🥬 When to Plant Spinach
Direct sow in cool weather; harvest before heat
📅 Planting Calendar by USDA Zone
Spinach is a cool-season crop — plant it around your last spring frost, and you can often start it earlier indoors or sow again for a fall harvest. Find the exact start-indoors, transplant, and direct-sow dates for your USDA zone in the table below.
Select your zone to highlight your dates. All dates are calculated from each zone's average frost dates — see how we calculate them.
| Zone | Last Frost | Start Indoors | Transplant | Direct Sow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 2A | May 30 | — | — | Apr 18 |
| Zone 3B | May 15 | — | — | Apr 3 |
| Zone 4A | May 8 | — | — | Mar 27 |
| Zone 4B | May 1 | — | — | Mar 20 |
| Zone 5A | Apr 25 | — | — | Mar 14 |
| Zone 5B | Apr 18 | — | — | Mar 7 |
| Zone 6A | Apr 21 | — | — | Mar 10 |
| Zone 6B | Apr 10 | — | — | Feb 27 |
| Zone 7A | Apr 5 | — | — | Feb 22 |
| Zone 7B | Mar 28 | — | — | Feb 14 |
| Zone 8A | Mar 20 | — | — | Feb 6 |
| Zone 8B | Mar 12 | — | — | Jan 29 |
| Zone 9A | Feb 28 | — | — | Jan 17 |
| Zone 9B | Feb 15 | — | — | Jan 4 |
| Zone 10A | Feb 1 | — | — | Dec 21 |
| Zone 10B | Jan 15 | — | — | Dec 4 |
| Zone 11A | Jan 1 | — | — | Nov 20 |
Spinach is a nutrient-dense cool-season green that grows fast in spring and fall.
Top Growing Tips
- Plant as early as soil can be worked (tolerates light frost)
- Bolts in long days and heat — time plantings carefully
- Fall plantings often produce better than spring
- Keep soil consistently moist for tender leaves
- Malabar spinach is a heat-tolerant alternative for summer
Companion Planting
Good companions: strawberries, peas, beans, brassicas
Avoid planting near: none in particular
Harvest Timeline
35-45 days from seed
Growing spinach in your region?
These dates come from your zone's frost windows. For the full month-by-month plan — succession sowing, variety picks, and timing tuned to your climate, not just your zone — our regional vegetable-gardening guides cover your area start to finish.
Find your regional growing guide