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About Spinach 
Spinach originally came from the Middle East around the region of Iran and spread to China by the year 650. It was noted to be in cultivation in Spain by the year 1100 and was among the first plants to be in use by early colonists to North America.
Spinach can be one of the more difficult plants to grow for the home gardener. The main problem most gardeners have in growing spinach is its tendency to bolt, which ends the production of edible foliage and focuses the plant on producing useless seed stalks. If you can overcome this one problem then spinach is in fact quite an easy plant to grow. It is a fast growing crop with many varities maturing in as little as 40 to 50 days.
The trouble most gardeners have with spinach is they treat it as though it were lettuce. Like lettuce it is a cold-weather crop. With this in mind consider spinach a spring or fall crop only. Although many consider the problem for spinach to be heat and dryness it is daylength that the plants are mostly responding to when they bolt.
Planning
When planning on where to grow spinach plan on providing a space that gets full sun or partial shade if you live in a warm weather climate. Some gardeners grow a fall crop in rows between taller crops such as beans or corn. Spinach planned for salads requires only a few sqaure feet, but if you plan to cook or freeze your spinach then allow for 40 or more square feet as it loses volume when processed.
Although it does not take much effort to grow spinach you should start with the soil conditions your plants will require. Spinach needs fertile, well-drained soil with high nitrogen to encourage leaf growth. Just before planting seeds you will want to mix compost, manure or a 10-10-10 fertilizer into each row for good measure. You will not need to mix the ammendments too deeply into the soil as spinach is shallow-rooted. Lastly, spinach is fussy about the soil pH so work to make certain it is in the range of six to seven.
Preparation
Be sure to purchase new seeds every year as spinach seed does not stay viable for very long. For spring planting you may sow your seeds as soon as there is an area that has thawed. Some gardeners prepare beds or rows for their spinach in the fall so all that needs doing in the spring is the dropping of seeds. This is another excellent way of beating the calendar.
Spinach should be sown directly into the garden or in a cold frame. Many successful gardeners find the cold frame the key to a healthy harvest as they can get a jump on the season and prevent the bolting to which so many succumb.
Sow your seeds one-half inch deep with about a dozen seeds per foot of row length. If you are growing your spinach in a bed rather than rows scatter them about 1 inch apart.
Care
Your seeds should germinate in about five days to two weeks. When your plants are one inch tall thin them to be about four inches apart and enjoy them as tender harbingers of what is to come. One great trick to hasten germination is to refrigerate your seeds several days before planting. You can shave a day or two off the germination waiting game this way.
Unless you are growing your spinach with plans for freezing or processing in large batches it is a good idea to plant in successions of about ten day intervals. Do not say beyond the middle of May and those that you do sow in late April and early May should be of a long-standing variety.
Mulch will of course help to keep the soil moist, but when it comes to spinach be sure to use a straw mulch which will not affect the soil pH. Spinach tolerance to pH fluctuations is notably less than many other crops. Because spinach is shallow-rooted it gets thirsty fast and requires attentive watering. During a dry spell you will need to water your spinach every few days at a minimum.
Pests / Disease
Spinach leaf miner is just about the most common of pests for spinach growers all across the country. The first signs of spinach leaf miners are irregular light brown blotches on the leaves of your spinach plants. Spinach leaf miner larvae burrow inside the leaves and cause this damage. The only method of control when you have already spotted this damage is to remove the affected leaves.
If you peel the blisters apart you will note black specks of insect waste and possbinly even the maggot itself eating away at the spinach. The maggot is the immature tiny fly that lays white eggs on the underside of the leaves beginning in early spring and lasting throughout the season.
You can alleviate much of the problem with these pests by regular weeding and by a very early planting. Some gardeners use a fine mesh netting cover or cheesecloth placed over their spinach to further discourage the spinach leaf miner.
Spinach blight also knows as "the yellows" is a virus that spreads by aphids. The leaves of affected spinach turn yellow and plant growth is stunted. You can control the virus by controlling the aphids or by growing resistant varieties.
If there are yellow spots on the leaves and a moldy substance underneath the problem you have is another disease called blue mold. This is more often a problem in very wet weather and climates. The best defenses against this disease are good drainage, weed control and well-fed plants.
Harvesting
There are two methods for harvesting your spinach. One is to remove the outer leaves and allow the inner leaves to continue to grow, or by cutting the entire plant right at soil level as you would for a head of lettuce. If you see buds beginning to form in the center of the plant cut the whole thing as this is a sign your spinach is about to bolt.
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