When is the best time to plant overwintering spinach?

In the current trend of pursuing healthy eating, spinach has become popular due to its rich nutritional value and benefits and has become a common vegetable on many family tables. For spinach farmers, what they care most about is improving the yield and quality of spinach, ensuring that the spinach they grow is safe and reliable, and thereby increasing their profits. So when is the best time to plant overwintering spinach?

When is the best time to plant overwintering spinach?

Spinach planted in winter is generally sown from mid-October to early November, and the harvest period is scheduled around the Spring Festival, and can be carried out in batches. In order to adapt to the low temperature environment in winter, medium and late maturing varieties with strong overwintering ability, late bolting and good cold resistance should be selected, such as round-leaf spinach, late round-leaf spinach, Huapo No. 1, Liaoning round-leaf spinach, etc. These varieties can better withstand the cold, ensuring the growth and quality of spinach during the winter.

Tips for Spinach Planting

1. Soil selection

Spinach prefers a soil environment with a neutral pH value. Soils that are too acidic or too alkaline are not conducive to its growth. If the soil pH is below 5.5, spinach may experience slow growth, dull or yellow leaves, and poor root development.

2. Sowing and seedling raising

In northern regions, spinach is usually planted in rows, with a sowing rate of about 7.5 kilograms per acre. However, since it is more difficult for seedlings to emerge in early autumn, the sowing rate can be increased to 10 to 15 kilograms per mu in late autumn in order to increase yield and extend the harvest period.

The germination speed of dried spinach seeds is slow after sowing. In order to promote early germination of seeds, you can adopt methods such as soaking seeds to accelerate germination, low temperature germination, using wooden stakes to break the peel and then break the seeds to accelerate germination, or soaking seeds after breaking the seeds to accelerate germination. Different seed treatment methods will affect the germination and growth rate after sowing. By increasing the sowing amount and adopting a variety of seed treatment methods, it is possible to sow once and harvest in stages.

3. Land preparation and fertilization

Spinach needs to go through a long period of dormancy in winter, so fertilization is particularly important. Before wintering, when the spinach seedlings grow to about 10 cm, wintering fertilizer should be applied according to their growth conditions. In the spring of the following year, top dressing should be applied in time to increase leaf nutrition and promote plant growth. After spinach enters its vigorous growth period, it should be fertilized in time, and special biological organic fertilizer should be applied per acre in combination with watering.

4. Field management

After the autumn spinach grows true leaves, water it with clean manure water. After two true leaves appear, combine thinning and weeding, and topdressing should be from light to heavy, with more biological organic fertilizer applied in the early stage. Apply fertilizer 2-3 times during the peak growth period.

Keep the soil moist after sowing winter spinach. When there are 3-4 true leaves, control the water appropriately to facilitate wintering. When there are 2-3 true leaves, the distance between seedlings should be kept at 3-4 cm. Apply fertilizer and water according to the seedling condition and weather. In frosty and snowy weather, plastic film and shade nets should be used to keep warm, and small arch sheds can be used for covering. When spring comes, choose a sunny day to apply fertilizer and water to prevent premature bolting.

In the early stage of spring spinach, plastic film needs to be covered to keep warm. It can be covered directly on the bed surface. After the seedlings emerge, the film can be removed or replaced with a small arch shed. The small arch shed can be opened during the day and covered at night, opened when it is sunny and covered when it rains, so that the seedlings can see more light, harden the seedlings more, and be thinned out in time.

After the summer spinach seedlings emerge, it still needs to be covered with a shade net. Cover it when it is sunny and uncover it when it is shady. Cover it late and uncover it early to help reduce temperature and keep warm. Watering should be done in the morning or evening during the seedling stage, with small amounts of water applied frequently. After 2-3 true leaves appear, apply fertilizer and water twice. Water the plants after each fertilization to promote growth.

5. Harvest and save seeds

Generally, seedlings can be harvested in batches when they are more than 10 cm tall. The sowing date of spinach for seed can be slightly later than that of overwintering spinach. It can be sown in rows with a row spacing of 20-23 cm. After the plants return to green in spring, gradually remove the weeds and male plants that sprout early, leaving some nutritious male plants so that the plant spacing reaches about 20 cm. It is not advisable to irrigate too much during the bolting period to prevent the flower stalks from becoming thin and weak and falling over, thereby reducing seed yield. After flowering, apply fertilizer and water to make the seeds plump. After the male plants have produced seeds, remove them to facilitate ventilation and light transmission. Most of the stems and leaves turn yellow and the seeds are harvested when they are ripe and threshed a few days after ripening.

The above is an introduction to the planting time and method of overwintering spinach. When planting spinach, you should first choose the appropriate sowing time and variety according to the geographical conditions.