How to pick spinach

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sbarr Albany (again), NY(Zone 5b) Jun 18, 2006

OK, I'm embarrassed to ask this.

This is our first year growing spinach. I think it's baby spinach (but type shouldn't matter)

Plants are about a foot tall, we pinched off the top blossoms (not sure if this was the right or wrong thing to do)

Questions -

should we be picking from the top or the bottom
Do we want to encourage branching OUT or growing UP
should we pinch the blossoms (I did that, since we've always done this with other plants to put the energy in leaves, not flowers)
How often can we harvest the plants (is this like basil where it can be done occasionally, as new leaves emerge and other leaves become larger)

Any other helpful hints - I love spinach and we have 6 plants going and I'm hoping that 6 plants can keep my addiction fed.

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jozeeben Acton, TN(Zone 7a) Jun 19, 2006

It sounds like it has already started to bolt due to the heat and the leaves may be bitter. It is reccommended to harvest the outer leaves and it will send new leaves up the center (until it bolts). Ours has already gone to seed and we're collecting seeds from ours now for a fall crop. Some plants are male and some are female. The male sends up a pollen plume and then dies. The females form seeds on the side of the stock. Plant the fall crop 8 weeks before your first fall frost. For baby spinach we plant it real thick and use the thinned plants. The remaining ones will get bigger leafed for regular spinach. When it starts to get tough, we cook it.

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