Spinach Seeds - Nobel Giant

Minimum Seeds per Packet: 170

Packet Weight: 3g

Planting Season: Spring or Fall

Sowing Method: Direct Seed or Transplant

Seed Depth: 1/2"

Direct Seed Spacing: 1"

Soil Temperature: 45-65 ℉

Days to Sprout: 7-21

Mature Spacing: 4-6"

Sun Requirement: Full Sun or Partial Shade

Frost Tolerance: Frost Tolerant

Days to Harvest: 50

When to Seed Spinach

Spinach is a fast growing plant that loves cool weather and can be planted for a spring or fall harvest. Summertime heat makes the leaves tough and causes the plant to bolt. Keeping the plants in cool temperatures ensures sweet and tender harvests. 

Where to Plant Spinach

Choose a spot in your garden that gets full sun. They’ll do okay in partial shade, but won’t be as vigorous. Spinach appreciates well-draining soil with a few inches of compost or organic matter mixed in. 

Growing Spinach

Spinach won’t readily germinate in temperatures below 50 degrees but they can either be direct seeded or transplanted into the garden in early spring. Plant your spinach outdoors four to six weeks before your last frost date. Spring crops tend to bolt fairly quickly so harvest as soon as you can. For a reliable fall crop into early winter, sow seeds six to eight weeks before your first frost. You can overwinter a fall planting with season extension methods for an early spring harvest of greens. Sow seeds ½ inch deep and one inch apart, if direct seeding. As your plants grow and mature, thin them to their mature planting distance of four to six inches. Keep seeds moist until germination. Once established, spinach will need about an inch of water per week. Mulching your plantings can hold in moisture and keep weeds at bay. A nitrogen-heavy fertilizer can boost the yield and pace of your spinach harvests. 

Harvesting Spinach

Spinach can be harvested at any size, but waiting to harvest until your plants mature can mean a longer harvest window, particularly for fall crops. Once the leaves are big enough (usually about three or four inches wide), you can harvest by clipping off the leaves from the main plant with shears, starting with the outer leaves. Always leave ⅔‘s of the plant to continue growing.

Spinach, Spinacia oleracea

Pollination, wind; Life Cycle, annual; Isolation Distance, 2 miles

Spinach needs such a large isolation distance because it is a wind pollinated annual with dioecious flowers (plants with only male flowers and plants with only female flowers.) Growing spinach for seed is best done in the spring, because spinach needs at least 13 hours of daylight before sending up flowers. Seeds will mature from the bottom of the flower stalk up, so multiple harvests are necessary. Saving spinach seed is very challenging.