Golden Acre Home & Garden Centre's Plant Library

Other Names:  Longstanding Bloomsdale Spinach

Description:

A well loved and fast growing variety that is slow to bolt and excellent for patio containers and garden beds; dark green leaves are crinkled and high in iron; an excellent addition to salads or cooked into dishes; best grown during the spring and fall

Edible Qualities

Bloomsdale Spinach is an annual vegetable plant that is typically grown for its edible qualities. The crinkled oval dark green leaves are usually harvested from mid spring to mid fall. The leaves have a mild taste and a soft texture.

The leaves are most often used in the following ways:

• Fresh Eating
• Eating When Cooked/Prepared
• Cooking
• Canning
• Freezing

Planting & Growing

Bloomsdale Spinach will grow to be about 9 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 9 inches. When planted in rows, individual plants should be spaced approximately 4 inches apart. This fast-growing vegetable plant is an annual, which means that it will grow for one season in your garden and then die after producing a crop. Because of its relatively short time to maturity, it lends itself to a series of successive plantings each staggered by a week or two; this will prolong the effective harvest period.

This plant is typically grown in a designated vegetable garden. It does best in full sun to partial shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. This plant should not require much in the way of fertilizing once established, although it may appreciate a shot of general-purpose fertilizer from time to time early in the growing season. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone over the growing season to conserve soil moisture. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America, and it is considered by many to be an heirloom variety.

Bloomsdale Spinach is a good choice for the vegetable garden, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. It is often used as a 'filler' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, providing the canvas against which the thriller plants stand out. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.