Dirty Spinach

[NotYetGreenFingered]

Please help! I'm new to all this and finding some aspects a bit daunting - especially dealing with slugs!
I've planted Perpetual Spinach in a large tub as a pick-and-come-again crop. I used new compost straight out of the bag and nothing else.
The seeds germinated fine and the leaves are now 6" or so, the trouble is that the leaves - despite washing before eating - taste of dirt.
I'm wondering if I could be watering too much or whether the compost was too fine - can anyone please help?

[alan refail]

Hi NYGF

I don't think you're doing anything wrong.

The problem is that the foliage of all beets (and that includes perpetual spinach) tastes distinctly "earthy".

You have two options: either acquire the taste (we never have); or grow something else you do like the taste of. In a large tub your cut-and-come-again choice really revolves around salad leaves - a wide choice are suitable.

[Johnboy]

Hi NYGF,
As Alan has said Spinach always have an earthy taste but the trick is to use only the young tender leaves and discard the outer older leaves. Add them to your compost.
I have always found that if you cut Perpetual Spinach
straight across the plant around, but not below, 2" from the ground. Discard any older leaves and cook the rest. It will regrow quite quickly and the plant will expand in size. By the end of the season the amount to cut is at least 12" across of all young leaves. The earthy taste is the Oxalic Acid that is stored within the leaves and the older the leaf the more Oxalic acid they contain hence the earthy taste.
I do not know how many plants you are growing but I generally have 30 at 12" centre down the row. I do not imagine that you are growing anywhere near that amount so I am afraid you will have to play that by ear but however many you have will determine how many meals you will get.
I feel that in a tub you could use very close planting and ultimately end up with the complete tub width to pick as the plants expand.
JB.

[Parsons Jack]

Hi NYGF,

I have 12 plants of Perpetual Spinach in a grow bag, and have been using as a cut and come again crop for some weeks now. We like the earthy taste, but as Johnboy says, if you use the inner leaves, then they aren't quite as earthy. Like most home grown veg, it tastes a lot different to shop bought stuff

Cheers, PJ.

[NotYetGreenFingered]

Thanks for your replies. It's a little daunting when you first start and do not know whether you're doing it properly. I guess you can get used to the taste as the joys of eating something you have produced outweigh the unexpected - anyway, now that we know, we don't seem to notice!

Thanks again.