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Spinach - Vinny - 10-03-2021
I like eating baby spinach and lightly cooked bigger leaves. I always fail miserably growing it though, usually jetting off to seed soon after sowing!
Can anyone give me a recommended variety for taste and not being liable to bolting?
I also toyed with the idea of using it as a green manure once I was finished with it. To get spinach year round would I need to plant different varieties?
Everyone has something they just can't grow and spinach is one of my constant failures.
That's enough questions for now.
RE: Spinach - Eyren - 10-03-2021
(10-03-2021, 12:12 PM)Vinny Wrote: Can anyone give me a recommended variety for taste and not being liable to bolting?
Charles Dowding recommends "Medania" - I'm pretty sure that's what I've grown in the past, but I'd need to check my old gardening records. I do recall that I usually only sow spinach after the summer solstice, so that the shortening days discourage bolting.
This year I'm also trying out Malabar spinach, which is not spinach at all but a climbing vine from India with spinach-like leaves. Being tropical, it loves heat so I'm going to sow it late spring, just before last frosts, for growing over summer.
I got mine from Seedaholic, but they're limiting their opening hours at the moment - the same variety is available from other suppliers, e.g.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/item_1799H_malabar_spinach_red
RE: Spinach - toomanytommytoes - 10-03-2021
Mikado is supposed to be bolt resistant, growing it for the first time this year. Last year I sowed spinach in modules in February and it bolted in May or so. In summer I switch to chard, not a fan of it cooked but the baby leaves are nice in salads. Then in August I start to sow spinach again for a late summer/autumn/winter/early spring harvest.
RE: Spinach - Bren - 10-03-2021
I grow Medania some years a I get a good crop other times it just bolts and I haven't done anything different.
RE: Spinach - Eyren - 10-03-2021
From some rather old records (2009):
* Bloomsdale sown in March (in modules) bolted like mad
* Matador sown outdoors in April did well - harvested 4 bags in May from half a square meter.
Looks like I didn't get around to sowing the Medania after all!
Edit: I guess I'm going to try and fit in a quick crop of "Matador" this spring before planting out my squash and courgettes, since I have the seeds and some bare ground!
RE: Spinach - Small chilli - 10-03-2021
I usually grow perpetual spinach without to problem. I definitely don’t put it down to any talent or experience on my part.
RE: Spinach - Vinny - 10-03-2021
(10-03-2021, 07:09 PM)Small chilli Wrote: I usually grow perpetual spinach without to problem. I definitely don’t put it down to any talent or experience on my part.That will do for me.
£1.30 a packet delivered, can't be bad. I'll give it a go. 
Strangely it is listed as a chard, but who cares, if it looks like spinach and tastes like spinach plus it doesn't bolt, jobs a good un!
RE: Spinach - Eyren - 11-03-2021
(10-03-2021, 07:32 PM)Vinny Wrote:(10-03-2021, 07:09 PM)Small chilli Wrote: I usually grow perpetual spinach without to problem. I definitely don’t put it down to any talent or experience on my part.That will do for me.
It's descended from the same wild plant as chard (and beetroot) - it tastes a bit earthier and, well, chard-like than true spinach and the leaves won't be quite as tender, but it's a lot easier to grow.
RE: Spinach - Broadway - 11-03-2021
Hello Folks
Is there a case for growing both perpetual spinach and chard or one or the other?
RE: Spinach - Bren - 11-03-2021
Danny I grow spinach, perpetual spinach and an assortment of chard called Bright lights. I've noticed the red chard doesn't get as much slug damage as the others.