Avon Spinach Seed, annual vegetable

Avon Spinach (42 days mature, 20 to baby leaf) F-1 hybrid. This vigorous semi-savoy matures large broad dark green leaves with mild sprightly sweet flavor. Tender leaf and stem pair well with an upright spreading habit for easy baby-stage cuttings. Avon holds well in heat and keeps its pleasing texture and good looks as the days get shorter and cooler. With bountiful early and late harvests, you might find yourself peddling beautiful tasty spinach door to door
Culture: Very hardy. Must be planted as soon as the ground can be worked in the spring to avoid early bolting. For fall crop try late July–Aug. sowing; to overwinter, sow late Aug.–Sept. Heavy nitrogen requirements, but avoid applying high-nitrogen fertilizers shortly before harvest to prevent high nitrate levels in the leaves. Pick large leaves often for heavier production.

Smooth-leaved spinach is easier to wash than the semi-savoyed type and is increasingly preferred as attested by our huge sales of Space. Heat, crowding and long day-length (over 14 hours) trigger premature bolting. To retard bolting, avoid hot-weather planting, use wider spacing and irrigate or use shade cloth.

Minimum germination temperature 35°, optimal range 45–65°, optimal temps 55–60°. Emergence takes 23 days at 41°, 12 days at 50°, only 5 days at 77°; however 91% normal seedlings at 50°, 82% at 59°, but only 52% at 68° and a mere 28% at 77°. Spinach seed will not germinate in soil temperatures above 85°.