Saturday, April 28, 2012

Overwintered Spianch

Overwintered spinach patch, spring spinach under the cover

The weathermen were predicting frost. Channel 7 was even predicting 30F. I wasn't quite believing it since the ground was so warm. I didn't protect anything. There are only a couple things that might be a problem. The main one is the cosmos I planted the other day. I didn't know if it was hardened off well enough to stand frost. Well we only got to 36F. Not quite frost weather. The next three days are predicted to have temps around freezing. I think my plants can handle it if it comes to pass. I think of May 1st as the date that is safe to plant the frost tender plants. Though the last frost is usually sometime earlier in April. I rarely plant tender plants like tomatoes and basil until mid May though because the iffy May weather can be cool and damp even it is isn't frosting. But with the warm weather that we had earlier Mother Nature seems to be about three weeks ahead of normal. I wonder if a frost will be an issue for the wild plants.

And speaking of three weeks ahead of schedule, I usually pull out my overwintered spinach in the middle of May because they are starting to bolt. Well earlier last week I saw the first signs. I picked this patch two weeks ago. It had grown enough to pick again.

But when I went into the patch I saw leaf miner damage. They are very early this year.

There were lots of leaf miner eggs on the backs of some of the leaves. But only some. There are quite a few leaves and they hardly got them all. So I started ripping out the plants one at a time and harvesting the leaves that were good.

And before we go any farther, I like to show the spinach roots when I pull them up. Spinach plants have a tap root. This is why I never start them indoors. When you start them indoors the tap root doesn't form and the spinach plants are not as strong. Mine handled our spring drought with flying colors. Transplanted ones wouldn't have.

And now on to the rest of the story. I got through half of the patch before I gave out. The day before I had eaten some chipolte mayo on a sandwich. For those that don't know, I had a bout of solanine poisoning last year (one of the more toxic alkaloids in the nightshade family plants - tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes - and why nightshade itself is so poisonous). I try to eat a little bit every couple of months to see if I can start eating them again. Well the answer is a resounding NO. I might just be sensitive to the poison. I was up all night with massive cramps in my legs and the next day my mind was dead. Dead meaning I have no desire to do anything and have trouble making connections. Solanine and some of its related alkaloids are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. They prevent them breakdown of acetylcholine in your body, which is a neurotransmitter. It is good in the correct amounts but too much and I get cramps, twitchy muscles, ticks, and the minds doesn't work like it should. I just don't want to do anything. The world becomes an uninteresting place. The wonder of life is gone. I made myself get out to pick the spinach. But I just couldn't make myself stay out and finish. So I did half of it. Maybe today I'll make myself finish. Maybe. No promises.

13 comments:

  1. The leaf miners were early here, too. I didn't get my spinach bed covered in time, and now there is damage to a few leaves as well as quite a bit of damage on the beets. I've tried to keep eggs under control, and picked off damaged leaves as soon as I found them, but now I've trapped the flies under the cover. I saw a couple of them when I went out to pick a couple of days ago.

    I feel so sorry for your suffering with solanine poisoning! It would be hard to deal with, even if you weren't a gardener, but doubly so since you are.

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  2. That's just terrifying. I hope you fully recover. Is there any kind of therapy -- sort of like chelation for lead poisoning?

    Our spinach is already battling miners. If I'd just go scratch off leaves I'd be ahead. Maybe I'll spend a few minutes doing that. I've been eating tons of spinach lately and would like to continue it until it's well and truly bolting.

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    1. I think at this point, just avoiding the nightshades is what I need. But I love them so much I keep trying occasionally. Not often mind you. And I'm not eating a lot when I do. As far as I know there isn't really a treatment. There are people that sell "treatments", but I haven't seen any studies to back them up.

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  3. so sad you are having the trouble with nightshades since so they are so much of what we tend to eat, especially here in the SW I don't think people could deal with not being able to have their Mexican food!

    I suppose though you could look on it as a challenge and explore other foods that are often not grown quite to much.

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    1. And I grew up in Colorado. We ate a lot of Mexican food. It has always been one of my favorites.

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  4. Thanks for the information about tap roots. I'll remember that. We were down to 33 degrees last night. No frost yet!

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  5. We get colder than you, so I covered a few things. When I got up at 6, the thermometer said 30.4. No sign of any frost on anything at all. I do believe that after this weekend, we'll be done with the cold.

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  6. Great tip about the spinach. I started spinach indoors this year and they are just not as strong or healthy as all the other greens I started indoors, and that taproot is probably the issue. Thanks!

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  7. lovely spinach! Sorry to hear you are not feeling well though :( just doing half is better than nothing so GOOD FOR YOU!!

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  8. Our leaf miners are out as well. I sure hope your body adjusts enough for you to enjoy limited nightshades. It has got to be hard to avoid all tomato and pepper products!

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  9. Dang... I was hoping you would be able to slowly add a bit of the solanae family back into your diet, but it sounds like you are still quite sensitive to it. That would be a hard restriction to deal with.

    Been lucky (so far) in that the leaf miners have not made it out yet, but I suspicion it will not be long before they start doing some damage.

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  10. I often have problems with transplanted spinach and now I know why. Thankyou for that, glad you got half your crop in.

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  11. Daphne, I am so sorry you are still sensitive to solanine and amazed at how it can wreak havoc on the body. With the reaction you described from just a little chipolte mayo, I would be afraid to ever try anything with solanine ever again. I hope you are feeling better.

    Great tip about spinach. I transplanted mine out when they were really small. Hopefully they will be able to stretch their roots right away and not bolt like last year. I direct seeded some too just in case.

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