Germination of spinach seeds?

[Jason Yahner]

Any advice on germinating and growing spinach?

[Eric Warwick]

Yes, actually, I've been germinating them for a number of weeks and I got a high germination rate. It was in a cool room facing a window. The set-up was a small clay pot filled with perlite and hydroton on top, with a hydroton on the drain hole. On the bottom was a plastic container with H2O. (this was in the chat box, I just copied and pasted it) 

[Vlad Jovanovic]

This (early) winter I had good luck germinating much spinach in 2" net pots filled with just hydroton. Pre-soak the hydroton first, it'll help a bit with the seeds not falling all the way to the bottom. Even though temps (my temps were about 15-18C degrees) were slightly higher than what is suggested, I had about a 85-90% germination rate and the seeds sprouted between 7 to 11 days. Which was better than I expected. The sprouts that I took inside eventually and put in the grow box with the germinating peppers grew like crazy and temps were really warm(30C degrees), way warmer than suggested, yet no bolting, and they grew fast. Wish I could have left them in longer, but I needed the space for the peppers. 

I took some pictures and weighed the 'harvest' (from 3 of the 4 spinach plants...http://aquaponicscommunity.com/group/artificiallighting/forum/topic...

Normally I'd say don't keep the temps too warm, but they did fine in a relatively warm environment. Though probably wouldn't have lasted too entirely long before bolting (going into reproductive mode, the leaves get bitter and don't taste as good)...I mean I did everything "wrong", lights on 24 hours, temps at around 30C (all this because the hot peppers were my main concern there) and the spinach still did fine.

[TCLynx]

spinach can sometimes be difficult to germinate.  Too wet and it doesn't work, too hot and it doesn't work so well.  I've always done best with spinach in dirt personally but I have a very short window of opportunity to get them going.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Here's something of a general guide (for a bunch of stuff) as far as germinating temps go...http://tomclothier.hort.net/page11.html

Yeah TC, I forget how tough you guys in Florida have it :)

[Jason Yahner]

That is an awesome table. Thanks.

[Jason Yahner]

So I have decided to germinate them in soil that is in a closed egg carton at the bottom of my refrigerator. I have a thermometer in the soil and turned it down till the temp read a steady 50 F. My girlfriend will LOVE this. lol.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Good plan. (you wouldn't believe what all I've had in the fridge...people have learned to really pay attention to my yellow 'post it' notes :)