Spinach and leaf beets

August is a good time to sow spinach - according to the books - but what Spinach?

Joy Larkcom says that several different plants are popularly termed spinach (and a rummage through my seed packets confirms this!).
1. True or ordinary spinach. Spinacia oleracea
2. Leaf beet Beta vulgaris subsp cicla.. This includes perpetual spinach also known as spinach beet, silver beet and Swiss chard, also know as seakale beet and silver chard.
3. New Zealand spinach - Tetragonia expansa
4. Mountain spinach - Atriplex hortensis aka Orache.

Another that I know -
5. Tree spinach - Magentaspreen, Chenopodium giganteum

I'm about to sow 1 and 2 but its not that simple.
There are 2 sorts of Ordinary spinach - heat tolerant "round seeded" types for summer crops and "prickly seeded" types for autumn/winter. I have Giant Winter spinach seeds so take that as a clue to them being prickly seeded. The rest I'm not so sure about!!

At this point I'm starting to realise why I rarely grow spinach and, if I do, have little success with it. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure that I like it!!

Maybe I'll stick to Swiss chard - its prettier than spinach.

Any spinach growers here who'd care to share their experiences?

I have no idea why people grow spinach - two seedling leaves and a flower stalk!!

I too stick to leaf beet & Swiss chard, but only for winter & spring eating usually. I have orache but for the birds and tried NZ once but as I can't remember it I guess it was unremarkable.

I grow Mexican tree spinach....it is a weed. It doesn't really taste of much but it gets a wow on the plate because it's a bright magenta leaf. So unusual. The texture can be off putting so best only use the small leaves and sparingly.

I'm growing Fordhook Giant? Not sure if that's the correct name - will check. They are pretty huge but I love the plant white stems. Doesn't look so fun a the bright stems of bright lights but I prefer the flavour.

I try spinach occasionally and always wonder why I did!

Swiss chard FordhookGiant is my go to 'spinach'. I've sowed some real spinach Monnopa (I think) in modules for planting under cover , but I'm not too confident about success. Chard is just so easy.

August is a good time to sow spinach - according to the books - but what Spinach?

I sowed some true spinach in modules last week - Mr E prefers it to chard (though he really enjoyed the Saag Aloo I made recently with some rainbow chard from the weekly veg box). This is the first time in ages that I've grown any kind of veg, so my memories are a bit fuzzy, but IIRC it grew well in the cool weather and we got a good crop out of it. I usually sow enough for about a square meter of raised bed, which is plenty for the two of us.

Previously I've mostly grown "Medania", as recommended by Charles Dowding, but in the early days of lockdown I couldn't find any online so I'm growing an F1 variety called "Palco". If the current weird rollercoaster temperatures don't kill it off, I let you know how it goes!

Spinach-Giant winter is just breaking through the soil surface at the lottie.

My Spinach v Leaf beet/Chard comparison has started.

Just sown 16 seeds in modules of the following:-

Spinach  - Amazon F1 (packed Nov 2018)
Spinach -  America (sow by 2017)
Spinach - Giant Winter  (undated)
Leaf beet - Perpetual Spinach (sow by Sept 2016)
Leaf beet - Rainbow Chard (sow by Sept 2020)
Leaf beet - Rhubarb Chard "Intense" (packed Nov 2018).

EDIT - Found some New Zealand Spinach seeds so I'll sow them tomorrow - apparently they need a soak first.

If the old seeds fail to germinate, I'll resow with more recent seeds - as I seem to have plenty!