The Vegetable Trials Subcommittee met on Thursday this week to assess the 34 entries in the early spinach trial http://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/trials_list.asp. During the assessment 8 existing AGM awards were reconfirmed and 11 cultivars recommended for the AGM for the first time. The long and the short of it, there's a lot of good spinach out there! Look out for the final report once the awards have been put forward for ratification in September.
The trial was sown on 4 April rather than in March as originally planned, when the bad weather made for poor sowing conditions. As the sowing was later the seeds were not covered with fleece as originally planned.
Interestingly the committee commented that the Asian and coloured stem cultivars such as ‘Galaxy' have a tendency to bolt quickly if sown after mid-March, as they are usually for early spring, late autumn and over winter cropping. However, there are new oriental hybrids such as ‘Mikado' (sold as ‘Oriento' by Thompson & Morgan) that are being bred for summer cropping to meet the demand from the salad-pack trade. Sowing shorter rows that can be used as soon as they are ready can help overcome the problem of bolting. http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0308/spinachproblems.asp
Growing for a mature crop requires around one tenth of the seed needed for a baby-leaf crop, as the spacing between plants is much greater. A more mature crop makes for a great steaming vegetable, while an earlier harvest of smaller leaves make a delicious addition to a salad.