Overwintering crops

[Laura Hillier]

Hi Everyone,

We hope you are all enjoying the amazing sunshine! It almost feels wrong to mention the 'w' word while it is so nice outside, but we were wondering, what are your favourite crops to overwinter and why? What have your successes and failures been?

Answers may be edited and published in the October issue of Grow Your Own.


Laura

[alldigging]

Mizuna and claytonia did well in the greenhouse. I have some cloches to try some things this outside this year.

[weekendwellies]

ha,, I just came on for some tips on what i can start now for harvesting through winter. Thanks for starting this.

[Creemteez]

Call me sad ( I don't care ), but I am getting seriously excited about getting my Golden Gourmet Shallots in for next year - and I haven't even lifted this years harvest yet! They are looking to be my best effort yet and the prospect of the sweet and spicy pickles they are going to make is making me a very happy veggie-grower!

[Laura Hillier]

That is not sad at all! It is exciting planning for future harvests

Has anybody 'accidentally' overwintered a crop? Or had successes with something unexpected?

Laura

[planetologist]

Yes, in the last two mild winters I've found that semi-tender things like chervil and oca survived, unlike the two severe winters before.

[Bren In Pots]

My favourites and easiest have been chillis and sweet peppers I gave them a quick trim then left the plants over winter on a north facing window still. Once spring arrived I re-potted the plants then gradually acclimatised them to the GH.

[Laura Hillier]

All good choices so far! What else have people tried?

Laura

[veggiechicken]

That is not sad at all! It is exciting planning for future harvests

Has anybody 'accidentally' overwintered a crop? Or had successes with something unexpected?

Laura

Several years ago I grew some Physalis Peruviana (aka Cape Gooseberries, Inca berries etc) from supermarket fruits. Planted them in a pot in the greenhouse and had a lot of delicious fruit from them. They died back in the winter and I didn't get round to clearing them out. Come spring they were shooting again and those plants kept on growing for about 5 years! I have another lot of plants for this winter and am hoping for another 5 years of fruit

[Laura Hillier]

Accidental overwintering at its best! A nice mixture so far

How about everybody else?

Laura

[roitelet]

Parsnips, they need the frost, shallots planted on ridges to stop the rot, garlic and onions. In the tunnel, PSB 'cos it is destoyed by any snow and the low temperatures we get here. Going to try several different things in the tunnel this year.

[judy2shoes]

hey =- am I too late to sow PSB in the polytunnel?

[Penellype]

I have had Shirley tomatoes on the kitchen windowsill a couple of times that have produced shoots from the bottom which I couldn't bear to throw away, so I cut down the main stems when they had finished fruiting and tied the side shoots to the cane. They only produced about 4 tomatoes each, but it is nice to have a taste of fresh home grown tomato at Christmas

[Snadger]

hey =- am I too late to sow PSB in the polytunnel?

I forgot to sow them earlier but picked up a punnet of about sixteen plantlets from Cowells on the old Airport road the other day. £2.50 I think...............cheaper than a packet of seeds anyway.

[jayjaybee]

Some years my row of swiss chard overwinters ok, alright it gets a bit manky during the worst of the weather but in the spring it comes to life again.