According to Seed Savers Exchange, “Spinach is a nutrient-rich green that is easy to grow in the garden. Spinach requires long days in conjunction with cooler temperatures, so it’s more feasible for growers in the north to save seeds from spinach.” We are in the Midwest, so it has the right conditions here.
It’s been just wonderful to have lots of fresh, beautiful organic spinach right out the door this spring and early summer for smoothie-making! Having my potager right outside my kitchen door, gives me creative freedom, utility, and beauty.
Once the fresh spinach in the garden had run its course, I decided to collect my own seed.
I will show you how!
I’m spoiled and prefer not to go back to store-bought spinach because it’s not often as pretty and fresh as I would like. I like the independence, the exercise, and I also think of the money we’ve saved by growing some of our own produce!
Plus, it is as easy as anything.
Sex and the Spinach Seed
When I looked for information on saving the seed of my spinach plants, I had trouble finding anything much. It was time to do some detective work in my garden. So I watched my spent plants and waited.
It had confused me to see two very different kinds of stalks.
One explanation I had read mentioned a female seed stalk and a male seed stalk.
I observed 2 very different kinds of stalks intermingled in the spinach patch:
The first spinach stalks to “go to seed” were male and contained the pollen (below, r.); I noticed lots of yellow dust when it was bumped. The male seed was doing its job of spreading the pollen to the female stalk.
Others had a larger seed that the pollen came into contact with. These would develop into the spinach seed for planting in the future (below, l.). (It’s the botanical analogy to human sperm and eggs). Spinach seed sperm (the pollen) (below, right) are mobile and small. Spinach eggs are large and round, and don’t develop until fertilized.
The female plant ‘going to seed’ (l.) and the spinach seed sperm (the pollen) (r.)
How To Collect Seeds
As you clean out for winter, don’t pull out all of those spent spinach plants just yet!
1. Keep one or two of the female plants, and let them dry out completely. Seed Savers Exchange says, “Once spinach seeds begin to ripen on a plant, a combination of mature and immature seeds will almost always be present. Plants should be harvested when at least two-thirds of the seeds are mature.
2. Gently pull the dried stalks (so you don’t dislodge the seed) and continue drying for 10 days.
3. Remove the seeds by running a gloved hand along the length of the stalk with a container placed underneath to catch dislodged seeds.
4. Roll the seed clusters between your fingers. The seeds will seperate.
5. When stored under cool, dry conditions, spinach seeds can be expected to remain viable for six years. (source)
Make sure the seed are completely dry before placing them in a dated, labeled envelope.
Now we have a ready supply of spinach seed to plant for future crops of greens, and more healthy smoothies in our future.
“Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so… And God saw that it was good.”~Genesis 1: 11-12
Alicia
I stumbled on your web-site looking for a detox mix and found all these great tips for recipes and saving seeds. You’ve inspired me to start saving seeds and plant them next year!
Keep up the great work!
Regards,
Alicia
Jacqueline
Oh, that makes me happy to think that the things the Lord puts in my heard are helpful!
There is such a satisfaction in being able (simply) to sow, raise, eat/ save seed, and then to sow all over again. It is a beautiful cycle of life from the Creator 🙂
Thanks, Alicia!
Kalman Morris
Jacqueline-
I liked your detective work on the spinach seed mystery. I truck-garden organically for my income, and I’ve planted “Vital Green” spinach about 5 long rows at a time, here in southern-most Texas (near Brownsville), and made good money at the Farmers Markets I sell at. A wonderful flavor and texture, my customers always seem to want it, stands good in the field, makes a second cutting, slow bolt – I haven’t saved the seeds – yet. Got my seed usually from Gurney,
but MY planting times (zone 9) are so different I sometimes have to plant something other, like right now, ’cause they’re out of stock. I’ve planted Tyee and will soon plant Spargo.
My “winter” in the garden is JULY and AUGUST and I usually plant in Sept., but this year was SOOO HOT (ground temp too) I had to wait until October.
But – Vital Green” – the seed packages from Gurney don’t list it as a F1, but it must be a hybrid, don’t you think? Well, I’M DYING TO KNOW if the seed you saved returns the same plant as mothered it. You’ve got my e-mail up there, so shoot me a line. Thanx –
Kal Morris Two Pines Farm (kalmanmorris@hotmail.com) just in case.
Kalman Morris
Jacqueline- Thank you so much for your response. It IS exciting to hear your news. I reckon the seed is true, so (if it was a hybrid, and I feel pretty certain it was originally) so now it looks like it has morphed into a “variety”. It will breed true to seed. Hopefully for generations. I’ll certainly save that seed. (I do for many of my garden seed – cilantro, dill, arugula, basil to name a few)
I will plant Vital Green spinach as soon as I can get seeds, but it will be a while before I can report my findings, looks like, what, about 9 months from now.
Nice talking, Kal.
Amy
I just saw this post for the first time this morning, but see that it’s been 9 months from your above comment…any report? I’d love to know what happened with your experiment! Seems fairly easy to do if it works well!
Jacqueline
Amy, the seeds did germinate nicely and at first the spinach looked like the same thing, but as it grew, I could tell it wasn’t ‘true’ to the crop from last year. It was shorter, harder to pick, and bolted in about half the time. It was because it was a hybrid and not an heirloom. We can learn so much by experimenting. I will be trying 2 Seed Savers Exchange spinach which are true heirlooms. The ones I just ordered are America (for traditional row planting) and Malabar, a neat climber from India. It is not a true spinach, but tastes just like it and grow and makes succulent leaves all summer when other spinach stops growing. You can cut it up just like normal for quiche, salad, greens in smoothies, etc. Fun, eh?
Natalie
Hi! I always read reports that Malabar tastes “just like spinach,” but it does NOT taste just like spinach. It is mucilaginous, similar to okra. I planted Malabar once and never again. Okra is one of the few veggies that I don’t like, because of the texture. Unfortunately, Malabar was relegated to the same group with okra.
Jeannette Bram
That is so interesting! I learned this year that zucchini has male and female blossoms too. God’s creation is so fascinating. You mentioned putting the dried seeds into an envelope. I have had saved seeds get moisture and go bad when in an envelope. If you can put the envelope into an air-tight jar or container, that would be better. I also bought a pack of plastic craft baggies (very small, for beads) that work great for a small quantity of seeds. If I have a packet of seeds with some left over, I tuck them into one of these. I put these also inside of a sealed jar. It is so discouraging to get out seeds, only to find them to be moldy!