French Spinach Seeds

French Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is the true, classic spinach prized for its tender, smooth dark-green leaves and mild, fresh flavour that tastes best while young. It is a versatile leaf — wonderful raw in crisp salads or lightly cooked into pies, stews and side dishes. This is genuine spinach, not the warm-season "Egyptian spinach"/molokhia (Corchorus olitorius), and in Egypt it thrives as a winter crop.

Planting

This is a cool-season crop that runs to seed under heat, so in the Nile Delta sow from late September through November, with successional baby-leaf sowings into December and January for a harvest across the mild winter. In hotter Upper Egypt, sow a little later, in October and November. Place seed about 1.25–2.5 cm deep in rows roughly 30–45 cm apart. Germination takes about 7–14 days at soil temperatures of 7–20°C; soil above 29°C stops germination. Grow in full sun, though light shade helps reduce bolting in warmth.

Fertilizing

Before sowing, enrich the bed with compost or aged manure according to a soil test. About 3–4 weeks after planting, side-dress with a nitrogen source such as calcium nitrate (15.5-0-0) at roughly 0.45 kg per 9.3 m². Sandy soils may benefit from a second feeding later in the season.

Care

Thin seedlings to about 7.5–15 cm apart once they reach 2.5–5 cm tall; crowded plants stay stunted and bolt early. Keep the soil consistently moist with at least 2.5 cm of water per week, watering the soil in the morning rather than the leaves to keep foliage dry against fungal disease. Watch for aphids, leaf miners, cutworms, caterpillars, slugs and snails, plus downy mildew, white rust and damping-off. Harvest before flowering when leaves are tender and 7.5–15 cm long, about 37–48 days after sowing, picking outer leaves first or cutting just above the crown.