Growing Spinach

I recently purchased a C&G planter after using an Aerogarden for many years. What about Spinach? I haven’t found it anywhere on the C&G website. Am I missing something or do I have to resort to the “Grow Anything” pods?

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Hi @DSDunbar, welcome!

Spinach is known to be slow and difficult to sprout in indoor conditions. Also, as it prefers somewhat lower temps it tends to bolt and does not produce that many leaves as we would like.

But, as a hobby grower, it is definitely rewarding to try it out with your own seeds and try different cultivars. And yes, the Grow Anything plant pod is perfect for that.

Germination improves if you soak the seeds in water for a few days prior to sowing or keep soaked seeds in the freezer for a few days. This may improve breaking dormancy and raise germination rates.

If some pods fail to sprout, you can re-sow the seeds to the same pod.

Happy experimenting! :four_leaf_clover:

I know this is an old thread, but I was very interested in the comment “prefers colder temperatures”, and I like spinach. My 25 “green factory” is in a room that during winter is 16 to 17 degrees Celsius. In fact some of the pods grow slower due to this. From your comments, the main drawback why spinach was not used is bolting to flower when too warm. Do you think next winter it might be worth my while trying spinach, or where there other drawbacks when C&G decided not to include spinach in the standard plant collection?
Pre-soaking seeds would not be an issue for me.

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Hi @DavidCNG I’m not what is your average winter temperature range, but it should remain between 18 - 24 °C / 64 - 75 °F, which should postpone bolting for spinach as much as it is possible.

For us, the main issue was to get a uniform germination rate. If you are into some labor, soak them at room temp overnight and plant them afterwards. Some gardeners have claimed that keeping soaked seeds in the freezer for a week or two also promoted germination. This is probably something you need to test- what works best for you.

What I have learned from my experience, is that spinach seeds sprout faster if sown one cm inside the plug not on the soil surface, they really like to be buried.

That is super handy, than you. I am figuring what to grow at different times of year based on my indoor temperature, so next winter will be the spinach experiment :-). I learned last summer to stop with lettuce when I had the other problem of too hot lol. I’ve also seen that I can plant my kale out on my balcony pretty early. Enjoying working all these puzzles out :slight_smile: