How to grow spinach from seeds in pots

Spinach is a leafy green plant that belongs to Amarathus family. There are several varieties of spinach plants and they differ in appearance. Most of them have oval-shaped leaves. There are large leaves at the base of the stem and smaller leaves at the top.Its leaves are edible and it can be either cooked or eaten raw. Spinach plants grow up to 1 foot. It has high levels of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Magnesium, Manganese, Iron and Folate. It improves eye, skin, and hair health. Besides this spinach has enormous amounts of health benefits. It is easy to grow spinach in your home. You can grow organic, healthy spinach in your garden. Here is how to grow spinach from seeds in pots.

Growing Conditions for Spinach

• Spinach is a cold weather crop.
• The best time to grow spinach is during spring and fall. The optimum temperature for spinach to grow well is between 10 °C to 28°C (50 °F to 82°F.)
• For growing spinach, you will need a container that is at least 6 to 8 inches deep and wide. 
• Spinach requires soil that has high levels of nitrogen.

How to grow spinach from seeds in pots

1. Take a container and fill it with potting mix that contains 40 % coarse sand and 60 % compost.

2. Take a few spinach seeds and sow them in the pot.

3. Cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil and gently water it.

4. Place the pot in a location that gets at least 4 hours of sunlight every day. You will see seeds sprouting between 3 to 10 days.

After the seeds have sprouted, you can add compost once in 2 weeks. You can harvest the spinach in 45 days. Sometimes, it can take up to 60 days. Spinach can be harvested after it grows up to 3 to 4 inches in length and you can harvest it at least two to three times. After harvesting spinach once add lots of compost so that the spinach can regrow again.

Some points to note while growing spinach is that since spinach is a cold weather crop, high temperatures can result in bolting. Bolting is a process that happens in spinach when days are longer than 14 hours and temperatures are higher. This results in spinach growing taller than 1 ft and leaves becoming bitter. It can result in spinach turning into a floret quickly. So, it’s best to grow spinach during the fall and spring seasons. In case you grow spinach during the summer, make sure you give it plenty of shade. Spinach can easily get attacked by mealy bugs, find out how to treat them in this article.

Hope you found this article helpful.