9 Tips to Grow Spinach In Containers For Year Round Harvests
Do you love using fresh, crisp, green spinach in your kitchen creations? Did you know you can grow your own spinach in containers and harvest it throughout the entire year? In this article, gardening expert Liessa Bowen shares 9 handy tips you can use for a continual harvest of container-grown spinach.
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Spinach is both delicious and nutritious, and also very easy to grow in containers. This green loves cool weather, plenty of sunlight, and rich, well-drained soil. Don’t feel discouraged if you live in a warm climate or think your winters are too harsh; you can still grow it if you make some adjustments to your container garden to work with the changing seasons.
Container gardening has many benefits and you can grow a lot of different vegetables in container gardens. Containers are mini self-contained gardens that are super simple to manage. It’s easy to provide ideal soil and sun conditions because you can monitor them easily and adjust as necessary. And containers are highly portable so you can move them into the ideal environment, including indoors!
Spinach is a short-lived plant with a huge nutritional punch. It’s versatile and can be eaten at any size. Cook it, steam it, saute it, or toss it with your favorite fresh salad ingredients. While you can’t keep a single plant growing indefinitely, there are plenty of tips and tricks to grow a great harvest that extends beyond a single season.
Keep reading for nine simple tips so you never run out of your favorite leafy greens.
Buy High-performance Seeds
You’ll want the best seeds to maximize your spinach-growing success. Any seeds can grow an abundant crop, so what makes some better than others? It depends on your location and local climate. Different varieties are bred for different conditions and culinary preferences. You may even find that using different seeds during different seasons allows you to maximize your harvest.
If you’re hoping to grow spinach year-round, you’ll want plants that withstand variable growing conditions. Depending on where you live, summers might be too hot and winters might be too cold to grow this crop without adjustments.
For your warmer-season crops, choose a slow-bolting variety. Look for heat-resistant varieties that are more tolerant of warm weather. Also, look for good disease resistance as diseases are more prevalent in warmer weather than cool.
Any variety of spinach can be grown in containers. All varieties can be eaten fresh or cooked, and all offer excellent nutritional benefits. It’s a matter of personal preference if you like the smooth-leaved or crinkle-leaved varieties best.
Check out some of these different types of spinach:
- Matador – Smooth-leaved, easy to clean, delicious when harvested young.
- Baby Greens – Smooth-leaved, great option for growing indoors.
- Bloomsdale – Crinkle-leaved, heirloom variety, rich flavor.
- Oceanside – Smooth-leaved, disease-resistant.
- Lavewa – Smooth-leaved, disease resistant, good heat tolerance.
- New Zealand Spinach – Not a true spinach but looks like spinach and can be used like spinach. Bonus: it loves hot weather!
Choose the Right Container
Spinach doesn’t grow huge and you can grow a single plant in a relatively small container. If you’re hoping to grow several plants together, you’ll want plenty of space in your container to accommodate multiple plants.
Choose an ideal container for your spinach to give your plants the best home possible. If you’re ready to dramatically increase your greens harvest, this plant is a great choice for raised beds!
Size
While you could grow spinach in a relatively small pot, you’ll have larger, healthier, more productive plants in a larger pot. You can grow baby spinach in small six to eight-inch pots, harvesting while the leaves are young and small. Use a larger pot, at least 10 to 12 inches, to grow larger plants. The larger the pot, the more plants you can grow.
Drainage
Do not neglect the importance of good drainage. Spinach needs well-drained soil and the soil can’t drain properly without proper container drainage. Whichever container you choose, make sure it has several drainage holes at the bottom. You never want water to pool in the bottom of your pot.
Material
The container material is probably the least important decision. You can grow spinach in terra cotta pots, glazed ceramic planters, plastic pots, durable fabric containers, or wooden window boxes. Plastic pots are likely to be the most economical. Glazed ceramics are likely to be the most attractive but also the most expensive, and fabric containers offer excellent airflow. Your container choice is really a matter of personal preference because any container material will work.
Provide Ideal Soil
Give your greens the best soil possible. When you grow spinach in containers, you can ensure that your plants have ideal soil conditions. Poor soil won’t drain well, won’t provide enough nutrients, and won’t allow your plants to perform their best.
Spinach likes organically rich, moist soil with excellent drainage. The pH should be neutral to slightly acidic, between 6.5 and 7. Get your plants off to a great start by mixing up a bucket of approximately ⅔ potting soil and ⅓ rich, organic compost. Mix this thoroughly, and then fill your pots with the mixture.
The Right Light
Spinach grows best with six to eight hours of bright sunlight each day. When you’re growing greens outside in the summer, it will appreciate more shade because full-sun locations are simply too hot. Winter-grown spinach likes lots of direct sun. One of the benefits of container gardening is that you can move your containers to catch the best lighting conditions during each season.
Indoors, use a grow light or bright and sunny window to ensure your plants receive enough light. Unless you have a south or west-facing window, your greens might not get enough sun indoors. It will still grow with three or four hours of sun each day, but these plants will grow slowly and with less vigor.
Water Wisely
Spinach likes slightly moist soil. Don’t let the soil dry completely and definitely don’t allow the soil to stay soggy wet. Container-grown plants can dry out quickly so check the soil moisture every day. If the top layer is dry to the touch, go ahead and water. You’ll probably need to water your spinach more often in the summer and less in the winter. Overall, expect to water your plants two or three times each week.
Outdoors, use a watering can or long-handled watering wand to give the pots a thorough watering. Indoors, use a small watering can with a spout to direct the water into the pot, and make sure you have a sturdy tray or saucer underneath to catch any overflow.
Germinate the Seeds
You won’t have a crop if your seeds don’t sprout, and spinach seeds are a little finicky. The seeds won’t germinate if the soil is too warm or too cold. They germinate best in temperatures between 45 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit (7-21°C). They need high-quality, moist soil to get started and germinate within five to 10 days. Sow your seeds ½ inch deep and about two inches apart.
In natural outdoor conditions, the seeds start readily in spring and fall. Direct sow them outdoors in pots filled with fresh garden soil. Don’t worry about transplanting them from a small pot to your larger planter, just sow them straight into the container where you want to grow them. Keep the soil moist until the seeds germinate.
During the summer and winter months, however, you probably won’t be able to start seeds outdoors. If the temperature is unfavorable outside, germinate seeds indoors under more controlled conditions. Again, sow the seeds directly into the pots you want to use rather than transplanting them. This saves space and time, and you won’t lose any plants during transplanting.
Adjust to Temperature Fluctuations
Spinach is tolerant of light frosts but it really doesn’t like hot weather. The ideal temperature to grow spinach is between 50°F and 60°F (10-16°C) although it performs well between 40°F and 75°F (4-21°C).
In mild winter climates, you can grow this crop outdoors during the winter. If your plants need a little extra protection from the elements, use floating row covers or a mini greenhouse to place over your potted plants to help them through mild winters. In colder climates, move your potted spinach indoors for the winter months.
When the temperature climbs above 75°F (24°C) outside, it’s time to move your plants to a protected location. Place your spinach containers in a shaded area of your yard to grow through the summer. A few hours of early morning sun is ideal but the greens will suffer in the hot midday sun. This is an ideal time of year to switch to more heat-tolerant varieties.
Practice Succession Planting
Succession planting is the ultimate trick to harvest greens year-round. Succession planting is the method of starting new seeds on a regular basis to provide plants of different ages so you will always have something to harvest. Spinach is not a particularly long-lived plant so you need fresh young plants to keep harvesting regularly.
Sow a new batch of seeds every three weeks. After one container of spinach is planted, germinated, and a few inches tall, it’s time to start growing your next pot. By planting consecutive pots, you will have a continuous harvest. After a few months of growth, when older plants start to bolt or lose vigor, clean out the pot and start over with a fresh crop of seeds.
When growing spinach in containers, you’ll most likely need multiple containers to support an assortment of different aged plants. If you use a long window box as a planter, you can divide it into two or three sections for different sowing times. You’re likely to find that your cool-weather varieties live longer and have a longer production season than your warm-season varieties which will bolt quickly.
Harvest Regularly
One tip to keep the nutrient-dense greens coming is to harvest them regularly. Most importantly, don’t harvest the entire plant at once, unless it’s the last time you plant to harvest from that plant before reclaiming the space to start fresh seeds.
The largest leaves will be around the outermost layer. Harvest these first. Snip off the leaves you want with a pair of sharp kitchen shears or harvesting snips, leaving a short stem attached to the plant. Collect several of the largest leaves from each plant and repeat every day or two. The younger leaves will continue to mature and the plant will keep growing new basal leaves until it starts to bolt and send up a flowering stem.
You can harvest and eat spinach leaves at any stage in their development. Harvest young leaves for baby greens, harvest larger leaves for steamed greens, and harvest at any size to include in your salads and sides.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long can a spinach plant live?
A spinach plant, even if grown in an ideal environment, doesn’t live long. Spinach is an annual crop. It grows quickly, has a short season for harvesting its bright green leaves, then sends up a flowering stalk, produces seeds, and dies. Spinach plants live for just a couple of months but their best harvests will be within the first six weeks.
How can I best store spinach?
When you pick more spinach than you can immediately use, store it in your refrigerator for a week to ten days. Don’t wash the leaves first; place unwashed leaves in a sealed bag or container for storage.
When you’re ready to use them, go ahead and wash off the dirt and toss them in with your salad. If the leaves are wet when you harvest, dry them first before storing them, and place a dry paper towel in the airtight container with the spinach. Wet leaves rot much faster than dry leaves, even in the fridge.
Do I need to fertilize my container-grown spinach?
Spinach grows so fast, that you don’t need to add extra fertilizer, but only if you use high-quality soil. Start your plants well using nutrient-rich soil. Amend the soil with organic compost or use fertilizer-enriched soil at the time of planting. These starting nutrients will be all your plants need to get through a growth cycle. Refresh the soil each time you start a new crop and you won’t need to worry about adding extra fertilizers during the growth phase.
