Leafy green
How to grow spinach
Spinacia oleracea
Spinach is a cool-season crop, and timing is most of the skill. Sow direct from March to May and again from mid August to September; sowings made in June and July run to seed within weeks as the days are long and warm. Give it rich, moisture-holding soil, light shade for the later spring sowings, and water whenever the top of the soil dries. Pick the outer leaves from six weeks after sowing. A short row sown every few weeks keeps a kitchen garden in leaves through spring and again in autumn.
- Hardiness
- Hardy, overwinters with cover
- Position
- Sun in spring/autumn, light shade in summer
- Soil
- Rich, moisture-retentive
- Ideal pH
- 6.5 to 7.5
- Water
- High, drought triggers bolting
- Feeding
- Moderate feeder
Sowing and planting spinach
WhenSow Mar to May and Aug to Sep; harvest 6 to 10 weeks later
Starting off
Direct sow every 3 weeks from March (under fleece) to May and again in August to September, germinating in 7 to 14 days at 10 to 20 °C; summer sowings bolt unless shaded. Modules at 15 °C, 3 seeds per cell, planted as clumps at 20 cm give an early crop. September sowings of 'Giant Winter' or 'Medania' overwinter under cloches for March picking.
Spacing and planting
Sow 2 cm deep in drills 30 cm apart and thin to 7 to 15 cm, or sow 5 cm apart in a 10 cm band for baby leaves. Excellent in a 20 cm deep trough or 25 cm pot with 6 to 8 plants, kept in light shade in summer.
Varieties worth growing
- Medania
- Large, dark, rounded leaves and slower to bolt than most; the reliable choice for spring sowing.
- Giant Winter
- Bred for autumn sowing; hardy enough to stand the winter under a cloche and crop from late winter into spring.
- Amazon F1
- Fast, upright and resistant to downy mildew; one of the best for baby leaves and for containers.
- Palco F1
- Good resistance to both bolting and mildew, which makes it the best option for late spring and late summer sowings.
- Perpetual Spinach
- Not a true spinach but a leaf beet, grown like chard. Sow it where true spinach always bolts: it crops for months from one sowing and tolerates dry soil.
Spinach month by month
Timings are for central England. Allow two weeks later in the north and on cold, heavy soil.
- January
Pick lightly from overwintered plants under cloches. Ventilate on mild days.
- February
Late in the month, sow in modules under cover, three seeds per cell.
- March
First direct sowing under fleece. Plant out module clumps. Feed overwintered rows.
- April
Sow every three weeks. Thin seedlings. Pick overwintered plants hard before they bolt.
- May
Last spring sowing, in light shade, early in the month. Water daily in dry weather. Pick.
- June
Pick outer leaves. Pull plants as they bolt. No sowing this month.
- July
Nothing to sow. Clear bolted rows and prepare the ground for the August sowing.
- August
Sow from mid month for autumn picking.
- September
Sow Giant Winter for overwintering. Pick the August sowing as baby leaves.
- October
Pick autumn leaves. Thin overwintering rows. Cloche them by the end of the month.
- November
Pick lightly. Remove yellow or mildewed leaves.
- December
Nothing to do except ventilate the cloches on mild days.
Feeding spinach
A hungry leaf crop for the few weeks it is in the ground. A good base dressing and one nitrogen top-dress cover it. No feed stops bolting; that is governed by day length, heat and water.
Likes nitrogen for lush leaf, a balanced or N-leaning feed and plenty of water.
Feeding plan
A week before sowing
Fruit & Vegetable Fertiliser 4-5-6
100 g/m² raked in. With rows 30 cm apart that is 30 g per metre of row.
After the first picking, once per sowing
Organic Nitrogen Fertiliser 13% N
25 g/m², the low end of the label rate for leafy crops: about 8 g per metre of row, scattered beside the row, kept off the leaves and watered in.
March, overwintered rows
Organic Nitrogen Fertiliser 13% N
25 to 40 g/m², 8 to 12 g per metre of row, as growth restarts. Do not feed these rows between October and February.
At sowing, pots and troughs
Fruit & Vegetable Fertiliser 4-5-6
5 g per litre of compost mixed through: 100 g for a 20 litre trough. Top-dress with 2 g per litre (40 g) after the second picking.
Signs to watch
Bolting to a seed stem within weeks
Long days, heat or dry soil, not a feeding fault
Sow in spring and autumn only and water daily
Pale leaves and slow growth
Nitrogen short on a hungry crop
A light top-dress of the dry feed in the feeding plan, watered in
Yellowing between the veins on alkaline soil
Manganese locked up
Manganese sulphate spray, no more lime
Pests, diseases and problems
Yellow patches on the upper leaf surface with grey-purple mould underneath, in cool damp weather
Spinach downy mildew, at its worst in crowded autumn and overwintered sowings
Grow resistant varieties such as Amazon or Palco, thin to the full spacing, water at soil level in the morning and ventilate cloches. Bin affected leaves.
Seedlings eaten off or leaves ragged with irregular holes
Slugs and snails, drawn to the moist soil the crop needs
Slug nematodes on soil above 5 °C, evening torch patrols, and a clear strip of bare soil round the bed.
Seedlings and young leaves shredded or pulled out, mainly in spring and winter
Sparrows and woodpigeons
Net or fleece from sowing until plants are well grown; keep overwintered rows netted.
Pale, then brown, blister-like blotches within the leaf, with a maggot inside
Beet leaf miner, which also attacks beetroot and chard, from May
Pick off and bin mined leaves as soon as they appear, and cover with fine insect mesh from sowing where it is a regular problem.
Young leaves yellow, mottled, narrow and puckered; plants stunted
Cucumber mosaic virus, sometimes called spinach blight, spread by aphids
Pull up and bin affected plants, keep down weeds such as chickweed and groundsel that carry the virus, and wash your hands before handling healthy plants.
Harvest and rotation
Harvest and storage
Pick outer leaves at 5 to 8 cm for salad or 15 cm for cooking, 6 to 10 weeks from sowing, leaving the central rosette and taking no more than half the plant; or cut the whole plant 2 cm above the base for one regrowth. A 1 m row yields 1 to 1.5 kg over several pickings. Use within 2 days; blanch and freeze.
Rotation and companions
Rotation: beet family (Chenopodiaceae) with beetroot and chard, 3-year gap; a quick catch crop between slower rows. Sow between rows of peas, broad beans and sweetcorn, which give the summer shade it needs; strawberries share a bed well.
Good to knowBolts fast in heat and drought, so it's best as a spring and autumn crop; pick outer leaves.
Growing spinach in pots
Spinach does well in containers, and a pot has one advantage: it can be moved out of the sun as the days warm up. Use a trough or pot at least 20 cm deep filled with peat-free multipurpose compost. Sow thinly and thin to 8 cm for full-sized leaves, or leave at 3 to 5 cm and cut as baby leaves at four to five weeks. Keep the compost moist at all times, since one dry afternoon in May can start a pot bolting. From late April stand containers where they get morning sun and afternoon shade. Sow a fresh pot every three weeks; do not wait for the first to finish.
Spinach: common questions
Why does my spinach keep bolting?
Long days trigger it, and heat and dry soil speed it up. Spinach is a long-day plant, programmed to flower as the days lengthen towards midsummer, so sowings made from late May to July bolt almost at once. Sow in March, April and from mid August, choose a slow-bolting variety, and never let the soil dry.
Can you grow spinach in winter in the UK?
Yes, from a September sowing of a hardy variety such as Giant Winter, covered with a cloche or grown in an unheated greenhouse. Growth almost stops from November to February, so pick only a few outer leaves, then it crops heavily in March and April.
Does spinach grow in shade?
Yes, light shade suits it from late spring. A spot with three or four hours of sun, or the shade cast by taller crops such as peas and sweetcorn, keeps the soil cooler and delays bolting. In March and in autumn, give it full sun.
Sources
Growing information on this page was checked against these references in November 2026. Feeding rates are Dr Forest label rates.