# Winter vegetable production in zone 4B



## stanb999 (Nov 14, 2011)

I'm sure you all watched my hoop house production in the summer. This post will chronicle my winter growing results. I have planted the hoop house with 2 types of lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, and finally radishes. It has been a bit warm this fall so the cold lovers have been slow to start, but are underway now. 

left to right.

The first - lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets
The second - beets, carrots, spinach, lettuce, radishes


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## Navajo (Mar 4, 2013)

mache lettuce or any of the similar varieties ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerianella_locusta ) small easy fast growing, nice variety, and hardy

and baby carrots

And it has seemed like smaller variety of anything does better when doing a Winter Harvest garden.

Got your row covers ready? Lots of work,every morning and evening job...all winter long, but it works, even in MT mountains at 30 below some days two years ago( plants were shocked when it did that), normally we get to 20 below for a couple of times. (We now have wood stove for emergency nights ready to go, when it gets colder than 20 below)


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## boomer (Jul 13, 2011)

Here in Zone 3, I look forward to the outcomes of your experiment before I give it a try a Zone cooler.


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## stanb999 (Nov 14, 2011)

Navajo said:


> mache lettuce or any of the similar varieties ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerianella_locusta ) small easy fast growing, nice variety, and hardy
> 
> and baby carrots
> 
> ...


The varieties I got were the ones recommended for winter harvesting by Johnny's seeds. The veggies should all be full size prior to harvest. They are resistant to most greenhouse disease and are noted for their winter quality.

My temps aren't near as severe as yours tho, we rarely get below zero, just once a year does it drop below -10. Every few years the temps will drop and be in the -20 range. I'm sure you know that the ridge top is warmer than the valley. I'm at the ridge top. Our issue here is it never rises above 20 for weeks and weeks. I haven't gotten the row covers yet, I won't need them for a month and a half to 2 months
and a half. Yep, gardening is work... No harder than other homestead chores. I will say it's nicer to work in the hoop on a breezy 40 degree day than outside, In the hoop it's a clear, warm 70 degrees, T shirt weather.


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## stanb999 (Nov 14, 2011)

Here is my planting schedule and target harvest date. The "harvest date" is when my sunlight hours falls below 10. Vegetables stop growing actively with less than 10 hours of light a day. Then they just sit in the garden staying fresh. FYI even if the temps were warm enough, the veggies still don't grow well. For instance, radishes a quick 25 day crop can take as long as 70 days in mid winter due to short light conditions.


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## stanb999 (Nov 14, 2011)

boomer said:


> Here in Zone 3, I look forward to the outcomes of your experiment before I give it a try a Zone cooler.


Start reading up! 

Johnny's has a a bunch of helpful data and planting aids.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/t-winter...=Webarticle_WHOverWinter_p2_082013_NumNav1top


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## stanb999 (Nov 14, 2011)

Hoop house update. Lettuce, carrots, and radishes are coming up great. The beets and spinach are coming along just slow. 

Today the outside conditions were Overcast, 43F, windy, and damp. Inside the hoop it was 70F, clear and bright. We have had temps down to 27F, In hoop temp went to 32; no frost in the hoop yet. Tho I doubt it's far off. I have purchased a floating row cover and will start that when needed. I would like to keep the frost off the plants for as long as possible


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