When you ’re growing spinach plant in your garden for use in fresh spring salads or warming fall stir fries , bed when and how to glean can help ensure you extend the outgrowth of your crop , and love more meal from your plants .
pack with nutrition , this sizable leafy green , Spinacia oleracea , is a fantastic garden staple to have on hired man in your backyard .
harvest Spinacia oleracea is n’t that different thanpicking common beet greens , and whether you ’re growing thiscool season cropin spring or fall , you have a couple of options .
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I ’m going to lie in out those options for you as well as give you a few tips on the pick process .
Here ’s what I ’ll cover :
What You’ll Learn
Choose Baby or Mature Leaves
Spinach can be glean for either tender baby special K or larger , mature leave .
Baby spinach tends to have a milder smell and a softer grain . These youthful veggies can be misrepresent , of course , but are also delightful to use in refreshful salads .
On the other hand , if you let your crop mature , you ’ll get a enceinte haul of solid food from each plant .
big leave-taking do have a more pronounced flavor , and their stems become more unchewable with age . This makes them best suited to cooking rather than for eat raw .
When to Harvest
Whichever way you prefer to eat your spinach , you ’ll need to pick your crop before the plants bolt .
If you see a shank farm directly up from amongst the foliage , that ’s a clear sign that your garden vegetable has its sights set on reproductive memory .
Instead of using energy to produce toothsome greens for your plate , it will pop out to blossom and set come .
If you see this occurrent , go onwards and harvest your whole harvest immediately , because its quality will rapidly drop when the cognitive operation of flowering and setting seed gets started . farewell may take on an unpleasant , bitter tone .
A relative ofbeetsandswiss chard , this member of thegoosefoot familybegins its generative process in reply to lengthen days as well as high temperature .
That means that you have a narrow-minded windowpane of time for your crop if you are rise it in outpouring .
Like many other cool time of year crop , Spinacia oleracea can also be spring up for a decline harvest , which will often provide a longer harvest windowpane .
This craw is cold hardy down to at least 28 ° F , so in some USDA Hardiness Zones , it can even be overwintered .
Cut and Come Again
If you prefer small , tender , baby spinach plant greens , you may want to opt for a cut - and - come - again style of harvesting .
Pinch a few leaves off from the exterior of the plant , which will let it to continue producing new ontogeny . With this method , you ’ll be picking more fledged growth first , as you would whenharvesting kale .
Do n’t clean more than one-half of the foliation from the plant at any one time – it needs some leaves for energy product via photosynthesis to continue grow .
you may continue to harvest from your spinach flora as you need commons .
If you do n’t have a tumid enough harvest home from your spinach plants at one time to make a repast , you may always fuse them withlettucefor a salad , or other leafy veg such askaleor swiss chard for sauteed viridity .
Whole Head
If you choose to allow your prickly-seeded spinach crop to mature before harvesting it , you may want to pick the whole head at once .
To do this , grab the plant by its leaf , and using a acuate knife orpruners , reduce the stalk off closely to the territory . If you want to give it a opportunity to keep growing , be careful not to edit out the crown and instead make your gash an inch or two above soil level .
If you leave the top to originate back , you may be capable to get three to four harvest from each plant , depending on your mood and growing conditions .
After foreshorten , dispatch any faded , browning leave-taking from the lot and relegate them tothe compost deal .
When you have assort through your harvest , make clean the farewell by rinse them until the water is innocent from dirt , and then dry out them with the help of your salad spinner .
Do n’t have a salad thread maker ? hold out this roundupon our baby site , Foodal .
In an idealistic populace , you would eat your pertly picked putting surface right away . But since that does n’t always work out , you should design to eat them within the next brace of days for the most nutriment , and highest timbre .
For unforesightful term storage you could wind your harvesting in a moist paper towel and then put this sheaf in a shaping bag or storage container and place it in the refrigerator , where it may keep for up to a week .
Just remember – the earlier you eat it , the more nutrient it will be .
If you ’d like to learn more about growing , storing , and using this superfood , ensure you read ourcomplete guide to growing spinach .
Good Greens Galore
Picking spinach is jolly simple ! Just commend to pick from the exterior of the plant and do n’t take all the foliage at once when using a gash and come again style harvesting .
And whether you are pick a few babe greens here and there , or harvest the matured crop all at once , check that to result the crown integral . If you’re able to keep your plants bring on longer , you ’ll be able-bodied to enjoy even more nutritive , tasty leafy veggies .
While I love the baby leaves in my spring salads , my preferent use for my own homegrown spinach haul is to cook up a batch of homemade saag paneer . Or perhaps a savory spinach Proto-Indo European fromour sister site , Foodal .
And for more information on growingleafy green vegetablesin your garden , check out these guides next :
© Ask the Experts , LLC . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.See our TOSfor more item . Originally release October 28th , 2020 . Last update April 21st , 2023 .
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Kristina Hicks - Hamblin
