Spinach · Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
When to plant spinach in Essen
Main outdoor window
6-20 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
17 April
In Essen, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
15-25 Apr
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Essen
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Sow for overwintering
18 Aug - 8 Sep
Counting back 64 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
6-20 Mar
Six weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
15-25 Apr
Spinach through the year
Against the frost risk in Essen
Why these dates
Spring sowings must go in early - six weeks before last frost - to crop before bolting. The autumn sowing, six to eight weeks before first frost, is usually far more productive.
Overwinters under snow in zone 5 and regrows in spring. One of the few crops that genuinely prefers frost.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Spinach are timed for direct sowing 6 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Essen.
The median frost-free season here is 208 days, against 40 to 50 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Essen
Other vegetables to time
Growing spinach in Essen
When should I plant spinach in Essen?
Aim for 6-20 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 15-29 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will spinach be ready to harvest in Essen?
Expect to start picking around 15-25 Apr, based on 40 to 50 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will spinach tolerate?
Overwinters under snow in zone 5 and regrows in spring. One of the few crops that genuinely prefers frost.