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Protecting and Harvesting Your Crop Protecting and Harvesting Your Crop From "Fresh from the Garden" episode DFFG-125

Keeping your spinach crop safe from insects is relatively easy; here, learn how to protect plants with simple row covers. Plus, learn the best time and methods for harvesting....

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	Floating row covers provide probably the best way to protect your spinach crop. These lightweight covers let light and water in, but keep the insects out! You should use the lightest weight available.
	Spinach is robust and resistant to cold and if they are given a thick, mulch cover will thrive through a few light frosts.
	To get the spinach harvested, you only need your fingernails or a small pair of shears.
	One of the simplest ways to make a cloche is with an ordinary milk jug. Using a pair of scissors, cut off the bottom of a plastic milk jug.
	You can keep spinach frozen up to 4 to 6 months if you use young leaves that are thoroughly washed, blanched, dried and stored in airtight plastic bags.

• Regardless of whether people like spinach, insects really love it! There are several insects, including aphids, cabbage loopers, corn earworms and flea beetles, that can eat away your spinach crop. Leaf miners can also be a problem on spinach. The best way to control this pest is by removing the affected leaves.

• Floating row covers provide probably the best way to protect your spinach crop. These lightweight covers let light and water in, but keep the insects out! You should use the lightest weight available.

• To set the row covers, first place 3 pieces of 6-foot wire to create support for the cover(s). Then lay the covers themselves in place. Heat doesn't build up under the lightest covers, so these can be left over the plants indefinitely, protecting them from insect injury. Be sure to secure the edges to keep insects from sneaking inside!

• Very little cultivation is needed to maintain a spinach crop. If you have to cultivate, keep it to a minimum -- a little shallow hoeing. Do not do any deep digging because this will damage the roots. Also do not move soil toward the plants because spinach leaves that are covered by soil will rot rapidly.

• Spinach is robust and resistant to cold and if they are given a thick, mulch cover will thrive through a few light frosts. This cold-hardy crop can withstand temperatures as low 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Spinach even tastes sweeter when grown under a little frost.

• Under the best cool weather conditions, spinach can be harvested just six weeks after planting from seed. You can start picking as soon as the leaves have reached a reasonable size. You should begin harvesting when the spinach has put out about 6 to 8 dark green, tender leaves that are about 3 to 6 inches long.

• You can harvest spinach in a variety of ways: You can begin snitching individual leaves as soon as they're big enough to use. This method encourages the plant to re-grow another crop of leaves. With spring varieties, you can take up to half the leaves without damaging the plants – with winter varieties, pick much more sparingly. Or you can cut the entire plant at soil level when leaves are large and meaty.

• To get the spinach harvested, you only need your fingernails or a small pair of shears. Take care when harvesting, you don't want to strip the plant but just to take a few leaves to start with and until the plants are mature. Use your fingernails or the shears to pick off the outer leaves -- don't wrench them off which could damage the stems or roots, or loosen the plant. Loosening the plant can cause bolting. You can continue harvesting until the plants start to run to seed; that's when the central stem starts to elongate.

• Once you've harvested the spinach, it should be sorted to remove all the yellow or damaged leaves. You should stop picking autumn sown spinach when growth slows in early winter. You can then protect the plants from ice by adding light mulch or grow them through the winter under protect covering.

• An autumn / winter crop will benefit from being covered with cloches. The cloches will not only protect the plants, but will act as a mini greenhouse to keep the leaves tender. As soon as it warms in spring, over-wintered spinach will again begin to grow and produce a heavy crop of sweet, crunchy leaves.

• One of the simplest ways to make a cloche is with an ordinary milk jug. Using a pair of scissors, cut off the bottom of a plastic milk jug. Then cut a V-shaped slit in the top of the handle. Next, place the milk jug over each plant and push a straight stick through the handle and into the ground deeply enough to firmly anchor the jug in the soil. Be sure to leave caps off the jugs unless freezing weather is expected and remember to remove the jugs on days when the temperature reaches 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit -- otherwise, the plants will "cook" inside the cloche.

• You can keep spinach frozen up to 4 to 6 months if you use young leaves that are thoroughly washed, blanched, dried and stored in airtight plastic bags. Spinach can keep fresh in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, but do not wash the leaves until you're ready to use them. All spinach leaves are usually sandy or gritty and should be thoroughly washed just before use.



ALSO IN THIS EPISODE:
	Guidelines to Grow By
	Transplanting and Fertilizing
	Protecting and Harvesting Your Crop
	Transplant and Seedling Containers