QUICK MATURER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

QUICK MATURER.

VALUE or SPINACH. More attention should be paid to this crop than it is usually given. Many people are not aware that it is one of the quickest maturing vegetables we have. True spinach has no connection with the so-called spinach beet, perpetual spinach or New Zealand spinach. These are substitutes and, though valuable in their way, are not the equal oi the genuine article. Sown on good, well-manured ground, it should be ready for picking in about six weeks or even less. The method is to sow the seed, not too thickly, between rows of peas, celery trenches or some other slow-growing crop. As soon as the plants have made leaves a few inches long the row is thinned out for the plants to stand six or eight inches apart, but these thinnings are used as a vegetable. Spinach, being a quick maturing crop, will not last long before running to flower; therefore it needs to be sown as often as lettuce, radish and such-like crops. Although a crop that generally does best in an open position, shade suits it well during the hot days of summer. A shading of scrim or light covering of niacrocarpa branches will give some beautiful succulent leaves in the hottest weather. As a stimulant there is nothing to equal a little nitrate of soda, applied either dry or as a liquid manure, when the plants are making their first rough leaf.