Last of the Spinach

spinach.jpg

The New Zealand Spinach has started to go to seed so it’s time to dig it up and clear the ground for another crop. We got quite a large harvest from the last plants though and I made a great Ricotta and Spinach cannelloni with it.

Spinach is a great cool-weather crop but it hates dry weather and will bolt (run to seed) very easily once the weather starts to warm up. It’s not really worth sowing any more NZ Spinach until the weather starts to cool down again in late August / early September. So I’ll have to rely on my Spinach Beet plants to keep the mtp kitchen supplied with greens.

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4 Comments on “Last of the Spinach”

  1. My mother-in-law gave me some plants a week ago which I promptly planted in the polytunnel. A week later and they’ve gone to seed.

    Thing is there was no label on them and I’d no idea what they were, so thanks to your photo I know exactly what they were and why they went to seed in just over a week!

    I’ll hold off planting any more until later in the season.

  2. I sow NZ spinach during spring-summer here (Canberra, Australia) and English spinach during the cooler months.

    Perhapes I have a different variety but my NZ spinach tolerates the heat quite well and takes a while to bolt. Perhapes you could try getting a more heat resistant variety? It seems a shame to go without spinach over the warmer months.

  3. Jim – great idea. What variety are you sowing? If you can grow it in Australia during the summer then surely it’s invincible. I have seedlings with flowers on them over here :(