Growing Spinach in Greece

Hi Marlene

Spinach is very sensitive to heat and will quickly go to seed when the weather is hot.  We have grown spinach successfully here in Spain by planting the seeds into pots say early Feb/Mar - indoors or under cover to aid germination and then planted out a few weeks later. This gives a good crop before the weather gets too hot.  Repeat the process Sep/Oct time to give a crop to take you through the autumn/winter/early spring.  

Its worth trying perpetual spinach seeds as these plants will be less sensitive to the heat.  We have some perpetual plants that are still hanging on from the spring planting at the moment.  The leaves are mostly tough - we give them to our chickens - but we are hoping that come the cooler autumn weather the plants may put on a spurt of tender growth.  I think we may have been lucky this year because we had a very wet May which has given them a chance to survive the heat.

One general tip for plants like tomatoes is to cut out the bottoms off largish plastic flower pots and plant the young plants into compost into these pots which you have buried in the ground so that the level of the pot is just above soil level.  The plant can put out roots through the bottom into the earth but the pot gives you a good sump to aid watering and you can feed by adding fresh compost to the pot as its level falls.  We also save plastic water bottles and cut the bottoms off and bury these alongside plants like courgettes and water into these bottles so that the water is delivered straight down to the roots.


Good luck, Dawn