Comments on: Variety Recommendations

By: a3675110

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By: Luigi Fulk

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By: homebrewlibrarian

homebrewlibrarian — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:40:11 +0000

In Anchorage, AK (zone 4a/b) the only things that overwinter on this lot are perennials. I tried to overwinter kale and brussels sprouts last winter but it got too cold and too dry. The radishes withered and dried up so much that there were only radish shaped holes in the soil when the snow melted. The cherry tomatoes I brought inside at the end of the season suffered death by aphids (I have never seen plants so coated in aphids before. Shudder). Since I still haven’t managed to plant any root vegetables in two seasons, I can’t say if those would overwinter or not. But I do know that the ground freezes up pretty solid in October and there’d be no way to harvest them until late April.

I’m still trying to figure out winter storage and seed saving since overwintering outside doesn’t look very possible. I’m particularly concerned with saving seed from biennial plants because it gets so danged cold. However, this year I purchased some small parsnips at a farmer’s market from last year’s crop that had been properly stored, planted them and now six out of eight have sprouted and several have flower stalks growing. It may be that I should be more concerned with determining proper winter storage and not overwintering. But living on a small, flat, urban lot with no basement and a year round 50 F crawlspace is not offering up a lot of options.

Sigh.

Kerri in AK

By: Jean

Jean — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:32:05 +0000

South Dakota – Zone 4
We planted winter onions (also called walking onions) in the fall and went south for the winter (one of the worst on record in SD). We came home in April to find a large patch of 10″ green onions which now give us shallot-type bulbs in the summer and small onion sets we can eat or keep to plant . Of course we can eat the green tops all summer. These are the most interesting plants in our garden. If left unattended in the fall they will tip over and plant the sets themselves (thus the name walking onions). The “mother onion” will split into multiples and send up more green tops in the spring. Since we are gone for the winter I don’t know if we can harvest anything during the winter months but I suspect the green onions would be available quite early.

By: Claire

Claire — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:31:30 +0000

St. Louis, MO suburb, zone 6/7 border, silt loam soil (glacial loess), highly changeable winter conditions (high could be 80 or it could be in the teens or single digits), occasional snow but it doesn’t last more than a few days, cold rains, occasional sleet and ice (sometimes all in the same day), high winds during storms.

In the cold frame, I’ve overwintered plain-leaf parsley, Afina cutting celery, argula, Spring Wok bok choy (but not every plant), Western Front kale, mustard greens especially a red one whose variety name I don’t recall, Bronze Arrow lettuce (but not every plant).

In the open garden, mache and sorrel overwinter reliably, the occasional kale plant makes it through the winter but most do not, and I haven’t tried any of the other root crops (I’m still figuring out how to grow good carrots in the regular growing season, next year I may grow enough to leave some in the ground). Usually I overwinter garlic, potato onions, and shallots successfully, but some years I have trouble with rotting. This was true last winter. It may be that I waited till too late in the season to mulch them. Topset onions do overwinter reliably. Lettuce does not overwinter in the open garden, nor do other greens except what I’ve mentioned above, whether or not they are mulched, but maybe that is because I mulch with readily available oak leaves rather than purchasing straw. We can usually pick these until sometime in December, however. Jerusalem artichokes overwinter, of course. The occasional potato overwinters, but I can’t count on them overwintering.

Red Meat and Round Black Spanish radishes, Purple Top White Globe turnips, and Blue de Solaize leeks all last until March when kept in 5 gallon buckets in what we call the root cellar (the staircase from the outside leading to our basement and crawl space – similar to the cellar door in the Wizard of Oz movie). Sweet potatoes (Ivis White Cream and Oakleaf) keep into early summer when kept in baskets in the kitchen. We heat our house to 65 during heating season, which lasts until sometime in April, and the kitchen is at the warmer (east) side of the house. This year I started my own sweet potatoes from some of the stored roots.

I have managed to keep one Variegata hot pepper alive in a pot all winter, but I only have one room that works for this. It’s the warmest room of the house (the one that actually is 65, the rest are cooler) and has an east and a south facing window. That’s also the only room in which I have successfully overwintered rosemary – which has not overwintered for me in the garden, maybe because my soil stays too wet for its liking. There isn’t enough window space in that room to keep any more than the one pepper and a few rosemary plants because I have several houseplants in there too, including a gardenia and hoya.

I overwinter citrus trees (Bearss lime, Meyer lemon, kumquat, Navel orange) in the basement even though it is dark and cool (50 in January). I put them as close to one of the tiny windows as I can get them. I also overwinter banana plants in the basement the same way. The lime usually begins flowering in early spring and the kumquat ripens fruits over the winter while in the basement.

By: dogear6

dogear6 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:46:56 +0000

I did not try to over winter anything in the regular garden. My deck planters had my kitchen herbs – the chocolate mint (a peppermint variation) was the only thing that overwintered in Zone 7. I was really surprised that neither the rosemary or the spearmint came back.

And the chocolate mint is growing like crazy. I’ve already removed two pots worth to give away and will be digging up more shortly from the planter.

By: NM

NM — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:07:46 +0000

I don’t have a great deal of winter gardening experience, but here’s what I have found, at the northern end of Oregon’s Willamette Valley (which has heavy clay soil, though the raised beds I was using had been filled with compost-amended sandy loam. Which somehow turns into clay over the years…)
Bright lights chard overwinters more or less well — eventually you can’t really pick any more in winter, but it comes back in late winter/early spring and you can have a few more cuttings before it bolts, and it reseeds itself well, too.
Leeks overwinter beautifully; our regional garden writer, Steve Solomon, recommended relying on leeks instead of onions through the winter. I think I planted Giant Musselburgh starts last year, in August or September and was still happily harvesting leeks in May. I finally pulled all but one, which is now bolting, but still have some in the fridge that I’m enjoying, from that harvest.
Last year I grew celery for the first time; Redventure, and although it died down when we got an extremely unusual two feet of snow in December, the crowns of most of the plants lived, and began growing again in early spring. They’re flowering now, and I’m planning to collect seeds.
My sorrel, growing in a pot, also did very well, but unfortunately, now I can’t recall the variety. It’s the large-leafed kind. It made lovely Christmas dinner raviolis, in the absence of spinach, when we were snowed in for Christmas (that was a hoot; first time in my lifetime to be snowed in).
Garlic and shallots here are planted in September or October for June harvest.
We have extremely rainy, but relatively mild winter weather. Gets down to freezing quite a bit, but is often above. It drops down into the 20s or teens, usually at least once during the winter, sometimes more. When it snows, we get quite excited.
A lot of the winter gardening advice here is that a lot of things will grow fine through the winter, if you can provide some protection from the constant rain — and the attendant slugs …

By: Lynne

Lynne — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:01:50 +0000

Thanks, Sharon. Between these posts and the Independence Days challenge, I’ve been much more on top of the fall garden this year, experimenting with timing. I live in s. B.C., zone 5, but with easily 3 feet of snow our ground doesn’t freeze. We’ve found:

-In a cold frame, red leafed lettuce and spinach survived and enabled us to get a jump on the spring. We planted these ones quite late – i.e. mid-September and let them just hang out over winter and size up in March/April. Larger lettuces lasted until February in the cold frame. We ate lettuce every month last year!

-Russian Red kale overwintered unprotected (we’re saving for seed this year)

- flat leaf and curled parsley of unknown types survived the winter and were tasty in the spring (also for seed)

-We have carrot rust fly, so I won’t overwinter carrots in the ground again (whoops! major infestation this year), but the Chantenay carrots did beautifully in the ground, they are big and fat

-Our “Lyon” leeks survived the winter very nicely, and we were able to eat a few in the spring

-”Purple Vienna” Kohlrabi almost made it outside, unprotected. But I’m not sure if it froze or was actually starting to grow by March. All I know is that while it was still firm it tasted terrible. Otherwise, I love Kohlrabi, so easy compared to some brassicas.

-Harris Model parsnips survived, of course

-I found a few Russian Blue and Yukon Gold potatoes in the ground this spring that looked perfectly firm and intact, though I didn’t eat them. I wonder if they would store ok this way?

Also – I had wondered about collecting seed from hybrids. Our friends have propagated a “hybrid” cucumber for a decade. Seems worth a try….