Planting Spinach in New Mexico

Growing Season

• Spring in New Mexico is short and windy. Although spinach can be planted as much as six weeks before the last frost, there are often only three to four weeks between the last frost and really hot weather in New Mexico, making the spring spinach season very short. Fall is long, cool and pleasant, making it a better time to grow spinach. In lower elevations, plant spinach in late September and cover with a low hoop shelter to grow spinach all winter. In the mountains, fall spinach can be planted in July.

Soil Preparation

• Spinach grows best in loose, fertile, well-drained soil. While some New Mexico soil can be loose sand, it is seldom both loose and fertile. Before planting spread 3 to 4 inches of compost on the soil and till or dig it in to a depth or 10 to 12 inches. If it is impossible to dig 10 inches into the soil, build a raised bed and fill it with a combination of compost and soil.

Varieites

• When the weather turns warm, spinach will bolt, or send up a flower stalk. When this happens the leaves lose their quality and the plant starts to die. New Mexicans should use long-standing or slow-bolting spinach varieties, such as Bloomsdale, Winter Bloomsdale, Vienna, Giant Noble and Olympia. If your spinach does start to bolt, pull the entire plant. Either eat the leaves immediately or blanch and freeze them.

Planting

• Plant 15 to 20 seeds per foot of row, or scatter seeds about 3 to 4 inches apart for intensive planting. Cover the seeds with about 1/2 inch of soil and water thoroughly. Spinach seed can also be scattered on the snow over prepared soil. Plant fall spinach in the shade of taller plants to keep it cooler. Make multiple small plantings for a steady supply of spinach, starting as soon as the weather starts to cool off and finishing about six weeks before the expected first freeze.