinach to bolt?   Spinach bolts quickly to seed during the long days in late spring or summer. Warm temperatures accelerate this development. Varieties that are "long standing" or slow to bolt are best adapted for spring planting.
Spinach Bolting
 The variety I planted was: Winter Bloomsdale (45 days, tolerant to cucumber mosaic virus, slow to bolt, cold tolerant, good for over-wintering)
 I trust these helps and really growing Spinach is very easy and you can grow it in spring and fall!

2 comments:

  1. My spinach bolts but it never gets bushy or lush. I realize my soil must not be too nitrogen rich, but it gets so frustrating not being able to grow it. I always amend the soil with blood meal, but it doesn't seem to be enough. Any thoughts? Everything else grows well for me including basil which gets really tall and bushy...

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    1. Nancy try either sprinkling your coffee grounds around them as they grow or mix a teaspoon of ammonia per 2 gallons of water every time you water. This will boast the nitrogen and help with your problem.

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