Spinach is among the most common vegetables in Kenya due to its numerous nutrients. Spinach can be eaten raw in salads or steamed slightly, accompanied by various dishes. But how can you plant spinach? This article provides guidelines on how to plant spinach in Kenya.
Spinach is planted from seeds that emerge into seedlings and form spinach as a vegetable. In Kenya, for you to plant spinach, you need to follow the below detailed steps on how to plant the spinach:
1. Select Suitable Land
As a farmer, you need to select good land for spinach farming. The area should have fertile and well-drained soils with a pH of 6.5 to 7. This helps to yield more spinach.
2. Prepare the Land
After selecting the land, prepare the land by removing all weeds through ploughing. You can apply compost manure to the ground after first ploughing.
3. Choose the Best Spinach Variety
There are many different types of spinach in Kenya, like Ford Hook Giant, Swiss chard, Giant Globe, Early hybrid, and Bloomsdale long-standing. Therefore, choose a certified spinach variety that gives the best yields and is resistant to pests and diseases.
4. Set up Nursery Bed
Till the place to set the nursery bed to a fine tilth and make a raised bed of 1 m in length depending on the total number of seedlings required to plant. Mix the soil with farmyard manure and level the ground using a rake.
Make shallow furrows 2 cm deep with a spacing of 30 cm between each. Place soaked seeds into the furrows and cover them with a thin layer of soil. After sowing seeds, apply mulch on the nursery bed, then water.
If the area doesn’t receive enough water, keep watering it up and remove mulch immediately after seedlings emerge and place shade. Two weeks before transplant, harden off the seedlings and reduce watering. Seedlings will be ready for transplant after four to five weeks.
5. Transplanting
On prepared land, dig planting holes at 30 cm between the rows and 10 cm between each plant. Add a teaspoonful of DAP or TSP fertilizer in each hole and mix the soil, then plant spinach and cover it firmly with the soil.
6. Fertilizer Application
Applying fertilizer to spinach plants is essential to enhance proper growth and development. Spinach is top-dressed with CAN fertilizer on the third week after transplant for good quality leaves.
7. Weeding
After planting spinach, you weed the plants by uprooting unwanted ones that might spread pests and diseases and reduce competition for nutrients, water, space, and sunlight. Also, you can control weeds by practicing mulching.
8. Pest and Disease Control
Spinach is affected by pests like cutworms, aphids, and armyworms, which can be controlled by spraying with appropriate pesticides and insecticides, and diseases like damping off, leaf rot, and Downey Mildew, which are treated with effective fungicides.
9. Harvesting
Spinach will be ready for harvesting after two to three months, depending on the variety, when the leaves will be large, fresh, and mature.
Spinach Farming Guide
Spinach is a green leafy vegetable that does well in loamy, fertile soils. To carry out spinach farming, you must plant certified spinach seeds to grow well.
Spinach is planted from seeds that are first raised from the nursery bed before transplanting them. They germinate within five to seven days, and seedlings are planted after four to five weeks.
Planting land is ploughed two to three weeks in advance. The soil is mixed with the farmyard to add soil fertility. After planting, farm practices like weeding, mulching, irrigation, and pest and disease control are done to ensure the growth of spinach.
Harvesting of spinach is done using a knife by picking the outer leaves and leaving the inner ones to allow them to grow. This is done six to eight weeks after planting them.
Spinach Spacing in Kenya
Spinach farming in Kenya requires a spacing of 60cm by 60cm and 45cm by 45cm in uniform rows and columns depending on the humidity of a place, and 10cm from one plant to another.
Spinach takes 40 to 50 days after planting, depending on the variety grown, and it also takes three to five weeks after sowing seeds in Kenya.
