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Spinacia oleracea
Growing calendar
Typical timing for central Japan (Kanto region). Shift it for your own climate, and record your actual dates.
Guides
- Why Spinach Will Not Grow: Soil pH and How to Correct It
- How to Sow Spinach: Soaking, Chitting and Sowing in Warm Weather
- Thinning and Feeding Spinach: Spacing and Reading the Leaf Color
- Spinach Growing Calendar: Four Sowings Through the Year
- Spinach Downy Mildew and Pests: Reading Resistance Codes
- When to Cut Spinach and How to Sweeten It in the Cold
Common problems
Start from what you can see on the plant.
Pests and diseases (36)
Problems recorded for this plant, most serious first.
Bolting
MajorDisorder
A flower stalk rises from the center of the plant and the leaves turn tough and stringy, spoiling eating quality. Heading vegetables run to seed without ever forming a head.
Downy Mildew
MajorDisease
Pale yellow to yellow-brown angular lesions form on the upper leaf surface with a gray-purple mold in the matching spot underneath. Lesions merge, the leaves die back and the plant declines early.
Fusarium Wilt
CommonDisease
Lower leaves wilt during the day and recover morning and evening, and this cycle repeats as the plant dies back. Cutting the stem reveals characteristic browning of the vascular tissue.
Damping-off
CommonDisease
The stem pinches in at soil level, turning water-soaked to brown and thin, and the seedling topples over. Infection before emergence makes the stand uneven with missing plants.
Root Rot
CommonDisease
Fine roots rot brown to blackish brown, growth stops and the lower leaves yellow. The plant wilts easily in the daytime and eventually dies outright.
Fertilizer Burn
CommonDisorder
Leaf margins scorch brown soon after fertilizing and the whole plant wilts. Root tips turn brown and growth stops abruptly.
Cabbage Armyworm
CommonPest
Young larvae feed in groups on the leaf underside, eating only the tissue so the leaf turns translucent white. Larger larvae chew big holes and can strip a plant bare in a single night.
Pillbugs
OccasionalPest
Cotyledons and the stem base of young seedlings are gnawed and the seedlings disappear. Fruit resting on the ground gets shallow feeding scars on the surface.
Slugs
OccasionalPest
Irregular holes are chewed in leaves and fruit with glistening slime trails nearby. By day they hide under pots and bricks or in dead leaves at the base of the plant.
Leaf Spot
OccasionalDisease
Small round brown to gray-white lesions appear on the lower leaves, the centers turning gray with tiny black specks. As they multiply the leaf yellows and drops early.
Fusarium Yellows
Disease
Yellowing starts on the lower leaves, the petioles twist and the plant leans to one side. Vascular tissue browns, growth stops, and heading vegetables may die without ever forming a head.
Late Blight
Disease
Dark green water-soaked lesions appear on the leaves and expand quickly into brown dead tissue. White mold forms on the underside and at the lesion edge, and dark brown lesions spread to stems and fruit.
Brown Leaf Spot
Disease
Small light brown to gray-brown spots form on the leaves and enlarge into irregular lesions. When they merge the whole leaf dies and plant vigor drops sharply.
Cucumber Mosaic Virus
Disease
New leaves show a yellow-green mosaic, crinkle, and the whole plant becomes stunted. Fruit colors unevenly and grows misshapen.
Rust
Disease
Small raised orange-yellow to red-brown pustules form on both leaf surfaces, then rupture and release powdery spores. Heavy infection yellows the leaves and kills them early.
White Rust
Disease
Creamy white slightly raised irregular pustules form on the leaf underside and burst through the skin releasing white powder. The upper surface turns pale yellow and heavy infection ruins appearance and market value.
Anthracnose
Disease
Light brown to dark brown round lesions with sharp margins form on leaves and fruit, slightly sunken in the center. In wet weather salmon-pink slimy spore masses ooze out on the lesions.
Root-lesion Nematode
Pest
Elongated blackish brown necrotic lesions form on the root surface and fine roots rot away. Above ground the stand is uneven and plants stay small with pale foliage.
Root-knot Nematode
Pest
The plant wilts in the daytime and does not recover with feeding or watering. Pull it up and the roots carry beaded chains of galls of varying size with few fine roots.
Bacterial Spot
Disease
Small water-soaked spots appear on the leaves, later turning brown with yellowing around them. Fruit develops water-soaked or scabby spots from which rot spreads.
