Hello, new member here, trying to grow spinach at home. Would love some input or advice. I've been trying to grow Winter Giant spinach in 5 Lt Kratky buckets. I follow the instructions per Kratky himself. Chose this method for practicality and had some hydro nutes unused, but not sure if soil would provide me better results now. I use a COB-LED light, on a timer 18 on / 6 off. Temps range from 16-25 C / 60 - 77 F. I'm not sure if the results are as they should be or should be better. Maybe my nutrients are not properly formulated (maybe too much of K or N)? Each bucket began at 1.0-1.2 EC, ph 5.8-6.0... what's left now in each bucket is at 1.0-1.1 EC, 5.4-5.6. Or maybe light is too far away from plants? Leaves aren't as big as I would expect compared to market bought spinach (here in my country spinach is huge, leaves are way bigger than my hand). This run I have already harvested leaves twice from each... biggest leaf I've harvested has been as big as my palm, but not more. And last run I did my spinach flowered! Got both a females and males. This run only one has started flowering (showing pistils). Not sure if this is all normal. By the way, I put for the seeds of these plants from today's pics to germinate on feb 15th 2020... so I guess they are just under 2 months old. Any how, here are some pics of this run's three spinach's. Would love to know If they are well or if I should be getting other results given my setup.
Leaves look fine but plants are tall and spindley probable for lack of sun and too warm condition ! Thats the way mine look just before seeding out !
maybe try cutting 1-2 inches off the top to encourage lateral growth? but, they look fine, they look better than the spinach from my garden last year.
they appear to have gone to seed already. start over. keep your lights a little closer and keep them a little cooler.
Ok , thank you all for the input. A question... if they seed they stopo growing the leaves they have already? I mean... should I wait for the remaining leaves to get bigger or just harvest what there is as is? Will get light closer next time and make sure temps are lower... I did feel the light was too far. Got two sets of spinach seeds germinating now for next run... winter giant and matador.
Use LED lights, as close to the plants as possible. But don't use white or warm while (daylight colored) lights. LED lights are also cool, so no risk of burning your plants when you place them too close. Instead use 50% blue lights, and 50% red. Some plants like a higher percentage of blue, like 55%. While some like more red, (depends on the planet type, as well as which stage of growth they are in). Since plants and their leafs are green in color. Almost nothing of that green section of the light spectrum is utilized in photosynthesis. As nearly all of the green is reflected back, (which is why we see that plants and trees are of a green color). That's why whenever we are using artificial lights. There is absolutely no need to waste energy on white lights. As the middle part of the spectrum, (the yellowish green and green) isn't required. Editing this post, as I forgot to say this: Commercially available red & blue LED panels have always been a disappointment. They are never of the correct power. Nor is their red to blue light ratio balanced. Answer is to build your own. It would actually be cheaper too, when you buy LEDs in bulk, (like in a pack of a thousand). However you will need basic knowledge of electronics when it comes to connecting them into a panel array. Also note, that some LEDs are more efficient then others, (depending on manufacturer to manufacturer)... So measure their current consumption to calculate and balance out the overall electric load, (this will save you a lot of headaches down the line when you come to the point of powering them all up). You will also need a light meter too, to judge the true output light intensity of the blue and red LEDs, (so power the blue and red separately, so you can switch each color on or off independently, with their own adjustable dimmer). Only after that will you be able to correctly tweak the actual ratio of the amount of blue and red light. Because people skip on this very crucial step, (of not having an option to correctly tune the red and blue light ratio). Is the reason why you will find 100s of different options of mixing red and blue light for plant growth over the internet. Where no one will be agreeing with another - Because majority of them simply bought something readymade. And hoped to see the magic happen, (which always lead them to feel disappointed with the results later). So when it comes to these sort of things. I as a rule NEVER trust the manufacturers. As in my experience, nearly all of them lie about their products. They all gather the cheapest and substandard components from around the world to make their final product, (to maximize their profits). Therefore, it is always better to make something of your own design. At the very least, it will be longer lasting. This may seem like a bit of an uphill climb at first, (if you have no experience with electrics). But worry not, as in the end you will be very proud of what you would have built for yourself. And of course, we here at the Garden Stew are also always ready to assist.
Thanks all! Those spinach were harvested and now have some Winter Giant (soil) and Matador (plan to have in Kratky buckets), I've been extremely sloppy with the Matadors and dropped thwm more that twice... but they are going.
