All You Need To Know About Growing Spinach

You want to grow spinach and have some open questions in this regard? Great!

This article is exactly for you since I will answer all questions you might have about growing spinach at home in the following chapters.

Time & Duration

When to grow spinach from seed?

If you want to grow spinach from seed, you should start growing spinach between spring and summer.

Since spinach will not take long to grow from sowing to harvest, you will be more flexible regarding when to grow it compared to most other garden vegetables that would take considerably longer to grow.

Does spinach grow year-round?

While you could grow spinach year-round, keep in mind that spinach is grown as an annual and this means that you have to plant multiple batches of seeds to get multiple spinach yields per year.

This means that you will have to put in a lot of work if you want to grow spinach year-round and not only want to rely on the main growing season.

Does spinach grow fast?

Spinach grows faster than most other garden vegetables. In fact, you will be able to grow most spinach varieties within 2 months.

Hence, while you have to wait for quite a long time until you can harvest melons, pumpkins or tomatoes, growing spinach can be great if you are the kind of impatient person who wants to see results quickly.

How long does it take to grow spinach?

It will take you between 35 and 60 days to grow spinach from seed to harvest.

How long it will take you also greatly depends on your skill level and also on the growing conditions you provide to spinach plants.

The better the conditions, the faster your plants will grow and the sooner you will be able to get the fruits of your labor.

Does spinach grow back every year?

No, spinach will not grow back. Instead, spinach plants are grown as annuals and this means that you will only harvest them once a year and you will also remove the whole plant.

Thus, if you want to get spinach yields in future years, you will also have to plant new seeds every year.

How long do spinach plants live?

If you don’t harvest spinach plants in time, they will likely grow for several months until the cold will let them decay.

Hence, while your spinach plants will only live up to two months if you harvest them for consumption purposes, they can live up to half a year if you just use them for decoration purposes.

How long does it take until spinach flowers?

Spinach will not flower if you harvest it on time. Only if you let it grow, you will see flowers developing on your spinach plants.

However, at this point in time, spinach leaves would have already lost lots of nutrients and flavor and you should only let your spinach plants grow to this point if you want to save seeds instead of enjoying the plant material.

Can you grow spinach in fall?

Growing spinach in fall is definitely possible. Since spinach grows fast and will be ready to harvest in a rather short period of time, you can start growing spinach in early fall if you make sure to harvest it in time before the first strong winter frost arrives.

Can you grow spinach in winter?

Growing spinach in winter is not a good idea. Spinach is quite sensitive to frost and this means that you would have to grow spinach indoors in winter to protect your plants from the cold.

However, growing spinach indoors will just impose several other issues since you will not be able to provide natural growing conditions.

Thus, whenever you can, just grow spinach during the main season instead of trying to grow it in winter since you will just get much better results on average.

Location & Climate

Will spinach grow in shade?

While you could grow spinach in shady environments, you would just not get satisfying results since spinach plants need a certain minimum level of sun.

Hence, instead of growing spinach in completely shady spots, make sure to provide your plants with at least a few hours of direct sunlight per day.

Will spinach grow in partial shade?

Growing spinach in partial shade is perfectly fine. In fact, this is a great place to grow spinach since your plants will get sufficient sunlight but will also be protected from excessive radiation and heat.

Consequently, your plants will be able to grow in a decent manner and you will not have to worry about your plants drying up or getting sunburned at the same time.

Does spinach grow best in full sun?

You could also try to grow spinach in completely sunny spots around your home.

However, keep in mind that too much sun will likely do more harm than good to your plants and that you should provide at least a little bit of shade so that your plants are protected against excessive radiation, especially if you want to grow spinach in summer.

Will spinach tolerate frost?

Spinach is quite sensitive to the cold and spinach plants don’t like frost at all.

Consequently, make sure to wait with growing spinach outdoors until you don’t expect spring frost anymore and also make sure that your plants will be ready to harvest before winter frost arrives.

Do you have to protect spinach from the sun?

While it is not urgently necessary to actively protect spinach plants from the sun, you can do so in a completely natural manner by just planting them in half-shady spots so that your plants get a healthy mix of sun and shade.

How much space do you need to grow spinach?

Spinach plants stay relatively small and don’t need a lot of space. Hence, it will be enough to provide each plant with one square foot of space.

Of course, if you have a big garden and are not space-constrained, you could also give your plants even more space.

The more space, the better your plants will grow since they will get more sunlight and also don’t have to compete for nutrients with each other.

Will spinach grow indoors?

While it is possible to grow spinach indoors, you will often just not get the same results compared to growing it outdoors.

You will just not be able to provide the same natural growing conditions to your plants and will also not be able to provide as much natural sunlight.

In turn, your plants will grow slower and it will take you longer to grow them from seed to harvest.

Moreover, you will also have to clean your home more often and your spinach plants will also take away some space from you.

Consequently, if you have the chance, make sure to grow spinach plants outdoors instead of indoors since it will make your life just much easier.

Can you grow spinach without a garden or balcony?

If you don’t have a balcony or a garden to grow spinach, you will have to grow spinach indoors.

However, growing spinach indoors comes along with many issues mentioned before.

Yet, if this is really your own option, you should still give it a try and see the results. After all, what do you have to lose?! 😉

Can you grow spinach in small flats?

While spinach grows relatively small and can be great to grow in small flats, it will still not be for you if you live in a really confined space and need every square foot to store your stuff.

In such a case, you should not grow any plants but rather use your space for things that are more important and wait with growing plants at home until you move to a bigger place.

Can you grow spinach in an aquarium?

Instead of using conventional flower pots, you could also try growing spinach in an aquarium.

You could just fill your aquarium with potting soil and see if it works out for you.

One issue that may come along with it is that water will often not be able to run off properly and this means that waterlogging may become an issue.

Hence, aquariums are not the perfect places to grow spinach and you should only use them as a measure of last resort if you don’t have flower pots or other things to grow spinach at home.

Can you grow spinach in a terrarium?

It is also not a good idea to grow spinach in terrariums.

You will just have a hard time making sure that water will be able to run off properly and you will also have issues with moving your terrarium since it will often get quite heavy once you fill it with potting soil.

Can you grow spinach in a bucket?

You could also grow spinach plants in a bucket. Just make sure that you drill some small holes into the bottom of your bucket so that water will be able to run off properly and waterlogging will not become an issue.

After that, just fill your bucket with potting soil and you will be good to grow spinach in a healthy manner.

Can you grow spinach in bags?

Growing spinach in bags is also perfectly doable. Just use stable fabric bags and fill them with potting soil.

After that, just plant some spinach seeds into the soil and wait until you see the first seedlings reaching the soil surface.

Can you grow spinach in hanging baskets?

While it doesn’t make quite a lot of sense to grow spinach in hanging baskets if you have conventional pots at home, you can still do so if you find it more interesting and your spinach plants will still grow in a decent manner in those hanging baskets.

Can you grow spinach in rainy climatic zones?

Spinach not only grows in warm climatic zones, but you can also grow it in rainy climatic zones.

In fact, spinach will grow quite well with only a little bit of sunlight per day on average and even if you live in regions where you will have to deal with rain on a regular basis, chances are that you will still be able to grow spinach in a decent manner if you follow all the advice in this article.

Can you grow spinach in tropical climatic zones?

While spinach like the sun, too much radiation and heat will not be good for your plants and also excessively high humidity levels may become an issue.

Thus, growing spinach in the tropics is pretty difficult and you should definitely use a spinach variety that has been designed for warmer climates if you really live in one of those regions.

Can you grow spinach in regions with permafrost?

If you live in regions with permafrost, you will not be able to grow spinach outdoors but you will rather have to grow it indoors or in a heated greenhouse.

Both options are not perfect since you will not be able to provide the same natural growing conditions when growing spinach indoors instead of outdoors and you will also have to spend lots of money on electricity by using a heated greenhouse.

Consequently, you may just want to get your vegetables from the store instead of growing them at home in case you live in one of those extreme climatic zones.

Does spinach grow on vines?

Spinach doesn’t grow on vines. In fact, you will not even harvest spinach plants but rather the plant material.

If you haven’t seen spinach plants before and want to know what they look like, make sure to check out one of the videos in this article.

Does spinach grow underground?

Spinach plants don’t grow underground. Instead, they grow above the soil surface and you will have an easy time harvesting your plants due to that once the time has come.

What is the best orientation for growing spinach?

To provide a healthy mix of sun and shade, it would be best to grow spinach in west or east orientation.

If you want to provide your plants with more sun, you could also grow them in south orientation.

Just avoid growing spinach in north orientation since your plants would just not get sufficient sunlight to grow well.

Can you grow spinach with indirect sunlight?

You can also grow spinach with indirect sunlight in a greenhouse.

However, in my opinion, it is still best to grow spinach with direct natural sunlight in your garden since your plants will just get more natural growing conditions and will also grow faster and bigger on average.

Where does spinach grow best?

Spinach plants grow best if you choose a partially shady spot in your garden where your plants get enough space at the same time.

Also make sure that water can run off properly so that the roots of your plants will not start to rot.

Where to grow spinach in pots?

Growing spinach in pots will be pretty simple as long as you put those pots outdoors on your porch or on your balcony where your plants will get sufficient sunlight while still being protected against harsh outdoor conditions like heavy storms.

Where to grow spinach indoors?

If you want to grow spinach indoors, you should make sure that your plants get enough sunlight.

Therefore, make sure to place your pots in bright rooms so that your plants can grow in a decent manner.

Can you grow spinach in water?

You should never try to grow spinach in pure water.

Instead, make sure to use a healthy soil mix so that your plants get enough nutrients and the roots of your plants will also be able to develop well.

Can you grow spinach with LED lights?

You could also use LEDs or other forms of artificial lighting to support your spinach plants when growing them indoors.

However, this would also imply that you have to spend lots of money on energy and this would also be pretty bad for our environment.

Moreover, artificial lighting will never be enough to replace natural sunlight and you should therefore make sure that your plants get enough natural sunlight so that you don’t have to rely on artificial lighting at all.

Can you grow spinach in dark rooms?

Growing spinach in dark rooms is not a good idea since your plants will just not get sufficient natural sunlight.

Hence, make sure to place your pots in bright rooms if you really want to grow spinach indoors.

Soil Requirements

Can you reuse soil for growing spinach the next year?

You don’t have to dispose of your soil mix once the growing season is over.

Instead, you can reuse the soil multiple times for many growing projects yet to come.

However, make sure to loosen the soil after every growing season and that you also add some fertilizer to the soil mix to make it rich in nutrients.

Does spinach grow well in waterlogged soil?

No, spinach doesn’t grow well in waterlogged soil.

Hence, make sure that water can run off properly so that the roots of your plants will not start to rot in the long run.

Does spinach grow best in acidic, neutral or alkaline soil?

Spinach grows best in rather neutral soil with an optimal soil pH between 6.8 and 7.3.

However, most spinach varieties are also quite tolerant when it comes to the acidity level of the soil and if you get conventional potting soil from the garden center, you will be perfectly fine in this regard.

Will spinach grow in sandy soil?

Spinach also grows well in sandy soil as long as the fraction of soil in the overall soil mix doesn’t get too big.

Hence, never grow spinach in excessively sandy soil and rather use a moderate soil mix to offer the best growing conditions to your plants.

Will spinach grow well in clay soil?

Clay soil is not the best medium to grow spinach since it is just too solid and water will not be able to run off properly.

Moreover, the roots of your spinach plants will also not be able to grow well enough and you should therefore rather rely on a looser soil mix instead.

Will spinach grow in compost?

Growing spinach on compost is perfectly fine since compost is loose enough and also provides your plants with plenty of nutrients.

You could also just mix compost and soil from your garden to get a perfect soil mix for spinach plants.

Plant Care

Do spinach plants need a lot of water?

Since spinach plants stay relatively small, they will not need lots of water.

In fact, it will be enough to water your plants once a week once they are young.

When your plants get older, also their water demand will increase and you will have to water your plants more often.

Do you have to water spinach on a regular basis?

Whether you have to water spinach on a regular basis greatly depends on the climatic conditions you live in and also on the overall growing conditions.

For instance, if you grow spinach in your garden and it rains quite a lot, you will not have to water your plants at all since your plants will just get enough rainwater from the soil.

If you rather live in hot and dry climatic zones or grow spinach in pots where your plants will not have access to rainwater, you will have to water your plants quite often to make sure that they don’t dry up.

Should you use filtered or unfiltered water to water spinach plants?

You don’t have to filter water to make it suitable for spinach plants. Instead, just use unfiltered tap water and you will be perfectly fine in this regard.

Should you use rainwater to water spinach?

Rainwater can be a great water source to water not only spinach, but also various other plants in your garden.

Just install a big rainwater tank and you will be able to store lots of water and use it for dry periods of the year.

Not only will this save you money on tap water, but it will also make your life much easier when it comes to watering your plants in general.

When to stake spinach plants?

If you really want to stake your spinach plants, the best time to do so is once your plants reach a height of around 4 inches since they will become more vulnerable to wind at this point.

What to tie spinach with?

While there is no urgent need to stake or stabilize spinach plants, you could still do so by just putting some sticks next to each plant and tie your plants with cord to those sticks to make them more resistant against harsh conditions outdoors.

What to do when spinach leaves turn yellow?

When spinach plants turn yellow, this is usually a sign that you water your plants too often.

It can also be a sign that you don’t provide enough nutrients to your plants or that pests try to feed on them.

Hence, make sure to adjust your watering and fertilizing behavior and see if this solves the problem.

If not, also have a close look at your plants and see if you can spot any pests and remove them.

How to protect spinach against wind?

You can just tie spinach plants with cord to sticks if you want to protect your plants from damage related to strong winds or storms.

How to protect spinach against heavy rain?

You should not try to protect spinach plants from heavy rain.

Just let your plants deal with this issue on their own and they will become resistant to it in a completely natural manner.

How to protect spinach against hail?

Spinach plants are quite sensitive to hail and you should therefore move pots and containers you grow spinach in to a protected area around your home once you expect hail.

If you grow spinach directly in your garden and don’t have the option to move your plants, you can try to protect your plants with foliage cover from the garden store.

Should you pinch out spinach?

Don’t try to pinch spinach plants since you would do more harm than good and you would also lower your yields.

Just let them grow in a natural manner and you will be perfectly fine in this regard.

Where to pinch spinach?

As mentioned before, there is no need to pinch out spinach at all. If you really want to do so for your own reasons, make sure that you pinch spinach plants outdoors to keep insects out of your home and also to keep your home tidy and to avoid a mess.

Can you grow spinach without fertilizer?

Growing spinach without using fertilizer is perfectly doable as long as you provide a decent soil mix to your plants right from the beginning of your growing project.

Should you cover spinach plants to protect them against frost?

Never cover your spinach plants since you would do more harm than good!

Instead, just wait with planting spinach outdoors so that there is no need to cover your plants anymore and to avoid any issues in this regard.

How to get rid of moss when growing spinach?

Moss is a good indicator that the soil is simply too moist.

Hence, make sure to slow down your watering behavior so that the soil can dry up a little bit and moss will vanish in a completely natural manner.

Pests & Diseases

Can you grow spinach without using pesticides?

There is often no need to use any pesticides when you grow spinach plants.

In fact, the better the growing conditions you provide to your plants, the more resistant your plants will get and the less likely pest infestations become.

Should you use natural or chemical pesticides for spinach plants?

In case pests are able to spread in your garden and spinach plants suffer from serious pest infestation, you may not have a choice other than to use pesticides to get rid of them.

However, never rely on chemical pesticides since they are often pretty harmful to our environment.

Instead, use natural alternatives like neem oil to get rid of garden pests.

What are the most common spinach pests?

Flea beetles, slugs and cutworms are just a few of the most common pests you will have to with when growing spinach.

There are many more of those hungry intruders that will try to feed on your plants.

How to protect spinach against pests?

If you want to get more information on how to get rid of garden pests, make sure to also have a look at how to get rid of spinach pests and diseases and also at my pest prevention guides.

Growing Difficulty

Is spinach a good plant to grow for children?

Spinach is a great plant to grow with children since it will not take you long to grow it from seed to harvest and it is also not that difficult.

Is spinach a good plant for a school project?

Growing spinach can also be great as a school project since school kids will be able to see results quickly and will also learn a lot about how our food is produced and how much work it actually takes.

Is growing spinach difficult?

No, growing spinach is not difficult at all. In fact, it is fairly simple to grow spinach and spinach plants will also forgive you some mistakes.

Hence, spinach plants are perfect to grow for beginners who don’t have too much experience in gardening yet.

Harvest

What color does ripe spinach have?

Ripe spinach leaves have a deep green color and will also reach a decent size.

Hence, don’t harvest spinach leaves if they are still small.

Wait until they get bigger to get bigger yields, even though the plant material may no longer be as tender.

Can you save seeds from spinach?

Saving seeds from spinach plants is only doable if you don’t harvest the plant material but rather let your plants grow until they flower.

However, at this point in time, the leaves will often be no longer good for consumption purposes and you will therefore have a tradeoff regarding whether you want to grow spinach for getting seeds or if you want to get tasty plant material but rather forgo harvesting seeds instead.

Can spinach get overripe?

Yes, spinach can also get overripe and the plant material will start to decay.

Hence, make sure to harvest spinach leaves in time to get the most nutrients and the best flavor out of them.

What parts of a spinach plant can you eat?

The entire spinach plant is edible. In fact, you will not be able to harvest any spinach crops as you know it from growing tomatoes or cucumbers.

Instead, the plant material will be the “crop” in this case.

Additional Questions

Is growing spinach expensive?

You can grow spinach virtually for free if you have a garden at home.

If not, you will also have to get some flower pots and some potting soil from the store.

However, in both cases, the average person will easily be able to afford growing spinach at home from a purely financial perspective.

Is growing spinach fun?

Growing spinach can also be quite a lot of fun.

In fact, spinach is a great plant to grow since you will be able to see results quickly and this will encourage you to stay in the game of gardening and to try more advanced gardening projects in the future.

Does spinach grow on trees?

Spinach doesn’t grow on trees. Instead, you will harvest the plant material instead of actual crops as you know it from the majority of other garden vegetables.

Does spinach grow from flowers?

Spinach doesn’t grow from flowers.

In fact, spinach doesn’t produce any crops but you will rather harvest the plant material.

However, this doesn’t mean that spinach plants could not flower.

It just means that you will often not see any flowers on your spinach plants since you will just harvest the plant material before your plants had any chance to flower.

If you had waited for longer, you would have seed flowers on your spinach plants.

How many spinach plants should you grow per pot?

Since spinach plants grow quite small, you can plant more than one spinach plant per pot.

However, this also greatly depends on which pot you want to use.

If you want to grow spinach in small pots, you should only grow one plant per pot.

However, if you grow spinach in big pots, you may be able to grow a handful of plants in each pot.

Which animals feed on spinach?

Apart from slugs and other pests, also rabbits, mice and other rodents will often try to get their fair share of the cake.

Hence, make sure to install a fence or other safety measures to protect your plants from those hungry intruders.

Will your pets eat spinach plants?

Also your pets may try to feed on spinach plants.

This is certainly true in case you keep rabbits at home.

Consequently, make sure to keep your pets away from your plants if you don’t want to wake up one day and your spinach plants may be gone ;).

Is spinach toxic for pets?

While spinach plants are not toxic to most pets, you should still separate your pets from your garden plants to avoid any unpleasant surprises in this regard and also to protect your plants as well.

Why spinach grows small?

If spinach grows small, this means that you have not provided good growing conditions to your plants.

Make sure to provide better soil and also choose a better location for future years to grow spinach in a more efficient manner.

What to grow with spinach?

There are also many plants you can grow with spinach.

You should definitely check out my article where I show you what to grow with spinach and what plants you should never grow with spinach.

Can you grow spinach from spinach?

No, growing spinach from just planting spinach plant material into the ground will not work.

Instead, just use spinach seedlings to make your life much easier in this regard.

Can you grow spinach without seeds?

If you don’t want to grow spinach from seed, you could also just get spinach seedlings from the garden center.

However, in my opinion, it is better to grow spinach from scratch instead of relying on seedlings from the store since you will just get the full experience and will also learn more about how to grow seedlings in general.

Do you have to pollinate spinach by hand?

You don’t have to pollinate spinach by hand. Just let your plants grow and let nature do its work and you will be perfectly fine.

How to grow big spinach?

The higher your expectations about the yield you want to get, the better the growing conditions you provide to your plants need to be.

Consequently, if you really want to get a great harvest, you have to make sure that you choose the optimal spot in your garden and that you also provide a high-quality soil mix to your plants.

Moreover, also make sure to keep away hungry animals and that you also prevent any pest infestation so that your plants have enough power to grow well.

Can you grow spinach commercially?

Growing spinach commercially is not a good idea since you will run into all sorts of issues.

Not only would you have to invest lots of money in equipment and farmland, but you would also have to compete in a fierce market and only few mistakes could lead to the failure of your business.

Consequently, I suggest you just grow spinach for fun since you will just be much better off in the long run.

Can you grow spinach from fresh seeds?

Since it is hard to save seeds from spinach plants, you should rather rely on seeds from the garden center instead of growing spinach from fresh seeds.

Can you grow spinach from dried seeds?

Growing spinach from dried seeds is the best way to grow spinach since it is just pretty easy and you can get spinach seeds from your garden center or from an internet vendor pretty quickly once you need them.

Can you grow spinach from cuttings?

You could also try to grow spinach from cuttings.

However, this is a rather advanced technique and especially if you are still a beginner in gardening, you should rather rely on growing spinach from dried seeds instead.

Should you use a spinach growing kit for growing spinach?

In my opinion, growing kits are never worth it.

Hence, instead of relying on a spinach growing kit, you should rather get proper equipment that you can use for gardening purposes for many years to come.

Does spinach grow in the wild?

Spinach also grows in the wild. In fact, you can find spinach plants quite often if you go for a walk at a meadow or your local forest.

Should you talk to your spinach plants?

Talking to spinach plants will rather help your psyche than it will be beneficial to your plants.

Consequently, just spend your time on more important things and you will be perfectly fine with growing spinach even if you have never said a word to your plants ;).

Should you plant spinach at half moon or full moon?

The moon phase you plant spinach seeds will not have any impact on the end result.

It is just a weird belief and you should therefore not care about it at all.

Now that you hopefully found all the answers you were looking for, you may also want to check out my spinach grower’s guide where I show you how to grow spinach from seed to harvest step-by-step.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinach

Own research and experience

About the Author

My name is Andreas and I’m really passionate about our environment and also about growing plants. In fact, I have grown several different plants over many years. I love to see my plants grow and also always try new things to improve my overall conditions at home.

In my blog posts, I want to share my experiences with you so that you can become successful in growing various different plants and improving your home as well, even though you might still be a beginner right now.