And we are back with the 5th entry in the FALL CROPS series!! In this entry I will be covering on how to plant and take care of Spinach and Broccoli! Let's get started..
Bloomsdale Spinach, 7 days after seeds were sown
Spinach is one of those consistent crops I grow every Spring, Fall and Winter in Las Vegas. Spinach can be cooked or eaten raw and will still taste incredibly delicious! The flavour profile changes tremendously when Spinach is grown throughout different seasons. I recommend Spinach to every single beginner gardener because it's extremely easy to take care of when planted correctly and can even grow throughout harsh winters due to it's high sugar content, making the crop pretty much resistant to freeze.
Bloomsdale Spinach, 45 days after seeds were sown
As you can see, certain varieties of Spinach can grow larger leaves than normal, making it a great staple vegetable in your garden. Spinach can become a large plant if you let it creep on the ground like I do, waiting to harvest fully grown leaves. Or you can harvest spinach leaves that are about 2-4 inches (5-10cm) wide, which is a baby version of the full sized leaf and is also fully nutritional at that stage. I give my spinach plants some extra space between each seed when I plant, 8-10 inches (20-25cm) apart, so I can have various sized leaves when I harvest. When harvesting Spinach, make sure to pull each leaf out singularly so that the regrowth happens a lot faster, when you leave bits of stem still attached to the main Spinach head the plant thinks that the leaf died and wasn't harvested. This then shocks the plant and tricks it into sending out seed shoots to ensure it's future survival.
Di Cicco Broccoli, 50 days after seed germinated
Broccoli is another staple fall crop in my household, everyone loves fresh grown broccoli. Roasted, steamed, raw, baked or put into a pie Broccoli is another crop that can change your dishes flavour profile immensely. I always grow a couple plants of Broccoli each Spring, Fall and Winter because of how quickly the crop regenerates after harvesting several Broccoli heads from the plant. The typical time-frame from harvesting a head of broccoli to full regeneration various and usually for me only takes about 3-4 weeks. Which isn't that bad considering it took a full month and a half to produce the original head of Broccoli in the first place.
I plant my broccoli seeds about 10-12 inches (25-30cm) apart from each other so that when the plant fully develops, it will have enough air flow in between each other and won't compete for nutrients. I prefer more space between Broccoli plants because in my experience stagnant air can cause loads of bacteria issues on the leaves and head of the Broccoli. Which is a complete downer, but I mean as humans we don't live shoulder to shoulder with people do we? We have space to breathe and grow, plants need this as well not just for aesthetic reasons but for health reasons.
That is it for this entry of FALL CROPS friends! Subscribe to my Google+ and Social Media outlets to stay tuned in with all these blog posts and future videos. I send blog emails daily to my followers about relevant garden topics for the current and on-going seasons. And thank you for reading my media and always being there. <3
Happy Gardening
Farmer Jeff
Follow me on Instagram, I'm going to start doing seed give aways for my followers. So get there!
Follow me on YouTube, I'm going to start doing giveaways for my followers. So get there!
No comments:
Post a Comment