Deliberate AgrarianSnippet #26Transplanting Spinach(Part 1)

Dateline: 12 May 2014

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In his book, The Market Gardener, Jean-Martin Fortier writes…

"Given the choice between transplanting a crop and direct seeding it, we always prefer to transplant."

Fortier routinely starts crops like spinach, chard, kale, and lettuce in flats of 72 or 128 cells. He even transplants beets.  One of the advantages of transplanting such crops is…

"The chances of crop success are improved because seeding density is perfect and crops have a head start over weeds."

That makes a lot of sense to me. I have transplanted Romaine lettuce with great success in the past and decided to give spinach, chard, kale, and even beets a try this year.

Instead of starting the plants in flats in a greenhouse, I utilized some "Whizbang low-rider" nursery tire beds with solar pyramids over the top. Both the low-rider tire beds and the solar pyramids are explained in My Whizbang Garden Idea Book.

In the picture above, you can see a row of solar pyramids (positioned over low-rider tire beds) in my early spring garden.  This next picture shows two of the nursery beds about a month after planting.

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There are two varieties of Romaine lettuce in the front bed and spinach is in the back bed. The seeds were planted in hills (see page 45 of my idea book).

In Part 2 (Snippet #27) I will show how I transplanted the spinach plants into a garden bed.