Production of Late Fall, Winter and Early Spring

Vegetable Crops ©Pam Dawling 2014, Twin Oaks

Community, Virginia Author of Sustainable Market Farming

Published by New Society Publishers

SustainableMarketFarming.com

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What’s in This Presentation

A. Suitable crops for the seasons of late fall, winter, early spring

B. Scheduling for a continuous and timely supply

C. Scheduling specific crops

D. Techniques to mitigate the challenges of each season

E. Lots of Resources

Suitable crops for the seasons: So many possibilities!

Late Fall Crops:

beets, carrots, spinach, peas? Romaine lettuce, kale, collards, chard, turnips, salad mix, radishes, Asian greens, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, scallions, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes.

Winter crops:

beets, carrots, spinach, kale, collards, chard, Romaine lettuce, salad mix, Asian greens, salad turnips, cabbage, radishes, garlic.

Early Spring Crops:

beets, carrots, spinach, peas, Romaine lettuce, kale, chard, collards, salad mix, salad turnips, Asian greens, radishes, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, scallions, garlic scallions.

Fall/spring crops Some crops grow in spring and again in the fall - beets, carrots, chard, spinach, peas, lettuce, turnips, rutabagas, kale, collards, Asian greens, radishes, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, scallions.

With fall crops, even a difference of 2 days in sowing dates can make a difference of 2-3 weeks in harvest date, because plants grow slower as days get shorter and cooler.

Carrots

• Carrots prefer soil temperatures of 45°F–85°F (7°C–29°C),

• They germinate in 6 days at 80°F (27°C), their optimum.

• Keep the soil surface damp until they come through.

• We flame the beds the day before the carrots are due to emerge (using “indicator beets”, which emerge the day before the carrots).

• We hoe between the rows as soon as we can see to do so.

• We weed and thin to 1” once the carrots are 1” tall. We use flags to mark our progress.

• Once the carrots are salad size, we weed again and thin to 3”

Photo credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Beets

• Beets prefer soil temperatures of 50°F–85°F (10°C–29°C)

• Only 3.5 days to emerge at 86°F (30°C), but 14.6 days at 50°F (10°C).

• If you can maintain a soil temperature below 86°F in late summer, you only have to do it for a few days. Look for a forecast cooler spell or generous rainfall.

• Hand-sowing pre-sprouted seed is an option if the season is relentlessly hot.

• Sow 1/2″-1″ deep, tamp the soil, and keep the surface damp with daily watering until they emerge.

• If you want to flame-weed, use radishes as an indicator – they germinate 1-2 days faster than beets.

Crosby Egyptian Beet. Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Spinach and chard • Spinach is a challenging crop to start in hot weather! • Optimum germination temperature 70°F (21°C) Max

85°F (29°C). Wait for soil temperature to drop (dead nettle, chickweed, henbit germinating).

• For earlier planting, pre-sprout seeds one week. We sow sprouted spinach 9/1 or so.

• Swiss chard germinates best at 85°F (29°C), so consider that as a substitute for a first sowing if the fall is impossibly hot.

Tyee spinach. Credit Kathryn Simmons

Peas

• can make a good fall crop if started early enough to mature before frosts.

• 85°F (29°C) is optimum • 95°F (35°C) maximum. • Peas are easy to pre-

sprout. • Mature pea plants are

more easily killed by frost than seedlings.

Sugar Daddy Snap pea, credit Hildegard Ott

Kale, collards, broccoli, and cabbage in fall

Direct sowing, in drills or in “stations” (groups of several seeds sown at the final crop spacing), is possible, if you have good irrigation.

If you use flats, it can help to have them outside on benches, above the height of flea beetles.

We use an outdoor “nursery” seedbed and bare root transplants, because this suits us best. The nursery bed is near our daily work area, so we’ll pass by and water it. Having the seedlings directly in the soil “drought-proofs” them to some extent; they can form deep roots and don’t dry out so fast.

Cabbage plant. Credit Kathryn Simmons

Lettuce

Heat-tolerant varieties also tolerate cold.

There are also specialized cold-hardy varieties that do not tolerate heat (because they have a relatively low water content). Sow these in fall and winter only.

Protection from cold winds can be vital. Conserve soil warmth by using light-colored mulches - reduce radiation losses.

Rowcover will provide a temperature gain of 4–6 F degrees (2.2–3.3 C degrees), depending on the thickness. It also reduces light transmission and airflow, but the trade-off can be very worthwhile.

Lettuce may survive an occasional dip to 10°F (–12°C) with good rowcover — but not 8°F (–13°C), I can tell you!

Adolescent lettuce are more cold-hardy than full-sized plants.

Lettuce varieties for fall and winter

Particularly cold-hardy for outdoors: Brune d’Hiver, Cocarde, Esmeralda, Galactic, Green Forest, Hyper Red Wave, Kalura, Lollo Rossa, North Pole, Outredgeous, Rossimo, Rouge d’Hiver, Sunfire, Tango, Vulcan and Winter Marvel. The Salad Bowls are not so good outdoors in cold weather but do well under cover. Icebergs do not survive frost. Rouge d’Hiver Lettuce, Credit SESE

Asian Greens • A quick way to fill out your

market booth or CSA bags • A catch crop for spaces where

other crops have failed or otherwise finished early.

• Keep a flat of seedlings ready, pop plugs into empty spaces as they occur.

• Better able to germinate in hot weather than lettuce.

• Faster growing than lettuce • Some of the faster-growing

types are ready for transplanting 2 weeks after sowing (or you can direct sow them)

Cold-hardy Asian Greens Tatsoi/tah tsoi - a small, flat rosette of shiny, dark green spoon-shaped leaves and white stems. Mild flavor, attractive appearance, easy to grow. Tatsoi is extremely cold tolerant, hardy to 22°F (–6°C). We usually direct sow this and then thin into salad mixes, leaving some to mature at 10" (25 cm) across for cooking greens. We also transplant at 6" (15 cm) if that suits our space better. Kitazawa Seeds have a Red Violet tatsoi, with an upright habit. Tatsoi takes 21 days to become baby salads; 45 days to reach cooking size;

Yukina Savoy - like a bigger tatsoi, with blistered dark green leaves, greener stems and delicious flavor, about 12“ (30 cm) tall. It is both heat and cold tolerant. We transplant this at 12" (30 cm). It needs 21 days to reach baby size, 45 days to full size; Tatsoi, Yukina Savoy, Credit Ethan Hirsh

In spring the order of bolting of Asian greens is: tatsoi, pak choy, Komatsuna, mizuna, leaf radish, mustards.

More Cold-hardy Asian Greens Komatsuna - also known as mustard spinach and Summer Fest. Green or red, a large cold-tolerant plant 18" (45 cm) tall. Individual leaves can be picked and bunched, or the whole plant can be harvested. The flavor is much milder than the English name suggests. Baby salad size in 21 days, full size in 35 days; Senposai is quite heat and cold tolerant, a big plant with large, round, mid-green leaves. Usually harvested leaf-by-leaf. It can be very productive. Transplant it at 12"–18" (30–45 cm) spacing. Cooks quickly (much quicker than collards), and has a delicious sweet cabbagey flavor and tender texture. It is a cross between komatsuna and regular cabbage. It takes only 40 days to mature. Senposai. Photo Ethan Hirsh

Senposai in November – the young hoophouse crop is almost ready to take over from the well-used outdoor crop.

Yukina Savoy Outdoors in December After several nights at 16-17°F (-8 to -9°C)

Turnips and rutabagas Rutabagas can be stored in the ground (unlike turnips, except in warm climates). Mulch over them with loose straw once the temperatures descend near 20°F (–7°C). Turnips do very well in the winter hoophouse. We sow our first ones Oct 15 (around our first frost date) for harvest from Dec 4. We like Red Round and Hakurei and have tried out Oasis and White Egg to find a cheaper replacement for Hakurei (Oasis is the closest). We also grow Purple Top White Globe outdoors in spring and fall. White Egg turnip. Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Winter-Kill Temperatures of Winter-Hardy Vegetables

See the handout, or my book, Sustainable Market Farming or my slideshow. Cold-hardy Winter Vegetables on

www.Slideshare.net. Search for Pam Dawling.

The table has some starting numbers of killing temperatures, although your own experience with your soils, microclimates and rain levels may lead you to use different temperatures. It is very much a work in progress. I update it each spring. Contact me if you have some data to share.

Favorite hardy winter-harvest crops

For crops to harvest all winter long, use the tables to look for crops that will survive your lowest temperatures, taking any crop protection into account. Look for the hardier cultivars available. At our Zone 7 farm, we overwinter Vates kale without rowcover, but we’ve killed off Winterbor and Russian kales that way, while we were learning. If you can add some wind protection, do so. We grow our winter-harvest crops in our raised bed area, which is more accessible in winter and more suited to small quantities. We grow about 2800 row feet of overwinter kale for 100 people, and plant another 1000 feet in the spring. We grow similar amounts of spinach. We use double hoops and rowcovers and pick spinach throughout the winter, whenever leaves are big enough. We pick one bed each day in October, November, February and March, when the weather is not too awful. Spinach makes some growth whenever the temperature is above about 40°F (5°C), so we can also make occasional harvests in December and January.

Vates kale Credit Kathryn Simmons

More cold-hardy winter-harvest crops As well as kale and spinach, collards, leeks and parsnips also survive outdoors without rowcover at our farm (Zone 7). We grow only a few hundred feet of collards. When spring arrives, overwintered plants give us big harvests sooner than the new spring-sown crops. Leeks and parsnips are slow growing, start them in spring. Lettuce can be grown outdoors with thick rowcover on hoops. We have also sometimes overwintered Danvers carrots and Deadon cabbage.

Overwintered Vates kale

Other hardy winter-harvest crops • Small greens such as arugula, parsley, Belle Isle upland cress, winter

purslane, salad burnet and mache (corn salad) are very winter-hardy.

• More unusual crops like horseradish, Jerusalem artichokes, salsify, and some endive are hardy.

• Walla Walla bulb onions and Evergreen Winter Hardy White or White Lisbon onion scallions are surprisingly hardy.

• Swiss chard is hardy to 15°F (–10°C) without rowcover. To keep chard in best condition overwinter, either cover with hoops and rowcover (in mild areas, Zone 6 or warmer), or else cut off the leaves in early winter and mulch heavily right over the top of the plant. It germinates best at 85°F (29°C), useful as a substitute if the fall is too hot to sow spinach.

Bright Lights chard. Credit Wren Vile

Winter hoophouse crop overview • Salad crops, cooking greens and

some turnips, radishes and scallions.

• Bare root transplants for setting outdoors in February and March.

• In our climate, we can grow spinach, kale, collards and leeks outside all winter, but the rate of growth doesn’t compare to what happens in the hoophouse!

• We aim to harvest greens in the hoophouse after the outdoor crops slow down, and turnips after the stored outdoor fall turnips have all been eaten, or as an occasional delectable alternative.

Overwinter early spring-harvest crops

Some crops, if kept alive through the winter, will start to grow again with the least hint of spring weather and be harvestable earlier than spring plantings.

• Spinach, lettuce, chicories such as radicchio and Sugarloaf, fennel and cilantro seem to have the best cold tolerance when the plants go into winter half-grown.

• Kale, collards, some cabbage, some Asian greens - Green in Snow mustard (Shi-Li-Hon) is the hardiest Asian green.

• Garlic scallions, some onion scallions, chives,

• Carrots, chard

• Purple sprouting broccoli (popular in the UK).

• Garlic and potato onions are routinely grown over the winter for late spring/early summer harvest.

• In mild winter areas, peas can be fall sown for a spring crop. Sow 1" (2.5 cm) apart to allow for extra losses.

Early spring sowings and plantings

Many of the hardy crops planted in the fall can be started very early in spring: beets, carrots, chard, spinach, peas, lettuce, turnips, rutabagas, kale, collards, Asian greens, radishes, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, scallions. Michihili Chinese cabbage. Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Section B. Scheduling for a continuous and timely supply:

At Twin Oaks, to keep us on track, we use A descriptive month-by-month Garden Calendar,

on my blog www.sustainablemarketfarming.com at the beginning of each month since July 2012.

Maps of the layout of the crops in the various gardens

A Field Planting Schedule A Seedling Schedule for our greenhouse

production of transplants. A Hoophouse Planting Schedule A pocket notebook

Crop Spacing Decide on crop spacing before length of rows needed. Yield is related to plant density. Area per plant is the important bit, not

particular row spacing. At the balance point at which the density

provides the maximum total yield, some plants will be too small to use. That’s taken into account when calculating yield.

Crop size (do customers want big carrots or small carrots?)

Disease control (humidity and molds) Preferred layout (beds with equidistant

plants, or rows). Ease of cultivation (tractor equipment,

hoes, horses) and irrigation For large plants such as okra or eggplant, it

makes more sense to plant a single row in a bed and have the plants close together in that row, in a “hedge.”

Photo of Morris Heading Collards by Kathryn Simmons

How Much to Grow to Achieve Your Harvest Goals

Take likely yields and add a margin for culls and failures (10%?). (See Resources section for help on yields.) The table I provide in Sustainable Market Farming lists 48 crops, with likely yield, quantity required for 100 CSA shares, and length of row needed to grow this amount.

Harvest Dates Sowing Dates

Use your planned harvest dates to determine your sowing dates: Find the number of days to maturity (from the catalog). Is that from seeding to harvest or transplant to harvest? Work back from each target harvest date, subtracting

days to maturity, to give the planting date. Days to maturity in catalogs are generally for spring

planting once conditions have warmed to the usual range for that crop. ‒ If you are starting very early, add about 14 days - seedlings

grow slower when cold. ‒ In summer crops mature sooner than in spring. ‒ When growing late into the fall, add about 14 days for the

slowdown.

Days to Maturity • “Days to Maturity” usually means “Days to First Harvest” which

may not be the same as “Days to Full Harvest”. • With carrots it doesn’t matter exactly what size they are, but an

unripe eggplant is just no good. • With CSAs, you can distribute eggplant to some sharers one week,

and others the next, although keeping track involves more work. • If it’s important to have a plentiful harvest when you do start, add

another 7-14 days. Carrot photo Kathryn Simmons

When to sow for transplants If the crop is to be transplanted and the catalog doesn’t include the

time to grow the transplant, add that. See Sustainable Market Farming. Use your own experience or the catalog information, or somewhere in

between. In future years you will have your own records to customize your calculations.

Extract the dates to sow for transplants, and make your Seedlings Schedule.

Seedlings in Twin Oaks Greenhouse Photo Kathryn Simmons

Seedlings Schedule

• Pepper transplants. Photo Kathryn Simmons

Field Planting Schedule Draw up your list of outdoor planting dates, along with varieties, row feet, spacing, notes and space to write down what you actually do.

Example calculation: Early White Vienna Kohlrabi

58 days from sowing to harvest.

Kohlrabi is hardy to maybe 15°F (–9.4°C). When is the temperature likely to drop to 15°F (–9.4°C)? Not before the beginning of November here.

We could sow kohlrabi in early August and get a crop at the end of October.

Credit McCune Porter

Succession planting for continuous harvests

Many vegetable crops can be planted several times during the season, to provide a continuous supply. Don’t stop too soon!

Typically, plants mature faster in warmer weather.

So, to get harvests starting at regular intervals, vary the interval between one sowing date and the next according to the season.

Keep records and use information from other growers in your area to fine-tune planting dates.

Tatsoi. Photo credit: Ethan Hirsh.

Veg Finder: Making a good-fit plan

Example: Squash

#3 WEST Plot J

Plant 6/23 120’

Planted…..

Harvesting…..

Finished…..

(Date of last worthwhile harvest of that sowing)

Collect these three pieces of information for each sowing of each crop

BEANS CUKES SQUASH CORN CARROTS EDAMAME #1 29W, 29E

Plant 4/16 180' dbl

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#1 BED 13W

Plant 4/20 90'

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#1 BED 23W

Plant 4/20 90'

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#1 EAST Plot G 4x265’

Plant 4/26+4/29 1060' Bod

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#1 BED 9E

Plant 2/14 Danvers

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#1 BED 21W

Plant 4/26 90’

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#2 EAST Plot G

Plant 5/14 176’ dbl

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#2 EAST Plot I

Plant 5/24 180’

slice 90' + pickle 90'

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#2 EAST Plot I

Plant 5/24 88’

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#2 EAST Plot G 4x265'

Plant 5/21 1060' Bod/KK/SQ

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#2 BED 25E

Plant 2/28 Danvers

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#2 EAST Plot G No-soak

Plant 5/18 88’ dbl

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#3 WEST Plot J

Plant 6/7 240’ dbl

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#3 WEST Plot J

Plant 6/23 120’

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#3 WEST Plot J

Plant 6/23 120’

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#3 WEST Plot A north 4 x 180'

6/6 1080' Sug Pearl /KK/SQ

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#3 BED 12W

Plant 3/13 Danvers

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#3 EAST Plot I

Plant 6/7 60’ dbl

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#4 EAST Plot K

Plant 6/29 175' dbl

(5x35’)

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#4 CENT Plot D

Plant 7/15 240'

slice 120' +pickle 120'

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#4 EAST Plot K

Plant 7/15 105’

(3x35’)

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#4 WEST Plot A 6 x 180'

6/19 1080' Bod/KK/SQ

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#4 BED 12E

Plant 3/27 Danvers

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#4 CENTRAL Plot D

Plant 6/26 60’ dbl

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#5 25E 22W

Plant 7/19 180’ dbl

(2x90’)

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#5 BED 15E

Plant 8/5 90' slicers

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#5 BED 13E

Plant 8/5 90’

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#5 WEST Plot A 6 x 180'

Plant 7/2 1080' Bod/KK/SQ

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#5 BED 19W

Plant 4/10 Danvers

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#5 EAST Plot K

Plant 7/14. 70’ (2x35’)dbl

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#6 BEDS 9W, 9E

Plant 8/3 180’ dbl

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#6 CENTRAL Plot D 7 x 200'

Plant 7/16 1400' Bod/KK/SQ

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#6 BED 17W

Plant 5/14 Danvers

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#8 BED 1 CARROTS#8 BED 30W

Only if needed

Plant 7/8 Danvers

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#7 Not this year, perhaps never

again

#7 BED 27E

Only if needed

Plant 6/11 Danvers

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

#8 BED CARROTS #9

Overwinter Raised Beds

Plant 7/28 Danvers

Planted

Harvesting

Finished

Gather sowing and harvest start dates and draw graphs Using your data, plot a graph for

each crop, with sowing date along the horizontal (x) axis and harvest start date along the vertical (y) axis.

Mark the first possible sowing date and find the harvest start date for that.

Decide the last worthwhile harvest start date, mark that.

Then divide the period into a whole number of segments, according to how often you want a new patch.

Cherry Belle radishes. Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Winter hoophouse radish succession cropping graph

A work-in-progress!

Scheduling specific crops

• See the Grower Guides and Planting Charts

• We’ll look at the top priority crops in detail.

• We’ll be working on these after the slideshow

Scheduling lettuce in summer, fall, winter

The short version: sow heat-resistant varieties (which are also cold-resistant)

• every 6-7 days in June and July,

• every 5 days in early August;

• switch to cold-hardy varieties, sow every 3 days in late August.

• every other day until Sept 21.

• every 3 days until the end of September (for harvests through the winter).

• Sow twice in January,

• twice in February. Cold-hardy (not heat-tolerant) Tango lettuce. Kathryn Simmons

Cherokee Lettuce

Credit Johnnys Seeds

Scheduling beets • For fall fresh eating and winter storage crops, we sow beets on

8/1 or soon after, dry or soaked for 1-2 hours in a little water. (Don’t soak too long, or in a lot of water – beet seeds are easy to drown.) We usually sow pre-soaked by hand. Sometimes dry with the EarthWay chard plate 2 passes. We have 8/20 written down as the last date, but I think we have done them later. These are harvested 9/20- 11/15. The final harvest is stored in the walk-in cooler in perforated plastic bags, for winter.

• For early spring eating, Gary Scott sows plugs in mid Oct, transplants them in the hoophouse and harvests from mid-March. Ace in 72 plug trays. He also did a new variety from Johnny's called "Babybeat“, seeded in February, harvested late April.

• For spring crops outside, Gary trans- plants early beets in early April. We start our outdoor sowings on 3/15. Gary direct seeds later spring crops with an Earthway seeder late April.

Photo Detroit Dark Red Beet. Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Scheduling carrots • We sow a large planting of fall

carrots very early in August, enough to store and feed us all winter. Danvers 126 is our standard.

• In November we harvest all of the carrots and store in perforated plastic bags in the walk-in cooler.

• In spring we start sowing carrots outdoors as soon as we can, aiming for February 14.

Danvers Half-long carrots. Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Scheduling fall outdoor brassicas

We start sowing our fall brassicas for outdoor planting around June 26 and repeat a week later for insurance (July 3).

Last date for sowing these crops is about 3 months before the first fall frost date. In our case that means July 14–20.

Brassica transplanting We aim to transplant leafy brassicas

at four true leaves (three to four weeks after sowing). We transplant outdoors from July 10 to July 31.

The faster growing Asian greens - Napa cabbage, Tokyo Bekana and Maruba Santoh - are ready to transplant 2 weeks after sowing.

In hot weather transplant crops at a younger age than you would in spring, because larger plants can wilt from high transpiration losses.

If we find ourselves transplanting older plants, we remove a couple of the older leaves to reduce these losses.

Morris Heading Collards. Credit Kathryn Simmons

Kale: direct sown/transplanted mix

Our mixed direct-sow/transplant method allows for patchy germination, and requires less watering than if direct sowing it all.

Three times, (8/4, 8/10, 8/16), we sow two beds with rows 10" (25 cm) apart and then carefully thin them, leaving one plant every foot (30 cm)

We use the carefully dug thinnings from those beds to fill gaps and to plant other beds, at the same plant spacing.

Another reason we use this system is that we want a lot of kale, and there isn’t time to transplant it all.

Vates kale. Credit Kathryn Simmons

Scheduling outdoor overwinter early spring-harvest crops We sow one or two beds of spinach in late September, overwinter them as adolescents and harvest in the spring. These plants bolt later than the ones we harvest leaves from all winter, and earlier than spring-sown beds, so we get a continuous supply.

Fall sowing dates are quite exacting: Sept 20 is the latest we can sow spinach for harvesting October–early April, and Sept 20–30 sowings will not get big enough to harvest until late February.

With alliums, such as bulb onions, multiplier onions and garlic, the harvest dates are regulated by day length, so the harvest cannot be earlier, but the bulbs will be bigger if you can overwinter the small plants.

Garlic scallions are a great early spring crop – easy, flavorful, unusual.

Brassicas in the Hoophouse

Brassicas are the most productive crops in these conditions

Night-time protection of two layers of plastic and an air gap – big difference!

Using an outdoor nursery bed gives us cooler conditions for better seed germination, and allows our summer hoophouse crops longer to finish up.

Photo credit Wren Vile

Fall outdoor sowings to transplant inside

• Sept 15: about ten varieties of hardy leaf lettuce and romaines, pak choy, Chinese cabbage, Yukina Savoy, Tokyo Bekana, Maruba Santoh, chard.

• Sept 24: Red and White Russian kales, another ten varieties of lettuce, Senposai, more Yukina Savoy, mizuna and arugula.

• We use hoops and ProtekNet, and water frequently.

Senposai. Credit Kathryn Simmons

Fall Hoophouse Planting - September Early September : We clear and add

compost to one of the beds and sow sprouted spinach seed, radishes, scallions, Bulls Blood beet greens and tatsoi.

Sept 15 and Sept 24: We make outdoor sowings of crops to later transplant into the hoophouse at 2–4 weeks old.

At the end of September we clear summer crops from one more bed, add compost and work it in. We transplant Tokyo Bekana and Maruba Santoh at 2 weeks old, Chinese cabbage, pak choy and Yukina Savoy at 3 weeks.

Photo November hoophouse beds. Ethan Hirsh

Fall Hoophouse Planting - October By mid-October we clear and

prepare another bed and transplant lettuce at 10" (25 cm) apart, and chard.

Oct 15 we sow our first turnips. Late October we sow more

“filler” greens, baby lettuce mix, our second spinach, turnips and chard, and more radishes.

In the fourth week of October, we clear and prepare more beds and transplant the Senposai, mizuna, the 2nd lettuce, kale, arugula and Yukina Savoy at 4 weeks old.

Mizuna Photo credit Ethan Hirsh

Early October, we sow more radishes and some “filler” greens, (spinach, lettuce and Asian greens) to fill gaps later. We try hard to keep all the space occupied, mostly using lettuce and spinach.

Hoophouse Planting – November and December

Nov 10 we sow more turnips, mizuna and arugula, more filler lettuce and spinach, and our first bulb onions for field transplanting as early as possible in the new year.

Nov 11-20 we sow scallions, tatsoi, radishes, more bulb onion starts.

From Nov 10 on we aim to keep a fully planted hoophouse, and as each crop harvest winds down, we immediately replace that crop with another.

During December we use the “Filler” greens plants to replace casualties and heads of Chinese cabbage, Pak choy, Yukina Savoy each day as soon as we’ve harvested them. Pak Choy replacing Yukina Savoy here. Credit Ethan Hirsh

Hoophouse Planting – January and February

In mid-January, we clear the first tatsoi and Tokyo Bekana, sow more spinach

In late January, we clear the first mizuna and pak choy, sow radishes; clear Yukina savoy #1, sow lettuce mix, arugula.

We stop filling gaps with Asian greens and lettuces on Jan 25, and fill all gaps after that with spinach transplants, until Feb 20. After that we only fill gaps on edges of beds, leave centers free for tomatoes, etc.

In mid-Feb we sow more lettuce mix. After Feb 20, we harvest the winter crops from

the center rows, then harvest the outer rows bit by bit as the new early summer crop needs the space or the light. This overlap allows the new crops to take over gradually.

Our winter and spring crops come to an end in March or early April

“Filler” transplants. Credit Ethan Hirsh

Persephone days and scheduling winter hoophouse crops

• When the daylight is shorter than 10 hours a day not much growth happens. It depends on your latitude.

• In Central Virginia, latitude 38° North, this period lasts two months, from November 21 to January 21. Soil temperature also matters. December 15-February 15 is the slowest growing time for us.

• To harvest in the darkest days of winter you’ll need to plan a good supply of mature crops to take you through. What has already grown before this period will provide most of your harvests.

• Be aware of the increase in days to maturity in winter. • For most of the winter, our hoophouse plants are actively growing,

not merely being stored for harvest (as happens in colder climate zones and outdoors), so we can continue sowing new hoophouse crops even in December.

Winter succession crops in the hoophouse

To maintain continuous supplies of salad and cooking greens, as well as radishes and small turnips, we plan several winter successions of hoophouse crops.

Section D. Mitigating seasonal challenges: Dealing with the challenges of hot weather

Choose appropriate crops and varieties. Read catalog descriptions carefully. Look for flavor, productivity, disease resistance and cold-hardiness.

Consider direct-seeding crops rather than transplants. They can be more cold-tolerant, probably because there’s no damage to the taproot.

Plant seeds deeper than you would in spring, as the soil is already warm and you don’t want seeds to dry out.

In dry conditions sow in sunken furrows.

Protection from pests

For nursery seedbeds we use rowcover or ProtekNet (from Purple Mountain Organics) on wire hoops. Overly thick rowcover or rowcover resting directly on the plants can make the seedlings more likely to die of fungal diseases in hot weather — good airflow is vital.

For transplanted crops, an 84" (2.1 m) width rowcover or mesh can form a tunnel over two crop rows 34” apart, giving good airflow. Photo credit Dubois Engineering

Sowing when soils are hot

1. Consult the tables in Nancy Bubel’s New Seed Starter’s Handbook or Knott’s Vegetable Grower’s Handbook, on the germination requirements for your crop, and the expected time to emergence under your field conditions – and use a soil thermometer.

2. If soil temperatures are too high for good germination, cool a small part of the outdoors:

– Shade from other plants, shadecloth, boards, burlap bags, ice.

– For crops you normally direct seed, consider cooling a small nursery bed for your seedlings and transplanting later.

3. If outdoors is impossible, start seeds indoors:

– Put a plastic flat of lettuce in your refrigerator or a cool room.

– Use plug flats or soil blocks rather than open flats, to reduce transplant shock.

Soaking seeds A help when temperatures are high and soils are dry.

The length of time to soak a seed depends on its size: bigger seeds benefit from a longer soak.

Soak large seeds like beans and peas overnight before planting.

Smaller seeds may only need to soak for 1-2 hours. I suspect that when I’ve had failures with soaked beet seeds it is because I soaked them for too long and they suffocated from a shortage of oxygen.

Small seeds that have been soaked tend to clump together - drain off as much water as possible, mix them with a dry material like uncooked corn grits, oatmeal or bran, or use coffee grounds or sand.

To use soaked or sprouted seeds in a seeder, spread them out in a tray for a while to dry the surfaces. Experiment on a small scale ahead of a big planting, to make sure your seeder doesn’t just turn the seeds to mush, or snap off any little sprouts.

Extending the season without overextending yourself!

• Carefully consider what you can do to extend the season without overworking yourself, your crew, or your soil.

• A longer harvest season helps you retain and satisfy customers.

• And can help provide year-round employment for your crew, which helps you retain skilled workers.

• If you decide to provide produce during the winter, you’ll find that the pace is naturally slower: few weeds germinate and established crops need less attention. It’s not a second hectic summer.

Tired but unbroken. Credit Bridget Aleshire

Pondering season extension Find the balance point at which the

time, money and energy you put in are still definitely worthwhile.

The further you try to extend the season of a crop beyond what is normal for your climate, the more energy it takes and the less financially worthwhile it becomes.

An extension of two or three weeks takes only a little extra vigilance and a modest investment in rowcover or shadecloth.

Much easier to get extra harvests for a month or two from mature plants you already have, than it is to get harvests a week earlier in the spring.

Credit Kathryn Simmons

Crop Protection - Rowcover Wonderful rowcover : lightweight, easy to use, easy to

store. Edges need to be held down by bags of rocks or sand, plastic jugs of water, or metal or wooden stakes lying along the edges.

To protect against frost, you need a heavyweight rowcover. Thinner types are for protection from insects. Dupont Xavan 5131 (previously called Typar). 1.25

oz/sq yd) fabric, can last for more than six years. Spunbonded polypropylene with UV stabilizers, 75% light transmission, and provides about 6 degrees F (3.3 degrees C) of frost protection.

We also use Agribon 17 (or 19), spun-bonded polypropylene 0.55 oz/sq yd, transmits 85% of sunlight, and offers 4°F (2.2°C) of frost protection for winter use.

We think polypropylene rowcover lasts longer and is tougher than polyester (Reemay).

Thinner rowcover can be used doubled up in severely cold weather, if you don’t have enough thick rowcover.

Photo credit Kathryn Simmons

Avoiding pitfalls of rowcover If you are growing on bare soil

rather than plastic mulch, weeds will grow very well, secretly and out of sight.

Rowcover reduces light levels. Ventilate covered crops in mild

weather, so they don’t lose their cold tolerance.

Hoops keep rowcover from sticking to frozen leaves and reduce abrasion. 9- or 10-gauge wire. In winter we use double wire hoops — the outer hoops trap the rowcover so it doesn’t blow away. The microclimate under hooped rowcovers is very pleasant in chilly, windy weather.

There are also spring steel hoops, for setting by machine or by hand. Easy to store - they return to a relaxed bow shape when removed from the soil, don’t get tangled. Seem to come in just one length, 64" (1.63 m), which is fine for a single row of plants, but less good for our 48" (1.2 m) beds with multiple rows.

Low tunnels There are two other versions of low tunnels:

Quickhoops cover more than one bed, and can be covered with rowcover topped by greenhouse plastic for the winter. Once plants are established, if they can withstand cold nights, they may benefit more from clear plastic instead of rowcover over hoops. The plastic will let more daylight through, while still increasing the temperature and protecting from the wind. These covers may have slits to allow the plastic to curl open as it heats up, letting the hot air escape. If your plastic-covered tunnels are unvented, you will need to provide the ventilation yourself.

Photo credit Johnnys Seeds

Caterpillar tunnels Caterpillar hoops are similar (usually narrower, sometimes taller).

They have the plastic or rowcover

held down by ropes. Photo Credit Growing for Market

Hoophouses for winter crops We are amazed at how incredibly productive hoophouses are. • Rate of growth of cold-weather crops is much faster inside • Crop quality, especially leafy greens, is superb. • Plants can tolerate lower temperatures than outdoors; they

have the pleasant daytime conditions in which to recover. Salad greens in a hoophouse can survive nights with outdoor lows of 14°F (–10°C).

• Working in winter inside a hoophouse is much more pleasant than dealing with frozen rowcovers and hoops outdoors.

• Greenhouses and coldframes also offer opportunities for cold-weather cropping, but get a hoophouse if you can.

Daily hoophouse tasks in winter • Two hours work each day in winter in our 96’ x 30’ tunnel.

• Keep the temperature in the 65°F–80°F (18°C–27°C) range during the day, opening the big high windows, and the doors as needed. If the sun is shining we usually open the windows around 9 am and close them around 2:30 pm (a few hours before dark) to store some of the warmth.

• Even in cold weather, plants need fresh air! High-density cropping can really use up the carbon dioxide in a closed hoophouse very quickly. When this happens, photosynthesis crashes and plant growth becomes limited. Soil high in organic matter contains high levels of organisms that produce carbon dioxide. Dense plant canopies can trap this near soil level, where it is most useful.

• Our main task each day is harvesting. In the winter of 2009–2010, we had frozen soil or snow on the ground outside for a month (very unusual for us). Despite this we were able to keep a hundred people in fresh salad and cooking greens (with turnips and scallions for variety) for the whole month.

• Aside from harvesting, jobs include planting new crops, clearing old ones, spreading compost, hoeing, hand weeding and supplying water as needed.

• We have drip irrigation. In the middle of winter, not much water is needed, and we try to only water when a relatively mild night is forecast.

Nitrate accumulation

• During periods of short daylight length, there is a health risk associated with nitrate accumulation in leafy greens. Nitrates are converted in the body into toxic nitrites, which reduce the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen. Also, nitrites can form carcinogenic nitrosamines.

• Plants make nitrates during the night, and convert them into leaf material during the day. It takes about six hours of sunlight to use up a night’s worth of nitrates. In winter, a small handful of leafy vegetables can exceed the acceptable daily intake level of nitrate for an adult, unless special efforts have been made to reduce the levels.

• Spinach, mustard greens and collards contain about twice as much as lettuce; radishes, kale, and beets often have two and a half times as much. Turnip greens are especially high, at 3 times lettuce levels.

To keep nitrate levels as low as possible: Grow varieties best suited for winter; Avoid fertilizing with blood meal or feather meal; use organic

compost. Ensure soil has sufficient P, K, Mg and Mo Water enough but not excessively; Provide fresh air as soon as temperatures reach 68°F (20°C), so that

carbon dioxide levels are high enough; Harvest after at least four (preferably six) hours of bright sunlight in

winter; Avoid harvesting on very overcast days; Avoid over-mature crops and discard the outer leaves. Harvest

crops a little under-mature, rather than over-mature; Refrigerate immediately after harvest, store harvested greens at

temperatures close to freezing; Use crops soon after harvest; Mix your salads; don’t just eat spinach.

Resources - General ATTRA attra.ncat.org

Market Farming: A Start-up Guide,

Scheduling Vegetable Plantings for a Continuous Harvest

Season Extension Techniques for Market Farmers

Intercropping Principles and Production Practices

Plugs and Transplant Production for Organic Systems

SARE at sare.org -A searchable database of research findings SARE’s Season Extension Topic Room

SARE Crop Rotations on Organic Farms, A Planning Manual, Charles Mohler and Sue Ellen Johnson, editors.

extension.org/organic_production The organic agriculture community with eXtension. Publications, webinars, videos, trainings and support. An expanding, accessible source of reliable information.

Growing Small Farms: growingsmallfarms.ces.ncsu.edu/ Farmer Resources, Farm Planning and Recordkeeping to download Joel Gruver’s spreadsheets.

Washington State University Extension, Storing Vegetables and Fruits at Home pubs.wsu.edu/ListItems.aspx?Keyword=EB1326E

USDA Agriculture Handbook 66 ba.ars.usda.gov/hb66/contents.html

Virginia Co-operative Extension Service Fall Planting Guide pubs.ext.vt.edu/426/426-334/426-334.html

Resources - Planning The Twin Oaks Harvest Calendar by Starting Date and by Crop are available as

pdfs on my website sustainablemarketfarming.com/2013/11/07/growing-for-market-articles-2/

AgSquared online planning software: agsquared.com

COG-Pro record-keeping software for Certified Organic Farms: cog-pro.com

Free open-source database crop planning software code.google.com/p/cropplanning.

Mother Earth News interactive Vegetable Garden Planner, free for 30 days: motherearthnews.com/garden-planner.

Target Harvest Date Calculator: (Excel spreadsheet) johnnyseeds.com/t-InteractiveTools.aspx

Tables of likely crop yields: johnnyseeds.com/assets/information/vegetablecharts.pdf.

Mark Cain www.drippingspringsgarden.com under the CSA tab, you can download their Harvest Schedule. Notebook-based system.

Clif Slade’s 43560 Project: VABF newsletter vabf.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/clif-slade-43560-demo-project.pdf.

Resources – Detailed Planning Determining Prices for CSA Share Boxes Iowa State U

extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/pdf/c5-19.pdf

New England Vegetable Management Guide Crop Budgets http://nevegetable.org/cultural-practices/crop-budgets

USDA annual vegetable consumption www.usda.gov/factbook/chapter2.pdf

John Jeavons How to Grow More Vegetables charts: Pounds Consumed per Year by the Average Person in the US; Average US Yield in Pounds per 100 Square Feet.

The Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at the UC Santa Cruz Crop Plan for a Hundred-Member CSA, for a range of 36 crops in its Unit 4.5 CSA Crop Planning: casfs.ucsc.edu/education/instructional-resources/downloadable-pdf-files2 or directly at 63.249.122.224/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/4.5_CSA_crop_plan.pdf

Jean-Paul Courtens , Roxbury Farm www.roxburyfarm.com. Information for Farmers tab, 100 Member CSA Plan, including a Weekly Share Plan, Greenhouse Schedule, and Field Planting and Seeding Schedule (with charts of possible crop yields). Courtens is also willing to send you their 1,100-member schedule.

gardensofeden.org/04%20Crop%20Yield%20Verification.htm two yield charts, one of organic crops from The Owner-Built Homestead by Ken & Barbara Kern, one from California.

Resources - slideshows Many of my presentations are available at www.Slideshare.net. Search for Pam Dawling.

Crop Rotations

Cold-hardy Winter Vegetables

Crop Planning for Sustainable Vegetable Production

Fall Vegetable Production

Feed the Soil

Growing Great Garlic

Intensive Vegetable Production on a Small Scale

Producing Asian Greens

Soon, Production of Late Fall, Winter and Early Spring Vegetable Crops

Succession Planting for Continuous Vegetable Harvests

Sustainable Farming Practices.

Mark Cain: Planning for Your CSA: www.Slideshare.net (search for Crop Planning)

Daniel Parson: Planning the Planting of Cover Crops and Cash Crops, www.Slideshare.net

Joel B Gruver: Cover Crop Innovation www.Slideshare.net

Tom Peterson: Farm Planning for a Full Market Season Appalachian Farmers Market Association and Appalachian Sustainable Development http://vabf.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/tom-peterson-farm-planning-for-a-full-market-season.pdf

Brad Burgefurd: Cultural Practices And Cultivar Selections for Commercial Vegetable Growers. www.slideshare.net/guest6e1a8d60/vegetable-cultural-practices-and-variety-selection

Resources - books The Complete Know and Grow Vegetables, J K A Bleasdale, P J Salter et al.

Knott’s Handbook for Vegetable Growers, Maynard and Hochmuth

The New Seed Starter’s Handbook, Nancy Bubel, Rodale Books

The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook, Richard Wiswall, Chelsea Green

Sustainable Vegetable Production from Start-up to Market, Vern Grubinger,

The New Organic Grower, Eliot Coleman, Chelsea Green

Extending the Season: Six Strategies for Improving Cash Flow Year-Round on the Market Farm a free e-book for online subscribers to Growing for Market magazine

Sharing the Harvest, Elizabeth Henderson and Robyn Van En

Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook, Richard Wiswall

Gardening When it Counts, Steve Solomon

Grow a Sustainable Diet: Planning and Growing to Feed Ourselves and the Earth, Cindy Conner, New Society Publishers, (worksheet based). DVD/CD set Develop a Sustainable Vegetable Garden Plan

Crop Planning for Organic Vegetable Growers, Daniel Brisebois and Frédéric Thériault (Canadian Organic Growers www.cog.ca) Includes Excel spreadsheets or pdfs which can be downloaded blank.

Production of Late Fall, Winter and Early Spring

Vegetable Crops ©Pam Dawling 2014, Twin Oaks

Community, Virginia Author of Sustainable Market Farming

Published by New Society Publishers

SustainableMarketFarming.com

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