Spinach cultivation and care in the open field. Spinach - growing and growing outdoors Spinach growing and growing outdoors

Spinach is a relatively rare guest on vegetable beds in the countries of the former Soviet Union. No one disputes the benefits of spinach, but gardeners are still sowing it little. And this despite the fact that planting and subsequent care of spinach in open ground not that they are not complicated, but obscenely simple. Intrigued?

Photos of planted spinach:

To germinate seeds, spinach only needs 2-5 ° C heat, so optimal timing he has no sowing. Spinach can be sown from mid-spring to early fall. The first sowing is carried out when the soil warms up to 8-10 °, and the threat of night frosts disappears. The last sowing is carried out at the end of August, and in the warmer southern regions it is possible even in mid-September.

The optimum temperature for the growth and development of spinach in the open field is only 15 °. When deciding on the timing of sowing, it must be borne in mind that at a higher temperature and a 14-hour daylight hours, spinach quickly grows and becomes unsuitable for food. Therefore, in the spring, it is preferable to sow early-maturing spinach varieties that yield a harvest 4-5 weeks after sowing.

By autumn, daylight decreases, there is no threat of shooting. Therefore, during this period, it is preferable to sow late-ripening varieties, with a ripening period of 6-7 weeks, in order to increase the duration of eating spinach.

Sowing spinach in winter is also possible - in mid-October (for southern regions- End of october). In this case, the spinach manages to form a small rosette before winter, the ground part of which dies off during wintering, but from the root in early spring, a week or two after the snow melts, a new one grows, making it possible to eat fresh spinach by mid-April.

Site selection and site preparation

In terms of soil, spinach is one of the most undemanding crops, it can grow on almost any type of crop. But, like most vegetable crops, preference is given to well-drained loamy and sandy loam soils.

Spinach is very moisture-loving. And, although he does not like long stagnation of water, but, given his early maturity, in the summer it can be sown in lowlands. Autumn and especially winter landings spinach is best done on small hills, so that autumn rains or melt water do not flood the site for a long time.

Spinach loves the sun, although it grows well in partial shade. But, if you want to get the harvest as soon as possible, then set aside a sunny place for planting, protected from cold winds. In addition, in the sun, with proper care, spinach forms a powerful rosette, giving a high yield.

Preparation of the site for planting spinach is reduced to loosening the soil and "refueling" it nutrients... It is better to prepare the site in the fall, having carried out a deep - on a full bayonet of a shovel - digging with the simultaneous introduction of organic and mineral fertilizers into the soil.

From organic fertilizers, humus or compost is used - 5-7 kg / m². At autumn plantings green manure is often used instead as a source of organic fertilizers. From minerals, superphosphate (30 g / m²) and potassium chloride (15 g / m²) are added for digging. It is better to apply nitrogen fertilizers (urea or ammonium nitrate) directly when sowing seeds (20 g / m²)

For good growth, spinach needs a soil that is slightly acidic or neutral. In the case of strong soil oxidation in the fall, when preparing a site for deoxidation, lime or dolomite flour is added.

Spinach is almost the only vegetable crop that does not have antipodes among other vegetables and can grow after almost any predecessor, as long as there are enough nutrients in the soil.

The exceptions to this rule are beets, courgettes and asparagus. And even then not because spinach grows poorly after them - these plants have pests that can then move to spinach. Therefore, it is better not to grow spinach a little after them, as in the neighborhood with them.

Sowing seeds, growing in the open field

Spinach seeds germinate in nature for a long time - 1.5-2 weeks. To speed up the germination process in the open field, the seeds are soaked for 1.5-2 days in ordinary water at room temperature, changing it regularly every 6-8 hours. The swollen seeds are slightly dried so that they do not stick to each other, and are immediately sown into the soil. It is impossible to overdry, otherwise the whole point of pre-sowing preparation is lost, and the germination of seeds worsens.

Spinach has no particular tendency to damage plants by diseases and pests. But nevertheless, it is better to disinfect its seeds before soaking by placing them for 10-15 minutes in a low-borne solution of potassium permanganate

Spinach seeds are sown in shallow (3-4 cm) grooves, sprinkling them on top with a layer of soil 2-2.5 cm. For the convenience of processing the site, the row spacing is made 30-35 cm. After sowing, the soil on the site is slightly compacted and watered.

Try to sow spinach seeds not too thickly: ideally 8-10 cm apart. Although, given the size of the seeds, this is almost impossible. And in any case, after the formation of the rosettes, the spinach will have to be thinned out, so you should not worry too much about this.

At an early spring planting spinach, you can organize an impromptu greenhouse on the site by installing arcs and pulling plastic wrap over them. This allows you to speed up the emergence of seedlings and, accordingly, to get an early harvest of vitamin spinach greens.

Inter-row cultivation

Because spinach grows quickly and ripens quickly, it also goes well with most garden crops, experienced gardeners the principle of compacted planting is often used, in which spinach acts as a compactor.

It can be grown in the aisles of potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, sweet peppers, all types of cabbage, corn. He also feels good in the aisles of peas, garlic and onions. But due to the row spacing, which is smaller for these crops than those listed earlier, it can be difficult to care for both spinach and the main crop.

Planting care

Caring for the bed on which spinach grows is not difficult, but it has a number of features. The main ingredients for successful cultivation: regular watering, keeping the soil loose, correct feeding and timely weed removal.

At the initial stage of the formation of rosettes, when they have 2-3 leaves, the crops are thinned out, leaving a distance of 15-20 cm between neighboring plants.With such a density, adjacent plants will barely touch the tips of the leaves, without interfering with each other's growth.

It is appropriate to mention here one biological feature of spinach - it is a dioecious plant. Those. it has both female and male plants. At the same time, female plants develop better and form a large rosette. Therefore, when thinning, it is necessary to try, if possible, to remove exactly male specimens of plants.

To feast on longer juicy greens, it is important to detect and remove flower-stalks in time. But if you want to stock up own seeds spinach for future cultivation, then you will have to sacrifice several plants and leave them.

Watering

Spinach is one of the most moisture-loving garden plants. When preparing a site, especially if there is a slight slope of the relief, many gardeners specially make low earthen sides along its edges in order to retain rainwater on it.

Depending on the air temperature, watering is carried out at intervals of 2-3 days, and if the weather is hot, dry, then every other day. Irrigation rate - 8-10 l / m². After each watering, when the water is completely absorbed and the soil surface on the bed turns from black to gray, it is imperative to loosen the soil, only this should be done very carefully around the plants so as not to damage the young outlets.

Top dressing

If, during the preparation of the site, you fertilized it well, then spinach is not needed in the open field, it will grow and develop rapidly, and will give an excellent harvest. But if you notice that the growth of plants has slowed down, then you can "spur" them by introducing a small amount of ammonium nitrate or urea.

However, you should not be zealous with nitrogen fertilizing: green spinach leaves tend to accumulate nitrates. Also, you should not use phosphorus and potash fertilizers for dressing: they will have minimal effect on the growth of leaves, but they may provoke premature shooting, and then flowering, making the plants unsuitable for food.

Disease and pest control

Spinach rarely gets sick and is almost not damaged by pests. "Almost" - because the ubiquitous aphid does not deprive its attention and spinach. Also, if beets are growing nearby, a miner fly may appear on the spinach.

Of the diseases, plants are most often affected by false powdery mildew... At improper care the appearance of root rot on the plants is possible. Spinach is rarely affected by other diseases, even if, due to the inexperience of the owner, its cultivation is left on its own.

Since spinach is a plant that ripens quickly, it is categorically not recommended to use chemical remedies to fight diseases and pests. The main way to fight diseases is their constant prevention: control of the moisture level, regular loosening of the topsoil, timely removal of weeds.

To prevent the appearance of fungal diseases, you can use folk ways protection: treat plants with an ash solution or tincture onion peel... To prepare an ash solution, two glasses of ash are poured with three liters of water, brought to a boil and allowed to cool. Then the cooled mixture is filtered through cheesecloth folded in 3-4 layers, the amount of liquid is brought to 10 liters and the plants are treated with this solution.

In the same way, you can prepare an infusion of onion peels. 200-300 gr. the husks are poured into 10 liters of water, put on fire, brought to a boil, then allowed to cool and brew for 2-3 days. The resulting infusion is sprayed with spinach plants.

If you do notice signs of disease on spinach, then the only way to stop the spread of the disease is to remove and dispose of the diseased plant.

To combat aphids, the plant is sprayed with tobacco tincture or ash-and-soap solution. To achieve the result, the plant has to be processed 4-5 times with an interval of 1-2 days. Against a pest, the spread of which is often unable to stop even chemical preparations, the methods are not the most effective, but there are no others in the arsenal of agrotechnics for growing spinach.

In the case of spinach, to protect against pests, it is advisable to lay out such bait in the furrows directly when sowing the seeds. The effectiveness of such baits usually ranges from 3 to 4 weeks, i.e. in fact, as much as spinach grows, so the damage from the bear will be minimal.

Harvesting and storage

It is better to start harvesting spinach from open ground when it forms a rosette of 6-8 leaves. Some gardeners, in order to get a larger harvest, wait for the plants to form a rosette of 10-12 leaves, but it must be remembered that the older the leaves, the lower their nutritional value and the worse the taste.

In addition, it should be borne in mind that spinach sown in summer will initially have less juicy leaves than those sown in spring, and besides, their aftertaste will have a noticeable, albeit very weak, bitterness.

For fresh consumption, you can cut off the lower, relatively old leaves from the sockets - then growth, and with it the use of fresh spinach leaves, can be stretched for 1.5-2 weeks.

The shelf life of fresh leaves does not exceed 24 hours. Having dried the leaves well and packaged them in small plastic bags, you can save them for up to 10 days. But if you do not dry them even a little, then the wet leaves will begin to rot, and you will have to throw out the whole bag. Therefore, for long-term storage, the leaves are frozen.

For freezing, they dig out the entire outlet along with the root, remove the root, wash, grind and dry a little, pack it up in small bags and send it to freezer... Another method of long-term storage, which has recently become popular - after washing, the leaves are crushed in a blender and frozen in the form of puree.

Some housewives immediately add seasonings to this puree, and so freeze with them, no longer just preserving spinach, but actually preparing semi-finished products. Also, to preserve spinach for a long time, its leaves can be completely dried, salted or canned.

Spinach is a low-maintenance crop that does not take up much space in the garden. But the benefits from it are enormous - it is a real storehouse of vitamins, minerals and organic acids necessary for the human body.

It is noteworthy that with any, even with thermal, processing, spinach leaves retain their green color, and almost everyone useful material, although their number may decrease slightly. In addition, it is a low-calorie product, which is important for adherents healthy eating... Therefore, this vegetable is worth taking its rightful place both in our beds and in our menu.

A little curious botany

Spinach is a herbaceous annual or biennial, which botanists have recently "re-baptized", referring it to the amaranth family, although before that it felt good among the representatives of the family of hamsters. The homeland of spinach is Asia, where it was cultivated as a vegetable crop even in ancient Persia.

Outwardly, it looks like a sorrel, but it has more rounded leaves, moreover, in contrast to the light green color of sorrel, they are a rich dark green color. And the taste of these plants is different: spinach leaves taste more like a salad, but has a slight piquant bitterness.

Spinach, like any vegetable crop, can be grown through seedlings. But, given its "early maturity" - from sowing seeds to harvesting takes only 4-5 weeks, the vast majority of gardeners practice growing by sowing seeds in open ground. Moreover, since the greatest nutritional value represent young leaves of spinach, then the conveyor method of sowing is often used, sowing its seeds with an interval of 2-3 weeks.

Few people know how to grow spinach in the garden, how to cook it deliciously, how useful it is. The spinach culture is popular in many countries. V Western Europe even produce harvesters for harvesting it. In Japan, with an acute shortage of cultivated areas for spinach, up to 24 thousand hectares are allotted, that is, 2-2.5 square meters. m per person. And here in the Krasnodar Territory, judging by the number of sold seeds, its sowing in open ground is no more than 2-3 hectares per 5 million inhabitants of the Kuban, that is, 0.02-0.03 square meters. m per person. Most likely, this is from not knowing what kind of culture it is, how and when to plant spinach.

Nutritionists, nutritionists believe that it should be consumed at least 3-4 kg per year, which is used not only as a salad, but also as a medicinal plant.

Spinach as a useful plant

Garden spinach - annual plant... They eat fleshy leaves, sometimes they are corrugated, have an ovoid, rounded or arrow-shaped shape. This is a dioecious plant, and females are more leafy, vegetate longer than males. In terms of the amount of protein contained, spinach is second only to legumes (peas, beans). Its leaves contain sugars, vitamins C (65-75 mg%), groups B, P, PP, K, E, A, various organic acids, salts of potassium, calcium, sodium, iron, copper, phosphorus, and other useful substances.

Spinach leaves remove harmful substances from the body, such as toxins, heavy metal salts, cholesterol. The French call it the "stomach broom" because it has a positive effect on the activity of the digestive glands, forcing them to work more intensively. In addition, spinach, due to its saponin content, enhances gastric motility.

When to sow spinach in open ground in the Kuban

It is a cold-resistant plant. And in dry, hot weather, having formed 4-6 small leaves, they begin to shoot, becoming unsuitable for eating. Therefore, the late spring sowing of spinach in our Krasnodar Territory should not be practiced.

In a short day, when sowing is carried out in early spring ("February windows") or autumn (September), the light stage of development passes slowly, the duration of the vegetative phase increases. As a result, a powerful rosette of 10-12 large leaves is formed, which leads to an increase in yield up to 3.5-4 kg per 1 sq. m.

Spinach seeds, although slowly, can germinate outdoors at temperatures of + 3-4 ° C. But optimum temperature both for germination and for its growth and development is 15-18 ° C. In the phase of a rosette of 4-6 leaves, it easily tolerates frosts down to -17 ° C, and even lower under snow. For example, in the winter of 2002/2003, the temperature at night in December-January on some days dropped to 18-20 ° С frost, and without snow. At this temperature, they remained to grow, 53-56% of the plants survived, which gave an early harvest.

Experts-agronomists have studied several dates for sowing spinach: late summer (second-third decade of August) and autumn (three dates in September and first-second decade of October). Observations of growth and development showed that sowing in August and in the first or second decade of September allows you to get a yield of spinach leaves in October-November of 3.5-3.7 kg per 1 sq. m.

In some years, with a warm autumn, spinach yielded even in December, if you place arcs of 6-8 mm wire for sowing, cover them plastic wrap... Crops of the second or third ten days of September, sometimes in the first ten days of October, endured winter in the conditions of the central zone Krasnodar Territory OK. The temperature in winter for the previous 3 years did not fall below 10-12 ° С of frost. A crop of spinach leaves from sowing in mid-September was ready for harvest in the first decade of March. Each subsequent sowing period yielded a harvest 5-7 days later than the previous one. The early spring sowing period in February-March yielded crops in the first or second decade of May. The yield from the early spring sowing period was 1.3-1.7 kg per sq. m.

Thus, for the conveyor belt harvest of spinach in the Kuban late autumn or in early spring it is necessary to plant it, or rather, to carry out staged sowing from about August 15 to mid-October with an interval of 10-15 days.

Increasingly, I see green spinach leaves on the market counters. This makes me happy. But before growing spinach in industrial scale still far. It's a pity!

Peculiarities

The first spinach seeds germinate already at +3 degrees, mass shoots appear at + 8 ... + 10 degrees, they endure short-term frosts up to 8 degrees.

Spinach grows well at + 15 ... + 18 degrees, higher temperatures cause early steming of the plant.

To obtain early greens, spinach seeds are sown in greenhouses as a compactor for other crops - tomatoes, cucumbers.

You can sow it before winter, summer and early spring. Best predecessors- crops for which manure was applied (potatoes, cucumbers, early and cauliflower, beets, radishes). He needs a sunny place, the soil is fertile, light or medium loamy, on heavy spinach it grows poorly.

Growing spinach outdoors

The prepared seeds are slightly dried and sown on April 15-20 in an ordinary way into the prepared ridges, on which furrows 4 cm deep are made beforehand with a hand marker and a rake handle (the distance between them is 10 cm). Seeds are sown evenly, 2-3 cm apart, and somewhat thicker at the edges. Then the soil is enveloped with a rake so that the seeds are at a depth of 2 cm, and for uniform germination, the soil is slightly compacted with a rake or a hand roller. If the soil is dry, then it is watered, and then covered with matting or burlap. For 1 m2 of a ridge, from 4 to 5 g of seeds are consumed, depending on their germination.

It was found that spinach with a shorter daylight hours develops better and gives more leaves, and with a long daylight low temperatures produces fewer leaves and moves quickly to the arrow. Given this circumstance, it is better to sow spinach in greenhouses or warmed ridges.

The simplest insulated ridge is arranged as follows. Lay 4 boards on the sides of the ridge so that they are 10-14 cm above its surface, and reinforce it with pegs. Spinach is usually sown, but with the emergence of seedlings within 15-20 days, the plants must be given 10-hour daylight hours. For this, from 5 pm to 7 am, the ridge is closed from above with frames upholstered with roofing felt or mats. This agricultural practice is recommended especially when the period of white nights begins.

After sprouting, spinach is regularly watered, loosened the soil and fight pests and diseases. At the end of the first decade of May, it is weeded and thinned out by 8-10 cm, and young plants are used for food. Then the spinach is fed with ammonium nitrate solution. The rate for watering 1 m2 of crops is 30-40 g of ammonium nitrate dissolved in 10 liters of water. To avoid leaf burns, the plants are lightly irrigated with clean water after feeding.

The second sowing of spinach is carried out in late May, and the third in late June or early July.

Winter sowing of spinach

For an early crop of spinach, it can be sown before winter in elevated areas with light soil. To do this, in late September and early October, the remains of vegetable crops and weeds are carefully removed, mineral fertilizers are applied, as indicated above, they dig up and cut ridges, cut grooves.

For planting seeds, light sandy loam, peat or good humus soil is prepared and covered with straw and manure so that it does not freeze.

Sown in November in frozen soil with dry seeds at the rate of 5 g of seeds per 1 m2. Seeds are sown in grooves and covered with specially harvested soil. In the spring, when the earth dries up, the aisles are loosened and weeds are pulled out. When shoots appear, the plants are watered, fed ammonium nitrate in the doses indicated above, and the surface of the ridges is mulched.

Further care for spinach consists of loosening, weeding, watering and controlling pests and diseases.

Care

Spinach shoots appear in 4-5 days. They are not afraid of spring frosts at all and require almost no care. Only the beds need to be watered more often (in the heat every day) and the aisles should be loosened. I did not observe any pests on spinach.

Plants, competing with each other, are actively growing and very soon grow beautiful, sparkling glossy leaves in the bright sun. Then I gradually begin to thin out the grown spinach, pulling out bundles of fresh greens for eating from the rows. When a rosette of 5-8 well-developed leaves grows and a small stem appears in single plants, I cut it off completely.

The place is not empty

In early June, I plant seedlings, usually tomatoes, in the space vacated after harvesting spinach. They grow well there. They say that spinach can be sown in the same place at intervals of 20 days until August. But I don't - because of the long daylight hours in June and July, it will certainly bloom early. Therefore, if I sow it a second time, then only in August, not earlier.

Seed collection

Since I harvest the spinach seeds myself, without touching two or three of the strongest, healthiest and most appropriate varietal characteristics of the plant, I leave it on the garden to grow further, bloom and set seeds (they do not interfere with the tomatoes at all). They ripen by August. I pull out the bushes, let them dry in the attic and then very easily hatch the right amount seeds.

Winter harvest

I liked the spinach so much that I am happy to grow it at the end of winter on the loggia along with salad and other herbs. I sow seeds, like other plants, in rows to a depth of 1 cm into boxes with earth from my garden. Care - watering, loosening, wrapping in frost. Already at the end of February - beginning of March, I serve amazing juicy vitamin leaves to the table!

Spinach: a couple of secrets

I always sow spinach first, as soon as I arrive at the dacha in the spring. The ground will thaw a little - and I loosen the garden with a flat cutter.

I don't use mineral fertilizers for spinach. I just make grooves at a distance of 15-20 cm and scatter the seeds.

If the soil is wet - I sow dry, dry - I soak the seeds for a couple of hours and spill the grooves with water before sowing.

I fall asleep with a small layer of earth, slap it with my palm and cover it with a film.

Then, instead of her, as soon as the spinach rises, a lutrasil stele, and if the weather is warm, you don't need to cover at all.

A few tips from personal experience.

Spinach is undemanding to lighting, but with a lack of it, the number of leaves and the content of ascorbic acid in them decrease. For lush bushes, a 10-12 hour day is required.
- shoots have appeared - water immediately.
-do not wait for the spinach to grow large and tall, cut off the young leaves collected in root outlet, before the emergence of a flowering shoot.
-English vegetable grower Tony Biggs writes about spinach: “The less you touch the leaves, the softer and tastier they will be. Therefore, when sowing, I try not to thicken the seeds, spread them as rarely as possible, and thin out the seedlings as early as possible (in a thickened sowing, the plants bloom quickly).
- Spinach is best eaten on the day of harvest, as it quickly spoils. If you still need to preserve the leaves, I keep them from plastic bag in the refrigerator for no more than 2 days.

Favorite spinach varieties

Gigantic- the socket is compact, medium size. Leaves are light green without yellowness, wrinkled, fleshy, ovoid. Features: early maturing, productive variety, it takes 14-20 days from germination to harvesting.

Fat-leaved- compact rosette, 14-19 cm in diameter. Leaves are dark green with a bluish tinge, bubbly, up to 10 cm long, up to 7 cm wide. The petiole is thick. Peculiarities: mid-season variety(26-31 days). Before sowing, it is advisable to soak the seeds for a day, changing the water 2-3 times, and then thin out the seedlings.

Matador- the socket is semi-raised, compact. The leaf is large, smooth, oval, thick, gray-green, glossy, medium-sized, slightly wavy edge. Features: mid-season variety (30-40 days). Demanding on moisture, resistant to blooming and low temperatures.

Based on materials from the magazine "Gardener and Gardener"

More material on the topic of the section:

The desire to diversify the garden with a variety of crops is not always successful. But as for greenery, here aspirations are rarely limited to the complexity of growing or the need to create special conditions. Therefore, for sure, what is worth starting in the beds is spinach, sowing and caring for which is not at all laborious.

In addition to being an extremely tasty, healthy, nutritious, but low-calorie leafy vegetable, it is also completely unpretentious. It is easy to find a place for rows of spinach on any, even the most small area, and its aesthetic and compact appearance allows you to grow bushes even in a flower bed, where, in addition to being useful, it will also play the decorative role of a green culture.

Spinach is quite cold-resistant, therefore does not require a shelter

Therefore, if you decide to start growing spinach in the country, you should take advantage of its advantages:

• early maturity allows you to plant it in areas prepared for the subsequent planting of seedlings of heat-loving vegetables - tomatoes, peppers or eggplants;
• spinach is sufficiently resistant to cold, therefore, does not require a shelter;
• cultivation seedling method allows one of the first to get juicy spring greens;
• excellent compatibility with all the most common crops on the site (except for beets), allows you to use it when arranging mixed beds or as a thickener for a while until the main crops grow up.

Now that we have decided that there is always a place for spinach, it is worthwhile to get acquainted in more detail with the basic preferences in the type of soil, the degree of moisture, the duration of illumination and the optimum temperature for development.

Video about the benefits of spinach

Planting spinach is more effective in the most luminous places, especially when sowing in spring and autumn, when the daylight hours are short. Moisture is also very important, since insufficient watering provokes shooing of plants, thereby impairing the taste of spinach and reducing the yield of its succulent leaves. And at the expense of fertilizers - even if the land for the garden is initially an acceptable structure, it is still worth improving its fertility. To do this, it is enough to add half a bucket of organic matter per 1 square meter and in the recommended dosage of complex mineral fertilizers.

Planting spinach is more effective in the most illuminated places

Now about the soil: in most cases, ordinary garden soil is fertile, loose, moist enough, perfect for growing. The only exceptions are acidic soils or too heavy, clayey soils with constant stagnation of water. In such conditions, most crops cannot develop safely, including spinach, so if there is no way to select another site, the existing "problem" soil should be improved.

First, about the acidity indicators. You can determine its level without special devices, just look at what weeds are growing around: bindweed and burdock - 6-7 pH and higher; nettle, euphorbia and shepherd's purse - 5.5-6 pH; plantain, dandelion or wheatgrass - 5-5.5 pH, but horsetail, moss or buttercup speak of high acidity - 4.5 pH and below. For spinach, the optimal indicator will be about 6.0-7.0 pH, so if the soil is not very suitable, you should add fluff lime when digging in a dosage per 1 sq.m. - 200g, with an initial indicator of about 5 pH, and 600-750g if the level is below 4 pH.

But as for high humidity and stagnant water, then drainage can solve this problem. Depending on the degree of "clayiness" of the soil, 2-3 buckets of coarse sand should be added per 1 square meter. Having dug up and thoroughly mixed the resulting potting soil, you will be able to assess the degree of its improvement - whether it has become loose or you can add more sand. Heavy soils in particular need liming and mandatory enrichment with organic fertilizers, be it mullein, rotted manure, bird droppings, or just generous application of humus.

Heavy soils in particular need liming and mandatory enrichment with organic fertilizers

Now, knowing where the spinach will grow better, you can proceed directly to crops and plantings.

Regardless of where and how you will grow spinach, it is recommended that you follow the accepted sowing and seeding rates. Therefore, when sowing between rows, on a garden bed, in a greenhouse or open ground, it is important not to deepen the seeds by more than 2-2.5 cm and leave 20-35 cm between rows.

It is imperative to sow during wet soil, if it seems to you that the earth is dry, you should first generously shed the grooves. After waiting for the water to be absorbed, you can start sowing.

It is imperative to sow in moist soil.

With the emergence of seedlings, traditional planting care begins - regular weeding and timely watering. In addition, the quality of spinach often depends on the density of crops, so you need to control the thickening. You can break through spinach for the first time already in the phase of 2-3 leaves, while the torn out sockets should not be thrown away, and if they are immediately transplanted to another bed, they will continue to grow quite successfully. After thinning and transplanting, the plants must be thoroughly watered so that the disturbed roots can again tightly adhere to the soil.

Taking into account the early maturity of spinach, it does not require additional feeding. But if you doubt that the soil is fertile enough, you can add organic fertilizers in liquid form. You can prepare such nutrient solutions on your own and practically free of charge, given that everything you need can be found in your country house, on the street or from your neighbors.

During fermentation, it is recommended to stir the solution in the container periodically for speedy ripening. And during feeding, it is important to remember that their overabundance sometimes turns out to be much more dangerous than a deficiency, so proceed with caution, especially when using bird droppings.

Here, perhaps, all the tricks and all the care, pests and diseases practically never damage spinach, due to its early maturity.

Bearing in mind the cold resistance of spinach, its first crops in the country can be started as soon as the snow melts, because already at a temperature of +4 ° C the seeds can germinate quite successfully.

Advice! growing spinach is similar in terms of requirements and care to growing, therefore, these crops are often sown at the same time and in one place.

Under favorable conditions, the first salad of young leaves can be made already after 30-40 days from the emergence of shoots

Depending on the climatic features specific region, planting of spinach is carried out from mid-April to mid-May. But given the high moisture requirement of spinach, later planting in dry soil may not bring the expected results, and this culture does not like heat either. Therefore, in this situation, the principle applies: the earlier the sowing, the better harvest... Under favorable conditions, the first salad of young leaves can be made already after 30-40 days from germination. And if you want to get greens even earlier, then you can use the seedling method and first grow the rosettes on the windowsill, like a radish, and then transfer them to the beds along with a lump of earth.

Avoid worrying about seedlings, but please with an early harvest, another method will help. Since autumn, completing the last garden work, sow spinach seeds in a greenhouse or just in a garden bed - their spring shoots will be among the earliest. If there is no stationary greenhouse, then when planting in open ground, it is recommended to cover the rows with a film or agrofibre, so that in spring the earth warms up faster, but does not lose moisture, and the growing greenery is clean.

Video about growing spinach

Sowings in September will sprout already this year, they will endure wintering completely without losses, and after thawing in spring, they will continue to grow. If sown in October, then green rosettes can be seen in the first half of April after the snow melts.

And so that tender spinach leaves are on your table from early spring to late autumn, you should select the right varieties and sow seeds periodically.

Thanks to the young leaves, rich in vitamins and minerals the popularity of spinach has long and steadily been growing all over the world. It is difficult to find something equally useful and unpretentious plant like spinach, cultivation and care in the open field for which novice summer residents can handle it.

Spinach is one of the early ripening vegetables. From the moment of sowing to the collection of the first batch of leaves, it takes 30-40 days. At the same time, the plant tolerates cold well, does not require painstaking care. It is not surprising that during the warm period in most regions of the country, you can get not one, but several harvests. Both summer residents and large crop farms use this property of the plant.

However, mastering the cultivation of spinach in the open field, you need to know that this is a short-day plant. When the duration of daylight hours exceeds 14 hours, spinach stops growing leaves, and forms a peduncle. Such plants are no longer used for food.

In order to pamper yourself and loved ones with healthy and tasty greens for as long as possible, you need to choose varieties that are most resistant to flowering and plant spinach in early spring, as well as from the second half of July to get an autumn harvest.

Planting and caring for spinach outdoors in spring

You can grow spinach through home-grown seedlings or by sowing seeds directly into the ground. The second method is used more often, and due to the cold resistance of the plant, the first spinach seeds fall into the soil as soon as it thaws well.

V middle lane this happens in mid-April. If spring weather does not pamper with warmth, crops can be covered with non-woven material, under which the sprouts can withstand frosts down to –8 ° C.

To facilitate pecking and protect against infections, spinach seeds are kept in a warm pink solution of potassium permanganate for 12 to 18 hours before sowing, and then dried until they become free-flowing as before.

Spinach is sown to a depth of 1.5 to 3 cm. So that the seeds after watering do not turn out to be much deeper, after planting the soil is rolled in the beds. Leave at least 30 cm between individual rows, and 5–8 cm between the seeds. This will allow the plant to form a lush rosette and simplify the care of spinach when grown in the open field.

If the first sowing is in April, then the last summer is carried out at the end of June. Conveyor planting at intervals of 3-4 weeks will help you not lack fresh greens. From the last decade of July, crops are resumed and carried out until mid-August, and in the southern regions even until mid-September. Smooth lines of greenery in the beds appear 10-14 days after sowing.

Taking advantage of the frost resistance of seeds and early ripening of spinach, it is planted before winter. The seeds are buried in the ground in October, and in the spring, immediately after the snow melts in the beds, the shoots of this useful and unpretentious plant will appear friendly.

Plot for growing spinach in the open field

The success of spinach growing depends largely on the right site and preliminary preparation soil. The plant prefers open, well-lit beds with aerated, slightly acidic soil containing many nutrients.

Autumn processing of ridges will help to increase the return on planting in the open field and caring for spinach in spring:

• they are dug deeply;
• add, if necessary for deoxidation, dolomite flour;
• the soil is mixed with fertilizers at the rate of 15 grams of potassium salts and 30 grams per square meter;
• when digging, add humus or manure.

In the spring, on poor soils, the beds are additionally fertilized, adding 20 grams of urea per meter. Dense soil is mixed with sand and peat. This will make it easier to care for your spinach outdoors when grown outdoors.

Outdoor spinach care

Caring for spinach is not too burdensome and consists of regular watering, weeding and loosening the soil in the aisles. As long as the plants are small, it is important to avoid the formation of a dense crust that interferes with the formation of rosettes and the penetration of moisture.

At the stage of 2-3 leaves, the plants are thinned out. If the seedlings are carefully removed, they can be transplanted by filling in the gaps elsewhere in the garden.

Spinach should be abundant and frequent. In order not to harm the landings, they use. At the same time, up to 10 liters of water is consumed per square meter, which allows you to carefully and deeply saturate the soil with moisture.

Whatever the spinach variety, when grown outdoors, planting care necessarily includes protecting the plants from the scorching rays of the sun. When the air temperature rises above 26 ° C, the beds are hidden under nonwoven fabric or use other shading methods. If this measure is neglected, the risk of peduncles appears, the leaves lose their juiciness and coarse.

At proper preparation beds and sufficient food, spinach grows rapidly and after 2-3 weeks gives the first greener leaves to the table. If growth is inhibited, the leaf plates are small, the rosette is poorly formed, it is obvious that the plants need to be fed with nitrogen fertilizer. The granules must be sealed 2–5 cm deep into the soil, and then the beds are watered.

Spinach sowing timing video