Parrot Spinach: Growing Methods, Why It Should Not Be Eaten at Night, and Variety Classification
Spinach is a type of green vegetable, also known as Persian spinach, bo leng, bo ling, parrot spinach, red-root spinach, and flying dragon spinach. Spinach is grown over a wide area in our country, and it is cultivated in many regions. It also comes in many varieties and has high nutritional value. So what are the methods for growing spinach? How many categories are there in the classification of spinach varieties? Why should spinach not be eaten at night?
I. Methods for growing spinach
1. Sowing time
Spring spinach can be sown once temperatures rise above 5°C after the start of spring, with March being the suitable sowing period; summer spinach is sown in stages from May—July; autumn spinach is sown in August—September; and overwintering spinach is sown from mid-October—early November.
2. Land preparation and bed making
Choose loose, fertile, slightly acidic loam that retains water and nutrients well and has good drainage and irrigation conditions, with a pH of 5.5-7. When preparing the land, apply 4000 kg of decomposed organic fertilizer and 40 kg of superphosphate per mu, then level and finely break up the soil. In winter and spring, raised beds are preferable; in summer and autumn, flat beds are preferable, with a bed width of 1.2-1.5 m.
3. Sowing and raising seedlings
The growing method for spinach is broadcasting. Before sowing, first soak the seeds in water for 12 hours, then refrigerate them for 24 hours after soaking, take them out and place them in an environment at 20-25 degrees to germinate; they will sprout in about 3-5 days, and can be sown after sprouting. To ensure yield, sow about 3.5 kg per mu, water thoroughly once after sowing, cover with 2-3 cm of soil, and keep the soil moist; seedlings will be complete in about one week.
4. Field management
Spinach has strong growth vigor, and once seedlings emerge they can be left to grow on their own; however, to ensure yield, thinning is needed when true leaves appear, and weeding can be done at the same time as thinning. When 3-4 true leaves have grown, a thin fertilizer solution can be applied once; the fertilizer should not be too concentrated when applying, so that excessive fertility does not burn the roots and cause death.
II. Classification of spinach varieties
By seed form, spinach can be divided into two varieties: the spiny-seeded type and the spineless-seeded type.
1. Spiny-seeded type
The fruit is diamond-shaped and spiny; the leaves are relatively small and thin, hastate or arrow-shaped; because the texture is soft and the astringent taste is slight, it is suitable for eating (pointed-leaf type). It has relatively strong cold resistance and heat resistance, is early-maturing, and bolts early.
2. Spineless-seeded type (round-leaf type)
The fruit is irregularly round and spineless; the leaves are thick and large, mostly wrinkled, ovate, elliptical, or irregular in shape; the petioles are short, heat tolerance is relatively weak, bolting is relatively late, and it is suitable for overwintering cultivation.
III. Why should spinach not be eaten at night?
It is not that spinach cannot be eaten at all at night; a moderate amount of spinach can be eaten at night, but eating too much is not good.
If you really want to eat spinach at night, it is best to first boil it in boiling water when preparing it, so that the oxalic acid in it is boiled away clean; if it is not boiled, the calcium oxalate in it can easily form stones.
In addition, pregnant women should not eat much spinach. Zinc and calcium are indispensable trace elements for the human body; if the human body lacks zinc, a person will feel poor appetite and a decline in sense of taste. If pregnant women eat too much spinach, it is undoubtedly unfavorable to fetal development.