How to Harvest Spinach to Keep it Growing Longer
Thanks to Popeye, spinach is one of the most famous greens out there! The cartoon turned spinach into a superhero food, and millions of people started eating more spinach because of it. Most people confuse spinach with swiss chard, another leafy green that grows much bigger and hardier than the small, tender spinach plant. Swiss chard leaves develop on long, thick stems that can range in color from white to red, orange, and yellow. On the other hand, Spinach stems are slim and green, making it relatively easy to spot when you know the difference.
There are two ways to harvest spinach: all at once or cut and come again. Farmers and large-scale growers tend to gather the whole spinach plant in one go, whereas home growers follow the cut-and-come-again method.
The cut-and-come-again method is pretty self-explanatory. You harvest the leaves a few at a time and allow more to grow back before the next harvest. Harvest from the outer leaves inwards and leave enough leaves on the plant for it to recover. This method allows you to harvest a lot more spinach over a more extended period than if you harvested the whole plant all at once.
When planting spinach for regular harvests, you can sow the seeds closer together, as you will be harvesting the leaves before the plant reaches its full size. This also means that you will be able to harvest earlier than if you were to harvest the whole plant at once.
