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First time starting spinach

I just germinated Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach. I soaked 36 seeds for about a day, and used paper towel method in bag. I have 12 already sprouted in seed cells with organic potting mix. 5 more that germinated later have been moved from the paper towel to cups. The rest of the attempted seeds were discarded.
 
dragonsfire said:
haven't had luck with spinach for several years.
Good Luck :)
In what way did your luck go bad with the spinach those years?
Mine seem ok. I have 13 seedlings now.
I read that transplant is difficult...
 
https://imgur.com/a/NPZZavu
 
I put them under cfl (about a foot below and half a foot out) behind my peppers. They are leaning toward the light, but only one of them seems leggy. They're in some organic potting mix amended with perlite. I top dressed these with about 1/8 inch of vermiculite when they broke ground and turned green.
 
My final germ success rate on this run is 14 out of 36. I'm happy with those results, considering I was just trying to keep them below 77oF while starting.
 
4 seedlings have true leaves large enough to bend down. The others are forming them too, but still to small to separate and expose the new growth tip.
Bottom watered yesterday morning. Some of them wicked all the way to the top, slightly dampening the vermiculite layer.
VVtpWal.jpg
 
Starting another round of 36. It has been a week since the first batch emerged and a general recommendation is to stagger planting every 10-14 days. Also, it's likely they will take longer to germinate at lower temps, but the success rate should improve.
 
dragonsfire said:
haven't had luck with spinach for several years.
Good Luck :)
 
My spinach grows are hit & miss, every year brings either feast or famine, and I've never been able to figure it out. I tend to have the same luck with lettuce. Even the slo-bolt varieties tower up on me far too soon, before the hot sticky part of summer even shows up.
 
I think this Bloomsdale Long Standing is supposed to be slow to bolt. Anyway, I'm starting late in Autumn and hoping it will go until early spring. For about 4 months; December through March. I might like to try growing collard greens, kale, or chard.
 
The second round of seeds I accidentally left to soak for about 2 days. They didn't drown. So far, 13 germinated and were moved to cells. The success rate is about the same as the first go. I'm expecting more of them to pop.
 
Mr. West said:
Up to 18 now. That's 50% successful. 
The earlier ones are forming 2nd true leaves. They're all still groovin. I watered half of them that were looking thirsty.
I hope you have better luck with your spinach than I did this past summer. I never got any to grow more than 3 inches tall. I think I might try some spinach in Kratky soon, then it will always be watered.
 
skullbiker said:
I hope you have better luck with your spinach than I did this past summer. I never got any to grow more than 3 inches tall. I think I might try some spinach in Kratky soon, then it will always be watered.
Thanks. 
Sounds like what dragonsfire was saying. They were like microgreens. 
I did watch a video on a Kratky spinach grow that looked successful enough.
Except, the guy was brand new and tried sewing seeds directly into the system (hydroton).
 
Glad to hear they're hatching and doing okay!  Like others, my recent spinach didn't go well - was BLS sowed outdoors this last spring.  They germinated at a fairly low rate and were too leggy once they got going, so much so they ended up sprawling onto the ground as they grew.  I'd like to try spinach in kratky as well - and perhaps kale - but have too much going on indoors right now to take that on.
 
Haha.  I saw the seeds-directly-into-the-hydroton video too.  Was awesome!  Glad my early mistakes aren't immortalized on Youtube. 
 
I picked up burpee seeds: kale lacinato, premier, and dwarf blue curled vates, as well as georgia collards.
I might try some of the bonnie plants collards, chard, kale. The ones at the store look ok except I think they're in miracle gro. 
I guess I could get some of the plugs and repot into solo cups with MG sphagnum I already have.
 
The best luck I've had with spinach has been with a hybrid, "Space F1," from Johnny's Seeds. It produced heavily and long, so long as it was under shade cloth.
 
The success rate on the greens has been way better than the spinach.
Got 20 georgia collards 10 lacinato kale in one tray under the purple panel LED.
The cotyledons look the same for these.
Got extras under CFL. More collards and premier kale still in paper towels.
Still to come: dwarf blue curled vates (only 55 days from seed to harvest).
I'll take pictures in a minute. I'm having beers.
 
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