spinach

[small gardener]

What makes spinach leaves grow big? this year we planted spinach and the leaves grew huge like 8 inches long and 3inches wide they were big!

 

[curly_kate]

I think it could be a lot of factors - might be the variety, the weather/water conditions, or nitrogen in the soil. I have to pick mine before the leaves get too big because the kind I'm growing gets BITTER if it gets too big.

 

[Ariel301]

I'm growing Bloomsdale Longstanding and the leaves don't ever seem to get big. They stay at most 4 inches long and are extremely wrinkly. They don't seem to get bitter either, but then again, they don't get left in the garden long either. I have noticed with some other varieties that the bigger leaves are so bitter they aren't worth eating.

 

[hoodat]

I always preferred the smooth leaved spinach like the Asian varieties. It's too hard to get all the grit out of the wrinkle lefed type.
That reminds me of my grandmother. When my grandpa would complain about the grit my grandma would tell him, "That's just Gods way of keeping your teeth sharp".

 

[journey11]

I always preferred the smooth leaved spinach like the Asian varieties. It's too hard to get all the grit out of the wrinkle lefed type.
That reminds me of my grandmother. When my grandpa would complain about the grit my grandma would tell him, "That's just Gods way of keeping your teeth sharp".

I grew Bloomsdale this year too. I think I will put a light mulch around them next year and see if I can't keep a little of the dirt off of it. Heavy rain just packs it into every wrinkle.

 

[Ariel301]

Yes, I have noticed that stuff sticks in the wrinkles on the Bloomsdale. We have really sandy soil, so it takes a lot of washing before we can eat it. But the texture (minus the sand) is really nice, I think.

 

[Greenthumb18]

I have Vital Green Spinach its suppose to be the biggest, strongest most vigorous spinach you could grow. And its slower to bolt than other varieties. I bet as long as they have enough organic matter and as long as you water them and they have enough sun should get nice big leaves

 

[DawnSuiter]

We planted several variety of "baby spinach" and we planted a row of vital green to be used as baby spinach. We much preferred the taste, crunch, shape & color of the Vital Green when picked as small "baby" leaves. In fact... we harvested from Mid March until 5 days ago when I pulled them because they began to flower.