Welcome to your next “Crops 101” lesson of the Farming Simulator Academy! In this tutorial, we’re focusing on spinach. We show you how to plant and harvest this nutritious plant.
Let’s take a look at everything you need to plant and harvest spinach. Please note, you need special equipment.
We chose the following equipment. Feel free to pick alternatives, as ours are simply recommendations. Keep in mind, that vehicles and tools must be compatible, indicated by icons and power specifications.
Got everything you need? Then let’s start on your assignment and cultivate some spinach! Note that you can only grow this crop from the start of March until the end of September if seasonal growth is enabled.
Step 1: Applying Lime
Applying lime improves your yield and needs to be worked into the ground. This step is not always necessary. The field information box will tell you, if your field needs lime. If you bought the Bredal K105 as a fertilizer spreader, you can use this machine for lime as well.
Just connect the machine to your tractor and place it next to lime. Press the designated button to refill the machine. When the machine is filled, head over to your field. Position yourself on one corner and start applying lime.
Step 2: Cultivating the field
To plant spinach, you first have to cultivate the field. Hook your cultivator to your tractor, place the vehicle on one corner of the field, and just do one row after another until the whole field is done.
Step 3: Sowing Spinach
Connect your seeder to your tractor and place the machine next to your seeds. Again, press the designated button to refill the machine. Once you are done, head back to your field and start the same process again.
Tip! If you plant spinach as soon as possible, you can have two harvests in one year!
Step 4: Fertilizing
After you are done applying lime, unload any leftover lime at your farm and refill fertilizer. Then, the same procedure starts again
Tip! Repeat the fertilizing process after your plants grow to increase the fertilization to 100%. The yield will be even higher. With a manure or slurry spreader, you can activate double activation rate to fertilize only once.
Step 5: Rolling
If you want to improve your yield even further, you need to use a roller on your freshly planted seeds. With a roller, you condense the soil, and therefore increase its quality and the yield by 2.5 %.
Step 6: Getting rid of weeds
Soon, the first weeds spawn on the field. Take your weeder to get rid of it before they grow past the first stage. In the first stage, you can still use the weeder to remove weeds. After that, you need a hoe or field sprayer, but let’s try to avoid that in favor of our finances. If you play with crop destruction, use a tractor with narrow tires, otherwise a lot of plants get destroyed. Got rid of it? Good, now we wait again, until the crops are fully grown.
Tip! You can speed up a bit until the weeds start to grow.
Step 7: Harvest the crops
As soon as the plants are grown, just head over to your harvester and hop in! Drive to one corner of your field and start harvesting one row after another until you are done.
To unload the harvester when the tank is full, drive it up to your trailer, facing it rearward, since it unloads in the back. Press the button to start overloading, and all the harvested spinach will be unloaded into your trailer until it’s full.
Step 8: Selling Spinach
When you are done harvesting, you are able to sell your harvested crops. Look for the best-selling point on the prices screen. Unload the trailer in the designated area. As spinach needs to be processed as soon as possible, you are not able to store it.
If you planted and harvested as soon as you could, the plants will now start growing again and you can harvest a second time. Just be aware that spinach will only regrow once. If you want to grow this plant again next year, you have to cultivate it again.
Congratulations, you finished another lesson and now know how to plant spinach. Stay with the Farming Simulator Academy, and you’ll become a top-notch virtual farmer in no time!