Matador Spinach is a frost-hardy cultivar that thrives in cool-season gardens across zones 3 through 9, delivering tender leaves in just 28 to 48 days from sowing. This compact variety reaches only 6 to 8 inches tall, making it excellent for small spaces and successive plantings throughout spring and fall. With its ability to germinate reliably between 50 and 70°F and tolerate frost, Matador offers gardeners a dependable way to grow fresh spinach from early spring through late autumn.
Partial Sun
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3-9
8in H x ?in W
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Moderate
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Matador's quick harvest window and frost tolerance make it a season-stretcher for spinach lovers. The compact 6 to 8-inch height means you can tuck it into tight garden corners or containers, and its willingness to germinate even at cooler soil temperatures opens growing windows when other vegetables are still dormant. Successive sowings every three weeks keep fresh leaves coming through spring and fall without requiring replanting effort.
As a spinach cultivar, Matador is grown for its edible leaves, which can be harvested fresh for salads, sautéed as a cooked green, or blended into soups and smoothies. Its quick turnaround and cool-season preference make it particularly suited to spring and fall harvests when spinach flavor is at its peak.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Sow seeds directly outdoors 4 to 6 weeks before your average last spring frost date, when soil temperature is at least 40°F but ideally between 50 and 75°F. For continuous harvests, make successive sowings every 3 weeks until 4 weeks before your average first fall frost date. Seeds can be sown in autumn for winter harvest in milder climates or with heavy mulch protection in colder zones.
Begin harvesting Matador spinach 28 to 48 days after sowing, when leaves have reached edible size. Harvest outer leaves individually by pinching them off at the base, allowing the center crown to continue producing, or cut the entire plant just above soil level for a single heavy harvest. Regular harvesting encourages more leaf production and delays bolting in warmer conditions.
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