Flowering spinach?

[kittenloren]

My spinach seems to be budding - should I pinch them out or accept that I've pretty much had my lot & let it bloom? We've been picking it since late May.

Dunno - what does it taste like? I know that rocket does not taste as good once it's flowered - is spinach the same? Maybe you could save seed fro next year?

is it perpetual spinach?

how old is the plant?

Ours has done that.Pinch it off and you'll get a bit more from it lower down, but not such big leaves.
But you can go on sowing new seeds and you'll get more.

Thanks for all the replies - I bit the bullet and stripped all the plants today. I've got a second sowing in that's almost ready to pick so I'm not too devastated, but it's my first year with a veg. patch so I'm still on a steep learning curve!

Ooh, tell me about perpetual spinach - that sounds great!

Sounds like it's bolted?

Perpetual spinach v easy to grow and grows constantly, no matter how much you pick it but it's v boring to eat and not as nice as proper spinach. Best green leaf is chard - easy to grow, keeps coming, looks nice and you can use the stalks as celery, the leaves as spinach

Might give that a miss then - I do love proper tasty spinach, esp. as eggs florentine - yum!

I've now got a bare strip in the veg patch ready for replanting, was just going to throw in a few more perennials for the borders, but chard sounds perfect - have I still got time to get some chard in for eating later in the year?

on the contrary... perpetual spinach is gorgeous... especially if leaves are picked small and used in salad.... .

Chard is nice but so is Kale and that seems to go on and on forever too...

I stand corrected I think it's late to plant chard but i could be wrong. We also have lots of bare patches not that we're harvesting. DH has just planted a load of leeks but we started them off in the propagator first. He's also jsut put in more peas as they seem to grow so easily. But we're also struggling about what to plant at this time.

chuck some runner bean seeds straight in the ground or some mixed lettuce....?

Lots of great ideas, thanks so much!

I might risk it and get some chard and/or kale in this weekend - and just keep my fingers crossed. Wish me luck!