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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] winter salad

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  • From: Lucy Goodman <goodows AT infinet.com>
  • To: lists AT rhomestead.com, Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] winter salad
  • Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 08:18:47 -0500





Questions:

I didn't’t plant these until mid-October (at that point they were in plugs but still less than 2 inches tall – they surprised me the way they grew). If I had planted sooner the plants would be larger, but would they withstand the cold as well when larger? Of course, I could have been harvesting the larger outer leaves so maybe they wouldn’t actually be larger.

When we do winter greens we plant weekly mid September through mid November. And harvest October through December and some years all 12 months. But generally Jan and Feb are months with almost zero production

I have empty space in my hoophouse. When can I start seeding or transplanting spinach, arugula, mizuna, kale, and the lettuces?

Mizuna, arugula and other mustards bolt when exposed to temps below freezing for more than a few hours. They are not the best candidates for winter greens harvest unless you really over plant and do a lot of successions so you always have some small ones (under 2") ready to go
Remember that growth slows way down so you will not have much/any to cut come January and much of February

You can start seeding things whenever your soil temps are above 40˚F in your hoophouse. But if that is the case now know that low light conditions will keep growth slow so nothing planted now will be ready to harvest until March/April


As far as kale, I have never been a fan of kale in my salad so I don't
grow kale for baby harvest but rather for big leaves. I plant kale in May or June and in the late fall put a hoophouse over top and it will keep on producing all winter, no problem and will even be harvestable through the dark months on a limited basis. i have started kale in August for winter harvest but found those plants got decimated by worms and heat and that the spring planted kale always did a lot better in the end so now I make it easy on myself and plant the kale once and use that one planting for 10 months+.

Lucy Goodman
Eaton, OH
http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/boulderbeltcsa





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