Hi All,
I plant about six plants every year as they are quite prolific & there's only two of us. Every year only two plants don't go to seed, is this usual as I don't want to plant more just to end up digging them out?
Ta.
Perpetual spinach is biennial so it is normal for them to run to seed in their second year in spring after overwintering. So you need to sow/plant fresh every year.
Sometimes one or two plants do run to flower in their first year as a result of some stress with the growing conditions though I've found this to be more of a problem with chard than with perpetual spinach.
Often you can take the flower spikes off and they will carry on producing some more leaves - enough to prevent the need of digging them out. The young flower shoots are just as delicious at the leaves.
Generally they are one of the easier, more reliable crops - tasty too. :happy7:
Would you say the same of Chard , my plants have largely gone to seed though not all and I did break off the flower spike until I got fed up with it and left it, Now some of the leaves look green shiny and tasty looking. Do you still keep on using it ? leaves taken from the bolted stems (and semi bolted) too ?
Sure. Everythings edible with chard. Those leaves look good to eat and they are good to eat.
And when they go to seed, and you pinch out the flower stalk and all those tiny leaves grow afterwards, those can be eaten in salads, as they're very tender. I think they have a great flavour.
Also, and this is a bit strange, watch that you don't get both perpetual spinach and beetroot going to seed at the same time. I did this and got a mixture of beetroot and spinach in the resulting seeds. The beetroot was rubbish as it mostly had long thin roots. The spinach had a mixture of re and green leaves.
I think that beetroot, chard and perpetual spinach (aka leaf beet) are the same species, just different varieties (selections) so they will cross and produce a second generation without the parents' desirable qualities.