If you want to make growing spinach as easy and as productive as possible then just direct seed it in the garden. And any time after the snow melts and you can work in the garden is fine to plant it.

It isn't normally grown from transplants - it's possible but there is no benefit to doing it.

The kit you have in the picture can work but the germination rate won't be as good and at most you'll end up with 8-10 spinach plants. Plus when grown indoors you will need to provide it with supplemental lights (see the FAQs here) or the plants will just get leggy and fall over.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing from Seed FAQs

Welcome to growing, traveler84. I agree totally with digdirt. Like many newbies I think your main problem is 'trying too hard'. As dd said, if you start your veg growing adventures by direct sowing the straight forward stuff outdoors you will eliminate a lot of the things that can go wrong - you don't get damping off outside, nothing gets leggy from lack of light, you don't need to worry about air circulation and watering is far less critical. Personally, I think that, far from making things easier, 'kits' are a way of making money from the unsuspecting beginner. There are really only a few basic requirements for growing from seed and it is nowhere near as complicated or frightening as some (mostly trying to sell you something) like to make it appear. Read the FAQs, relax and have fun. Good luck with your gardening.

Spinach is one of the few vegetables that likes it cold - even for germination. And grows fast enough that starting inside and early is pointless. It winter sows well (check the WInter sowing forum). I don't know the weather in OK right now, but you could probably already sow it outside. I have about 30" of snow covering my garden beds, so it will be a while before I can start it. Use that kit to start tomatoes, eggplant and peppers, they need the head start.

Agree - sow outdoors when soil temp is 5 ��" 20 C (41-68 F).