Why was my spinach so wimpy?

I grew "space" variety spinach last year, 8 plants in a 2 square foot area. The plants were so small and baby like, not big or luscious like I thought spinach would be. The other plants in the area (lettuce, broccoli, parsley) did great.

Why didn't my spinach look like this? http://www.botany.com/54619STETONSPINACH.JPG

I have no idea. I am not familiar with the cultivar "Space", but it is widely available and no mention that it is a "baby" spinach. Hopefully someone who has grown it will reply. If not I would suggest planting a different cultivar next year for comparison. Spinach is less tolerant of low pH than the other crops you mentioned so you might also check that. Have you had good luck with beets or swiss chard, spinach has similar soil requirements.

I had GREAT luck with the swiss chard, and it was right next to it!
Maybe I planted it too late.... everything else had a head start inside under lights, but I heard spinach has to be planted outside so I planted outside in APril.

heebiej....Spinach will germinate at low temps but they'll take their merry ol' time. Also, grow is somewhat slow both in cold weather as well as in extremely hot weather. Hot weather will tend to make it bolt though; did you see any of it going to seed? If so, that would slow plant growth tremendously.

Also, in hard-packed soil with poor drainage spinach won't do so good either. The roots will become cramped and that will have an affect on the topgrowth.

Swiss Chard is much more forgiving than spinach for me, requiring less babying and proper conditions.

Maybe telling us what kind of soil you have, how much light, highs and lows (temps) and what kind of plant food/fertilizer you used would help us help you.

Shoe.

I'm in Buffalo, NY
We had a hot summer, and yes the spinach DID go to seed eventually, so that was probably it.
Soil wasn't hard packed, it was in raised beds with a compost/vermiculite/peat moss mix.
Fertilizer was fish meal/kelp meal.
-Jessica

Thanks. Heat and spinach don't go together (unless you're steaming it on the stove! Yummy!)

By the way, your raised beds sound like they have some good growing soil/medium in them.

Happy Gardening!
Shoe.

Shoe,
Aw thanks... they do even better when I add the bunny poop that is so abundant in my household.

Good going, I love bunny poop! Best thing for the garden.

Now, as for it being IN your house, you have house bunnies? Maybe New Zealands?

I have one flemish giant and two little ones. They are poop factories, and great pets (if a little messy). Mostly litter trained.

Okay, thanks. Was just curious. (They're much better than 'dust bunnies' though!)

Shoe.

Don't they gnaw on the furniture?

I keep the bunnies in a room adjacent to the kitchen, and let them into the kitchen to run. There's very little in the kitchen to gnaw on, and I cover certain wall parts with cardboard.
I've found that it is an inherent NEED for bunnies to chew and destroy. A couple years ago I stopped focusing on PREVENTING them from chewing and instead on providing acceptable outlets for their destructive needs. I have many cardboard boxes, newspapers, phone books, and other things for them to chew. They love ripping these apart.

Heebiejeebie,
I'm planning on growing the same SPACE variety of spinach this season in zone 9a. I take it I should plant out somewhere toward the end of October when the weather starts getting cooler, right? How many DTMs should I expect once I plant out? Hopefully, I'll have cool weather from November through mid-February this year. We're in the midst of an unusually warm winter season this year!

What's a space variety spinach? that picture looked kind of like bloomsdale longstanding. And my spinach was wimpy this fall. I figure it was the lack of fertilizer in the garden, we had not much at all. Hoping to do better this spring. With a load of chicken litter.