Kitchen Garden Forum

I'm having trouble with my spinach, am growing it mainly for baby-leaf salad but it's bolting really quickly. The variety is 'galaxy' from Marshall's.
I'm making successional sowings, bit it still seems to be 'going over' too soon. Could this be a watering problem or is it just a poor variety?

I've had the same problem with my spinach, lambs lettuce, mizuna, mibuna etc etc. I've had to sow more, twice!

I don't do spinach in summer any more for this reason, but sow in August, September and October at about 3" apart (Bordeaux). The thinnings are pulled whole for salads, and the plants overwinter beautifully under mesh. We can count on eating spinach from these sowings til the end of May when the lettuce comes round again

Hi Sprout,
Spinach is a little difficult at certain times of the year. I grow Perpetual Spinach and Seakale Beet (Swiss Chard) both which are exceedingly tasty at the young stage and will give you not quite the same but to some a better alternative which does not head up at the drop of a hat.
Seakale Beet I grow quite thickly to take advantage of the young seedlings and keep thinning out until I have plants that will last the whole season. Best kept picked even if you may not wish to eat it all and that means you have succulent young leaves available most of the year and if covered with fleece will give the odd feed over winter.
I allow Perpetual Spinach to grow and keep cutting in the same way as I do SKB and cut the whole plant about 11/2" from the ground and this causes the plant to thicken out and, with me, to a plant about 12" across with an absolute mass of small leaves.
What is good about both of these plants is that although Oxalic Acid is present in both it in vastly reduced quantities in comparison to Spinach. Too much Oxalic is not very good for you.
Do try these as I feel that you will be pleasantly suprised.

I like the sound of seakale beet johnboy, will give it a go!

I do grow perpetual spinach as well, but like the softer texture of the other sort for salads. I found out about the oxalic acid thing the hard way last year. A favourite quick lunch of mine is a small plate of spinach liberally covered with cheddar cheese and tomato ketchup, yum, - so yum that I had it 3 days running and ended up feeling yuck!

Hi Jude,
By constant cutting, which I said previously, the mass of small leaves are very very similar to actual Spinach only a little lighter in colour, but this comes only after several cuts.