Week 4 - Planting Spinach

This week I had time to plant the first crop of spinach. Since spinach does not transplant very successfully I am going to direct sow the seed into an Earthbox. I will be planting two varieties of spinach one called Tyee and the other called Pigeon (strange name I know!)

Tyee

Tyee is a sandard savoy spinach. Known for its bolt resistance and vigorous growth. Dark green leaves with upright growth habit. Suitable for spring, summer, and fall crops. Ideal for overwintering. I can attest to the overwintering as for the last several years I sowed some in September in an Earthbox. We harvested some in October before the really cold temperatures set in. I moved the Earthbox up on the deck close to the house in a protected area. Removed most of the water from the Earthbox and covered the top with a layer of leaves. In April I removed the leaves put the Earthbox in the sun. The spinach grew like crazy!

Pigeon

Pigeon has an attractive, very dark-green, oval-shaped leaf. Plants are extremely upright, making for easy harvest, and leaves have nice cupping for baby leaf production. This slow-growing warm season hybrid has excellent leaf texture under hot conditions. This is the first year I will be planting this spinach, always have to try something new.

Pigeon

The first step to planting the spinach is to ready the earth box. Dig out the old fertilizer layer add new fertilizer, some potting soil, then cover with a new black plastic cover.

Pigeon

Next cut a strip out of the cover were the seed will be placed. I removed a strip similar to the above picture along both sides of the box.

Next I placed the seeds on soil about 1/2 to 1 inch apart down the center of each of the areas where I cut away the cover.

Each side of the Earthbox is planted with a different variety. I placed a marker on each side so I would know what was planted where.

Next the seeds need to be covered with some soil. So I soaked some potting soil until it was well moisten and then used to cover the seed to depth of about 1/2 inch.

Finally placed the planted Earthbox under the grow to await the germination of the seeds.

Below are two pictures of the lettuce first is on the day the lettuce was transplanted to the Earthbox and the second is a picture of the lettuce after one week in the Earthbox. There are four different varieties of Salanova lettuce in the box. Two of the varieties are red and two are green. After about two days in the Earthbox the red varieties started showing red and within 24-36 hours there were completely red as you see them now.

Will be back next week with a progress report on the spinach and lettuce.

 

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