Hi All,
This is new concept for me: winter vegetables. Our winters (Northern Nevada) gets down to at 25F at night with a handful 0F. Daytimes in the 50's. Snow fall is about 6" at its worst and usually melts that day.
As far as I can tell, that means cabbage, carrots, spinach. Bearing in mind I have an anti-green thumb, so it has to be easy, what do you guys think I could/should grow in the winter?
Many thanks,
-T
Leeks for sure and some varieties of potato.
What variety of potato? Have you actually grown them in temperatures below freezing? All the potatoes I have grown are frost tender and would have no chance of growing in such conditions. I think you are in error here.
David
Don, you may want to look at
and
Good luck.
Very interesting.
Have any ideas that will hold up to 35 to 45 MPH winds three times a week and 75 MPH gusts two or three times a year?
-T
Concrete, and "toughened" glass?
I doubt it very much.
D
Got an old book for you to ask the library for: Winter Flowers in Greenhouse and Sun Heated Pit:
Exact same principles hold for cold climate winter veggies -- and in high wind areas, the pit makes a lot of sense.
Kay
(snip)
I know someone who grew grapes in a very cold climate in a pit - it worked brilliantly. The only problem was that he covered the top of the pit with Laserlite or Polycarbonate or somesuch and as it aged kangaroos often ended up in the pit after trying to cross the ageing ang weakened pit topping.
How would one prevent it from filling with water?
D
Put it on the side of a slope.
So a sun-ward facing slope with a little ridge upslope to take away the water to either side, a plastic lid and keep the roos off. Thinks.....
D
The chap who I knew and who had the occasional roo problems, had 2 sun pits. IIRC, one was in flattish ground (although I cna't now truly remember this one) and the other was most definitely on the side of a slope. I remember the slope one best because I recall walking into it from the eastern side - I can't recall though if he had some sort of door arrangement on it - I dont' think so. i might even try to call him and ask him aobut them and/or see if he'd be amenable to having me come and photgraph them. Mind you, if I do do this, I'll bet I find that my memory is highly faulty.
This chap lives in a very moist place - he's had to plant his trees up on mounds so waterlogging would be a potential problem for sunpits so he would be interested in avoiding that. He also has a genuine Chinese walking tractor which really impressed me.
***Could he have drained the area? Considering that the early Israeli pioneers drained the malarial swamps along the ocean, it doesn't seem like an insuperable task. Or was the area just too large?
HB HB
***Could he have drained the area?
No. I know that is one thing he hasn't done in terms of where his sun pits are. These things aren't he least bit posh - effectively they are just deep slit trenches cut into the ground - think of WWI warfare trenches and you get the idea - on top of that he's put the clear polycarbonate equivalent of what I think USians call ripple iron????
HB: Considering that the early Israeli
He's one retired man on a moderate pension living alone on about 200 acres. He's had some ponds dug, but around those ponds he's still had to plant his trees up on mounds - as I said earlier, it's a very wet area (in terms of rainfall). His pits werent' close to these ponds but I cna't now recall qyuite how far awya they would have been - it'd be about 20 years since I've been there.
Basic drainage, either powered or not, depending on the local needs. Doubt it would be a major problem in northern NV.
Kay
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