Content
- 1 Is it possible to grow spinach on a windowsill in winter?
- 2 What varieties of spinach are suitable for growing on a windowsill?
- 3 What conditions need to be created
- 4 Rules for growing spinach from seeds on a windowsill in winter
- 5 How to grow spinach on a windowsill in an apartment in winter
- 6 When can you harvest the first harvest?
- 7 Conclusion
Lovers of fresh greens are interested in whether it is possible to grow spinach at home on a windowsill and which varieties are suitable for this. Of course, you can buy greens for every taste in the supermarket, but grown yourself, they will always taste better. In apartment conditions, spinach grows well both on the windowsill and in the glassed-in loggia, and with proper care throughout the year, you can harvest a full grown harvest.
Is it possible to grow spinach on a windowsill in winter?
It is usually practiced to grow greens in open ground or a greenhouse in the warm season, but spinach on the windowsill in the cold season is not uncommon. If you follow simple sowing rules and create favorable home conditions for plant growth, you can grow greens on the windowsill all year round. Windows or glazed balconies facing the south side of the house are suitable for this purpose.Although, if you provide the plant with additional lighting, it is also possible to grow greenery on window sills facing north.
What varieties of spinach are suitable for growing on a windowsill?
Growing spinach at home is usually practiced from seeds of early ripening varieties. The most popular among those who like to grow spinach on the windowsill are:
- Zhirnolistny is an early ripening variety, ripening in 30-35 days. It has a small rosette reaching 17-28 cm in diameter;
- Strawberry – with a faint strawberry aroma, early, fast-growing, not requiring special care; Its berries, which resemble raspberries in appearance, are also eaten, thanks to which the variety is distinguished by its additional decorative effect;
- Virofle is also an early variety and can be harvested within 20-25 days. The neat rosette reaches 30 cm in diameter.
In addition to the above, you can grow spinach at home using seed material from the varieties Victoria, Matador, Melodiya, Krepysh, Ispolinsky, Stoik, etc.
What conditions need to be created
To grow spinach on a windowsill in winter, it is necessary that the plant does not lack lighting, fertilizing and watering. In addition, the soil must be loosened regularly.
It is especially important to pay attention to the temperature regime. The plant is quite cold-resistant, so you should not place it on a windowsill with a radiator. The plant feels most comfortable at +15 - 18 °C, so growing it at home on a glazed balcony is an excellent solution. If there is no balcony, in winter it is better to move the pots to the western and northern windows of the house, in the summer - to the southern and southeastern ones.At a temperature of +25 °C, spinach begins to shoot arrows, which is to the detriment of the greenery, since after the appearance of flower stalks the leaves become hard and unsuitable for food. It is best to practice growing spinach on the windowsills of kitchen windows, since the humidity in the kitchen is much higher than in the room. In addition, the kitchen often has to be ventilated, which will provide suitable conditions: spinach does well in a draft.
Spinach does not tolerate the scorching rays of the sun, so on particularly hot days, sowing and growing young greens at home is not recommended, especially if all the windows in the apartment face south. If you still want to grow a crop at home, the bushes should definitely be shaded so that the leaves do not wither. In addition, direct sunlight deteriorates the taste of greens, making them bitter.
This is also important because spinach in dry conditions accelerates the process of the appearance of shoots, so it is useful to spray the plants with a spray bottle every day or bathe them once a week in the shower.
Rules for growing spinach from seeds on a windowsill in winter
Growing spinach from seeds at home should begin with preparing planting containers, soil, and planting material.
Preparing containers and soil
Growing spinach is possible both in ordinary flower pots (ceramic or plastic) and in wooden boxes approximately 20 cm high. It is important that the container has drainage holes.For full development, an adult plant needs 8x8 cm - this is the planting pattern that should be followed when sowing seeds in boxes. If you plan to grow in pots, you should select containers with a volume of at least 2 liters and plant 2 - 3 plants in each. Pebbles, broken bricks or expanded clay are used as drainage, which cover the bottom of the planting container with a layer of 3 cm.
It is not permissible to grow this vegetable crop in acidic soils. Spinach growing at home feels most comfortable in neutral soil. You can buy a ready-made substrate (universal soil for seedlings, without peat, which promotes oxidation) or prepare it yourself at the rate of: two parts garden soil, one part humus and one part sand.
The earth mixture is calcined at high temperature for an hour to avoid the risk of seedlings becoming infected with fungus and pathogens. To do this, the soil composition is poured onto a baking sheet in a layer of 5 cm and sent to the oven. Experts advise subjecting purchased soil to this procedure as well.
In addition, there are often cases when growing spinach at home is practiced in a mixture of coconut fiber and vermicompost, in proportions of 2:1, respectively. Coconut fiber retains moisture well, while reducing the risk of stagnation.
Seed preparation
In order to grow spinach at home from seeds on a windowsill in winter, for better germination they must first be prepared in order to soften the rather hard seed shell. Soaking is carried out for 1 - 2 days in warm water at a temperature of 18 - 20°C.It is also recommended before sowing to keep the seed for 30 - 40 minutes in a weakly concentrated solution of potassium permanganate or potassium permanganate for disinfection purposes. Dried seeds are not subjected to this procedure and are not soaked.
Immediately before sowing, the seeds should be removed from the water and dried on a paper towel.
How to plant spinach on a windowsill
Growing spinach from seeds at home is possible at any time of the year. Before sowing, the soil in the planting containers should be well moistened. Below are step-by-step instructions on how to grow spinach on a windowsill in winter for beginners:
- In planting containers filled with drainage and substrate, grooves are made to a depth of 1.5 cm. There should be at least 8 cm between rows;
- Prepared seeds are sown in the furrows made in 8 cm increments, after which they are sprinkled with soil;
- After this, the soil is moistened with warm water using a spray bottle, and the planting containers are covered with glass or film to create a greenhouse effect;
- The containers are placed in a warm (18 – 20 °C) dark place;
- After 5 - 6 days, when the first shoots appear, the film or glass is removed and the boxes are moved to the windowsill.
If you strictly adhere to the above recommendations for preparing soil and seeds, growing spinach at home will not cause difficulties, not even for a beginner in this matter.
If the planting pattern is too dense, seedlings can be planted in separate pots as soon as they have the first 2 to 3 true leaves. Spinach tolerates transplantation well and quickly takes root in a new place. It is important not to damage the root system in the process, so before removing the seedling from the soil, it must be well moistened.
From the reviews of craftsmen, it follows that growing spinach from seeds on a windowsill is not the only way to get greens at home. In the autumn, experienced summer residents dig up young bushes grown in the garden and transplant them into pots for further growth at home on a balcony or window.
How to grow spinach on a windowsill in an apartment in winter
To grow spinach at home and get a harvest of quality no worse than in open ground, you should pay attention to regular watering, fertilize the plants, and also organize lighting.
Watering
Spinach is a moisture-loving plant, so watering should be plentiful and air humidity should be high. If there is insufficient watering, the greens will begin to wither, which can lead to the death of the entire bush. At the same time, it is important to avoid stagnation of water to avoid the risk of fungal infection. Young sprouts should be watered with warm (at least room temperature) water.
In addition, growing the crop at home during the summer requires spraying the plantings from a sprayer once a day (early morning or after sunset), and in winter, when the air is excessively dry, twice a day. In order to provide the necessary air humidity on the windowsills, several open containers with water are placed between the boxes or pots. In addition, you can stretch plastic film over the spinach bushes on a special frame to achieve a greenhouse effect.
Growing spinach at home with insufficient soil or air moisture can result in the greens being small, tough and rough. In addition, overdried soil stimulates the release of flower stalks.
Feeding
Spinach should be fertilized only once during the entire growing season - at the time of transplanting the seedlings to a permanent place with complex fertilizers for flowers. Organic fertilizers (mullein, chicken droppings) are used as fertilizing, but with caution, since their excess affects the taste of the leaves.
Mineral, nitrogen-containing fertilizers should be completely avoided, since spinach greens, especially its petioles, tend to actively accumulate nitrites, which makes them harmful to health.
If spinach is grown in fertile, nutritious soil, the plant does not require fertilizing.
Lighting
Spinach needs to be provided with at least 10 hours of daylight (optimally 12 - 14 hours) to get a high yield. Growing plants at home in summer does not require additional light: natural light is sufficient. In this case, the boxes must be regularly rotated 180° in order to provide the plant with uniform lighting from all sides. Otherwise, they can form one-sided rosettes with abundant greenery on one side and scanty greenery on the other.
This will not be enough for spinach growing at home on a windowsill in winter, so to ensure its lighting needs, a fluorescent lamp, a spectral LED lamp or a phytolamp are installed above the boxes at a height of 60 cm. In cloudy weather it should be turned on all day. On a normal winter day, you need to add additional lighting for at least 4 hours, after the intensity of sunlight outside the window decreases.
When can you harvest the first harvest?
Since growing spinach at home is recommended from seeds of early ripening varieties, usually on the 25th - 30th day you can get the first harvest.By this time, 6-8 leaves have formed on each bush, reaching a height of 8-10 cm. In terms of taste, spinach greens obtained at home on the windowsill are in no way inferior to plants grown in open ground. And the beneficial qualities are far superior to store-bought spinach. To harvest, the greens are carefully cut with scissors or the leaf petiole is broken. Do not pull, otherwise you can pull out the entire bush or damage its root system.
Growing spinach at home on a windowsill or glassed-in balcony allows you to enjoy fresh, extremely healthy greens even in winter. However, it is important to remember that you can harvest from one bush only within 1.5 - 2.5 months. After this, the plant produces flower stalks, and its further cultivation is impractical, since the leaves become poisonous. Therefore, it is necessary to update the balcony beds once every 2 months in order to be able to harvest the harvest obtained at home all year round. At the same time, it is not necessary to take a new substrate every time: growing new bushes is permissible in old soil. It will be enough just to apply organic fertilizers once every 10 days directly under each plant.
Conclusion
Anyone can grow spinach at home on a windowsill, even if they are new to this field. After all, all this crop needs is good lighting, regular watering and temperature control. And since spinach is a plant rich in vitamins, minerals and vegetable proteins, growing it is an opportunity to replenish the body’s supply of unusually useful substances during the winter months.Therefore, possible difficulties that may arise in the process of mastering this science are justified by the harvest obtained with one’s own hands!
