CROPS 93 



XX. SPINACH 



Spinach is one of the easiest grown and most popular of 

 the salad crops. It is unexcelled for boiling. A home 

 garden is not complete without it. 



Planting. The seed may be planted in the spring as 

 soon as the ground can be prepared, or planting may take 

 place in the early fall. Spinach is a cool-loving plant and 

 does best only during the cooler parts of the season. 



The seed should be sown in drills sixteen to eighteen 

 inches apart. When fall sowing is done to produce a crop 

 for the spring harvest, it is a good plan to make beds some- 

 what higher than the general level of the ground, that the 

 plants may have proper drainage. The beds should be wide 

 enough for six or more rows of spinach. As freezing weather 

 approaches, the plants should be covered with straw or 

 strawy manure, to prevent successive freezing and thawing 

 which would tend to lift the plants and destroy them. As 

 soon as the spring opens, the mulch should be removed. 



Harvesting. The plants are usually harvested by cut- 

 ting the tap root just under the surface of the ground. 

 This is easily accomplished with the use of a sharpened hoe. 

 The outer leaves should be removed and the plants washed 

 before packing for market. For a local market, the bushel 

 box is a favorite package, but for shipping to a distant 

 market, the barrel or bushel basket should be used. The 

 barrel should be covered with burlap but the basket should 

 have a slatted cover. 



Fertilizers. The ground must be well fertilized that 

 the plants may make a maximum growth. Heavy appli- 

 cations of rotted manure and a dressing of a complete 

 high grade, chemical fertilizer should be made previous to 

 sowing the seed. 



