cold nights

[hawthorns]

i have turnips, carrots, onions, beetroot, lettuce, radishes, rocket and other salad leaves in my garden. with the nights getting a great deal cooler and frosts not far away do i have to start to potecting these crops. i have the carrots and salad leaves under a home made poly tunnel. in my cold greenhouse i have leekes growing in a grow bag and i also have 2 sweet pepper plants in pots will i have to protect these.

any advice is welcome.

thanks

[Alice]

Hello Hawthorns, your salad leaves and peppers will probably not stand frank frost but everything else should be OK or even benefit from it. Even your lettuce might be Ok. I had some which stood outside all last winter. Could you take your peppers inside onto a windowsill. Good luck.

[Cutecumber]

I agree with Alice. Put your efforts into protecting the most tender plants - the peppers. The others will be OK until things start getting very chilly. Carrots and leaves will be fine in the polytunnel for now and so will your leeks.

Remember the fading light in autumn will slow down growth and you may find that fungal problems, and general tiredness (of you and your plants ) are more of an issue than the temperature.

[andrewo]

Time to get out the fleece for the lettuce and peppers. Some lettuce do well overwinter, such as, artic king.

[Two_Sheds]

My Arctic King didn't do so well, I find Rusty superb though

[hawthorns]

lettuce are the (all year round ) variety

[hawthorns]

Andrewo when you say cover with fleece do i wrap the pots to protect the roots.

[Cutecumber]

You are aiming to keep the cold (and any frost) off the plant itself, so throw a large square (or a "tube" of fleece) over the plant and tie it around the pot. Personally, I think it's worthwhile giving some support to the fleece so I put some sticks into the pot around the plant, slightly higher than the tallest stem. If the fleece gets very wet, or snow comes, this stops is weighing so heavily on the plant. This is unlikely in a greenhouse or polytunnel (I hope!).

In terms of the roots, it is better to use some bubblewrap, or carpet around a pot - something with more insulation. You really won't need to do this to your pepper as by the time the roots need protecting, the plant will have succumbed to the cold.

I reserve the pot-wrapping for a few broad bean plants (which are pretty tough, anyway) in plastic pots, which I overwinter in my windy, shaded garden. Usually, most things that we overwinter outside should be in the ground, with some fleece or a cloche covering their tops - this is much safer.

[rustylady]

Everything you are growing appears to be hardy, apart from possibly the lettuce, and definitely the sweet peppers, although if they are in a greenhouse they will be OK unless there is a real frost - Sweet peppers can be harvested green and brought indoors to either use as they are or to ripen. I would always grow leeks in the open, they don't need any weather protection.

[hawthorns]

as far as the leekes go i tried growing baby leekes in a large pot (weeks ago) in compost but they are still very small. so i have used the rest of the seeds in an old grow bag in the greenhouse and they seem to be growing ok. should i leave them outside.

[JennieAtkinson]

I would always grow leeks in the open, they don't need any weather protection.

They do up here!