Winter salad leaves

[rary]

I have some lettuce, rocket and radish growing in the greenhouse, last night the overnight temperature went down to -6c and when in the greenhouse today they all looked fine, I think the temperature will be even lower tonight, what temperature can these vegetables go down to and still grow when it gets warmer

[Vince G]

Don't know the answer Rary, but as a brassica, I reckon the radish will be OK.

Will be interested to see how you get on especially since you'd get a lot less light in winter than my neck of the woods. My poly becomes a storage space to over-winter for flowering plants I can't really plant out til spring, so it would be nice to grow something in it. When did you sow?

[Chestnut]

I did some rocket and baby salad leaves last winter in GH, rocket died before xmas but the baby leaves (winter gem lettuce , lambs lettuce and brassicas eg pak choi, mizuna) all survived until spring.
Never tried radishes in gh, so will be interested to see how yours get on ;-)

[veggiechicken]

Don't know about minimum temps but they seem to grow year round here.
See photos (mine and others) in https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...9-a_98352.html

[Vince G]

Nice, reckon Ive missed the boat for this year though. Might try a few radish as they grow quickly. Will get lettuces sorted next Septemberish

[veggiechicken]

I sowed all sorts of seeds a week or so ago - peas, lettuce, rocket, radish, carrots, beet, pak choi and other oriental veg. Its always worth a try!

[ameno]

Nice, reckon Ive missed the boat for this year though. Might try a few radish as they grow quickly. Will get lettuces sorted next Septemberish

Unless your greenhouse is heated, it's far too late for sowing radishes or salad leaves.
With radishes, the idea is that you sow them maybe mid September, and they are ready by the time the cold weather comes. They stop growing in the cold, but they'll happily sit there for quite a long time, waiting to be picked (they last a lot longer in the ground when it's cold than they do in summer).

[Penellype]

I have Charles Dowding's Winter Vegetables book, in which he says that he has had winter lettuce and rocket survive -15C under cloches. He doesn't mention radish. Growth in the winter months is very slow, so although the plants should survive, don't expect to be able to harvest much until the light levels improve in spring.

The main issue I have had with winter lettuce in a greenhouse is botrytis.

[Bren In Pots]

I have 'arctic king', 'all year round' gem and mixed lettuce leaves every winter in my GH its only ever the mixed and Gem that seem to suffer with the cold I do cover them with fleece if its going to be bad though.

[burnie]

My mixed leaves are not doing anything, I doubt I will bother trying next year, but I will try getting earlier crops in the New Year if the weather looks promising, I think the problem up here is lack of daylight rather than temperature.

[rary]

My lettuce and rocket seeds were sown on the 25th. September, they were up by the 30th. and that's when I sowed my radish was in the greenhouse at 7.00 this morning and everything looked dead and frozen back in half an hour ago and all sitting up and looking fresh I could cover with fleece but could lose them to botrytis, as for radish I have found that the white varieties seem to do better in the cold and yes I would sow them now, remember you can eat the leaves

[ESBkevin]

Patrick grows winter salad in his polytunnel, it gets mighty cold there.

There are a series of vids on the subject with the chanel, here are a few I have selected as a taste.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtw7pnqFeS4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqZn5UBHkjE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t1px5IJJ68

Also think about growing micro greens if you have somewhere suitable, sow and harvest in 2-4 weeks, pea shoots etc.