Harvesting Winter Lettuce, Spinach & Herbs | Grown at Home Series

[@dustyflats3832]

This is exciting to have fresh vegetables in winter! I see you are in IA, Z5b. What weight frost fabric and how many layers? We dug carrots before the 3rd week of January when we had subzero and left a row under mulch and snow to see how they do after subzero. Z5a, WI. Last year we had a warm winter with rain in January. This year it was 36 at Halloween and increased to 52 by Christmas and rain. January was 30s, one week below zero, the last week heated up again into now February and 50s by February 8th this week with rain. Then hopefully back to 30s which will still be above normal because I’m concerned the plants/fruit outside will break dormancy. I checked the buds on apples and seen one that looked like it was increasing. It’s concerning because last year everything advanced too far and couldn’t take the unwarned freeze we had on last of May. It killed back a lot and local winery lost 95% of grapes. I thought it was just my low garden, but they are on a bluff. There was recent news coverage about how to protect flowers in this heat-🙄 should have been how to protect fruiting plants. Those people have their priorities mixed up, but when they can’t get their fruit at the market, they need not wonder why. I think I will need to wrap burlap on the grapes, berries and maybe trees (dwarf) in hopes to keep them cooler/shaded to prevent early growth like last year. It’s a new way of gardening that hasn’t been addressed too much. You had a nice crop and I will be installing a low tunnel to extend pepper production into the fall and use it for greens later. The peppers always start producing late and it freezes. Why couldn’t the cold arrive in December not October? This weather is sure messed up. I’m glad we had some snow as this El Niño weather left us in a 7+” moisture deficit.

[@iowa.veg.pro.support]

This tunnel is covered with greenhouse plastic, there isn't any frost fabric in this system. Some people use frost fabric on shorter hoops inside, I have not tested how that would impact the survival. Frost fabric is also commonly used inside high tunnels as an inner cover to help retain heat. In those cases growers are using heavyweight frost fabric, like AG-30 or AG-50, and using 1-3 layers of it. The heavier weight fabric retains more heat and is more tear-resistant.

[@GardenGateMagazine]

Thanks for watching.