Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: stompy on April 04, 2011, 11:11
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Hi all,
Does/has anyone grown Lettuce in an unheated greenhouse this past winter to crop through the winter?
We as a family of four have spent a fortune on lettuce and mixed salad leaves through the winter and i was wondering if it can be grown sufficiently to harvest durin mid winter, between lets say November to March?
If so Which varieties did you grow and which did well?
I know im asking early due to the fact that the new summer season hasn't even started and im already thinking of next winter but i thought i would ask now whilst the varieties grown and success/failiure rates will still be firmly in your minds where as by November the information may be a litte clouded by time and alcohol :lol:
Not sure this is in the right place due to there being a greenhouse section now.
sorry
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There are soil warming cables available as there are special bulbs and strip light tubes that give off the 'right' frequency of light. I'd say go for it and let us know the results. Cheers, Tony.
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Lots of leaves will happily overwinter, many are completely hard and can be grown outside, let alone in an unheated greenhouse. Meraviglia is growing in my open allotment and has had tonnes of snow on it and it still looks dead perky :)
Misticanza mixture will grow happily in there all winter. I have posted many times on here about it, so a quick search on here will reveal all :) I sow it in full sized seed trays and you can cut and come again. Have trays of freshly sown trays waiting in the wings so you're never without leaves for your salad. This mixture has 20 odd varieties I think (see Seeds of Italy website)
I have a tray ready now and it looks a picture. I'll go and get a pic if you like. Likewise the oriental leaf mixtures are dead hardy and oh so tasty. At least growing them indoors keeps them clean so you can just eat them without washing em. The oriental mix is good in your sarni or stir fried :)
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My greenhouse is on the allotment so no electricity.
Thanks compostqueen, i would be growing it in the greenhouse borders plenty of room as i now have a 8'x12' greenhouse now with huge borders and there will be nothing else growing in there in winter.
Well i wasn't sure if anything would grow between these months but thats good to know, i will be writing this information down and be putting it into practice in October November time.
What other things can you grow to harvest in an unheated greenhouse in mid winter?
P.S. im not after overwintering plants for the next year, im actually after cropping them through the winter!
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If you order a brochure from seeds of Italy the varieties that are suitable for winter growing are clearly indicated, and as compostqueen says, there are a good few of them :)
(you can order on-line but the winter varieties are not so easy to spot on their site IMO)
don't forget to grow rocket and corn salad as well :)
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I grow cabbages over winter as well, usually Hispi and Advantage. The Misticanza mix and an oriental leaf mix as this is what I eat most of. Spinach will grow out on the plot so would be fine in an unheated greenhouse like ours. I grow spinach Bordeaux as it's hardy. It is a very strong grower and will get tall if you let it. We eat loads of spinach and cabbage as I feed it to my hens. They like the oriental mix too but I like to keep that for us as we love it :)
I read a recent article in Kitchen Garden mag and one of the authors in there had written about how he grows veg in buckets etc in the cold greenhouse overwinter. I'll see if I can find it
Some folks say it can't be done but it can! Sometimes when it gets extremely cold the cabbages might get frosted but they soon bounce back. There are loads of varieties of winter hardy lettuces with names like Arctic King etc which indicates how tough they are.
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Oh yes, forgot the corn salad! That's really hard and very green and delish. Again, I grow this for the chooks. I think mine was Trophy. Rocket seed can be added to the leaf mixture and you sow the lot together :) The SOI Misticanza comes in a huge packet and you only sow a fine scattering over the tray so it will last absolutely ages if you keep it properly resealed, cool and dry
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Thanks guys,
I've just ordered my seeds of Italy catalouge and it' being posted off to me today.
We love salad but at £1 a bag (and the leaves are of a dubious quality) and we need 2 bags per meal minimum for the 4 of us, it ends up costing a fortune over the winter months.
It worked out at around £120 for the leaves alone this winter before the beets, toms (bullets), meat, cheese and boiled eggs (etc) were added as we have salad 3 to 4 times a week throughout the entire year interspersed with full roast dinners and soups and stews.
So i will be looking forward to the catalouge comming within the next few days.
I might see if there are any beetroot that can be grown then too.
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The SOI Misticanza comes in a huge packet and you only sow a fine scattering over the tray so it will last absolutely ages if you keep it properly resealed, cool and dry
Did you buy online or locally? I've bought Moles / T&M / Wilkos mixed leaf to use as C&CA but im not impressed with them at all, by far the best was the BBC dig in last year :ohmy:
Im almost tempted to order some.
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The first year here I was growing in tubs, and I had autumn calabrese that hadn't headed before the first frosts were due, so I moved the pots into the g/house and they headed during the winter, so there are lots of things to try if you have space :)
get Joy Larkcoms book Grow Your Own Vegetables form the libraryand IMO it's brilliant with explanations for what to grow over winter and the so called hungry gap before the spring veg starts :)
Lardman order mine on line ;)
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Do you know, i feel really inspired to try and grow alot of things this comming winter in the greenhouse now instead of downing tools.
I only had an 6x8 greenhouse before but now i've got all this extra room im going to try allsorts including callabrese in pots (etc)
Just have to get through the summer mayhem now :lol:
Many thanks guys.
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Joy Larckom article on the Hungry Gap won her an award I believe. Her book is brilliant. Only a little unassuming little book but it's pure gold. I got mine from the library but bought a copy. With her suggestions I really got into growing for the lean months with hardy lettuces, endives, chicories etc. She's into the orientals in a big way too. Don't be afraid to try new stuff from seed. I sowed mispoona in between the psb plants and the stuff grew like lightening, even though quite shaded. It made really good stir fry material - when you need to grow a lot as it cooks down.
You don't need seed trays to sow your seeds into. Boxes that can have holes drilled in will be fine. I use a deeper metal box that a food hamper from M & S came in :) Wooden wine presentation box has got my basils in at the mo :)
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On the way back for my local paper shop I pass by a chinese and they throw out lovely pierced plastic boxes about 18in x 12in and about 4 inches deep......the kind that will stack if you want. Lined with a bit of plastic, from empty compost bags, they are perfect for salads etc :)
Needless to say, I now have quite a stack of them :lol:
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A woman after my own heart. When I go shopping I always look at the packaging to see if it will make a seed tray. Those Bisto Yorkie pud containers are just like a mini propagators :)
these are ready for eating now. A tray each of oriental leaf mix and Misticanza leaf mix
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I bubble wrapped the inside of my green house and grew mizuna, spinach, leaf beet, coriander, parsley and red mustard leaves over this last winter. The herbs stayed in leaf the whole time but I lost the spinach in early Feb. It was fed up of struggling on I think. These were all grown in the ground and not in pots as this makes a difference I reckon. Despite being in Cornwall the thermometer read -13 one night. Definitely worth growing as many salads as you can over winter just make sure they are established before the first frosts/snow. I can't bear the winter (for obvious reasons) but find popping up the greenhouse for greens very therapeutic during those dark and dismal days. Best of luck!
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Does/has anyone grown Lettuce in an unheated greenhouse this past winter to crop through the winter?
We as a family of four have spent a fortune on lettuce and mixed salad leaves through the winter and i was wondering if it can be grown sufficiently to harvest durin mid winter, between lets say November to March?
I've tried and given up. I have a large greenhouse (30' x 10') so I could grow a huge number of plants to combat the fact that the combination of low light and cold means that things grow very slowly ... but I haven't really had more than a few handfuls of salad (may just be me of course, don't let me put you off trying!)
On the other hand we are self sufficient in Leeks, Parsnips, Celeriac, Jerusalem Artichokes, Brussels Sprouts etc. So we've taken the view that we will eat Winter crops in the Winter, and Salad in the Summer :)
I do grow some things over winter, but they only come into their own from mid March onwards - Leaf Beet (particularly successful in the greenhouse), Kohl Rabi (some goes to seed, but we eat that like Sprouting Brocolli), Beetroot, and a some early-sown Lettuce for an early crop.
I'm going to try Lambs Lettuce (better!) this year. Tried last year, but the seedlings grew SO slowly that I need to start them much earlier this Autumn.
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I found that It's the timing of those autumn salads that you have to get right, for successful winter salads.
The trouble is you have to be thinking about it whilst summer crops are still being picked ::)
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I took a chance last autumn and sowed several different lettuce seeds, Winter Density, Oak Leaf Lettuce and all year butterhead lettuce along with some salad leaves, straight into the border. I constructed a fleece type cover as you would to keep birds off, watered once in October and left it until January as due to an operation I wasnt able to get up for months. The first time I checked on them the greenhouse door was frozen solid so i thought 'thats it then' :( but when it thawed out, low and behold lettuce aplenty that we are still eating now!! So just chuck it in and hope for the best, nothing ventured and all that :D :nowink:
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time for a munty tip here...... ok get some fresh steaming well rotted non gross stinking manure ,,, put it in your greenhouse in the beds or boxes as best you can .. old polystyrene fish boxes are brilliant. wooden boxes with loads newspapers stuck around em will suffice ok fill ya boxes or beds with the manure .. put a covering of soil over em .then plant ya lettuces etc, then cover em over with cloches..........result heat from the manure ,,,,, i learned this winter growing tip from my grand dad when i was a tinkler... where have all the old skills and tips gorn to?
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To follow on from Munty....
Manure has heated many a greenhouse- in fact that's how the Pineapple house was heated at Helligan!- with a mixture of manure and wood bark fermenting away!
Georgians were clever with their dung...
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time for a munty tip here...... ok get some fresh steaming well rotted non gross stinking manure ,,, put it in your greenhouse in the beds or boxes as best you can .. old polystyrene fish boxes are brilliant. wooden boxes with loads newspapers stuck around em will suffice ok fill ya boxes or beds with the manure .. put a covering of soil over em .then plant ya lettuces etc, then cover em over with cloches..........result heat from the manure ,,,,, i learned this winter growing tip from my grand dad when i was a tinkler... where have all the old skills and tips gorn to?
We grow squash and cougettes on a heap of compost/manure, would it be an idea to use that for winter salad or would it have lost its heat by then?
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The lettuce Mrs Growster planted last autumn has a new lease of life, and is taking over as a cut-and-come-again salad. I got through all that snow (under cloches) too, so is a pretty hardy plant to consider.
The rocket goes to seed and gets a bit hot so that's gone now.
Always worth a few seeds to try them out, you just don't know till you do!
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Winter density works for me, not only hardy but tasty too. :D
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time for a munty tip here...... ok get some fresh steaming well rotted non gross stinking manure ,,, put it in your greenhouse in the beds or boxes as best you can .. old polystyrene fish boxes are brilliant. wooden boxes with loads newspapers stuck around em will suffice ok fill ya boxes or beds with the manure .. put a covering of soil over em .then plant ya lettuces etc, then cover em over with cloches..........result heat from the manure ,,,,, i learned this winter growing tip from my grand dad when i was a tinkler... where have all the old skills and tips gorn to?
We grow squash and cougettes on a heap of compost/manure, would it be an idea to use that for winter salad or would it have lost its heat by then?
if you dig it out when your finished growing on it ... get loads air into it before you put it in your hot box/frame tunnel, the new addition of air helps the cooking process,,,, thats why we should turn the compost bins at least twice a year ,if not 3
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On the way back for my local paper shop I pass by a chinese and they throw out lovely pierced plastic boxes about 18in x 12in and about 4 inches deep......the kind that will stack if you want. Lined with a bit of plastic, from empty compost bags, they are perfect for salads etc :)
Needless to say, I now have quite a stack of them :lol:
Does lettuce really grow in a tray as shallow as this? I want to do salad leaves over winter in the greenhouse and have open seed trays but doesn't seem very deep!
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The trays I use are deeper than a standard seed tray, cos they're about 4 inches deep.
But the pics posted by compostqueen on the first page of the thread, show them growing quite happily in a seed tray...don't you think ;)
You obviously have to be consistant with watering, to get results like these though...you can't just sow and forget :D
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Mrs G uses ordinary seed trays, and sows seed very thinly.
They last for about two - three weeks, and after then are chucked on the compost heap, while the new ones are coming on.
You're right about watering though, they need a lot.
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i did quite well last year with wooden fruit boxes lined with compost bags, so only a few centimetres of compost...
I echo the point that there's almost no growth over winter, so you need to get the plants up to eating size by autumn
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Winter density lettuce are very reliable too :)
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What a great topic. I too feel inspired to have a go at growing as much as I can in my greenhouse over the winter. Good luck everyone.
Wendy
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I just got a packet of winter gem lettuce seeds for 50p, so am going to give them a go. The packet says I can sow from September to January, and as long as germination takes place above 12C, they will grow through the winter.
I'm skeptical, but for 50p, why not?! :)
Might also see if my growing collection of self-collected mixed salad leaf seeds will work...
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50p! The price of one tiny lettuce from the supermarket.
Great idea to plant a few seeds now and then, 12 degrees is pretty easy to achieve, so can you start them off inside, then pop them in the greenhouse?
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Well, after an unusually warm 2 or 3 days, the lettuce has germinated in the greenhouse already! So it looks good... had my 50p's enjoyment out of them already! :D
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Yes, cos of the warm I'm going to make another sowing - cos at the rate they are growing they will be eatable size rather than small when I want to plant them out :D
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I shall be joining the sowing party in the morning :lol:
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Just sown some American Land Cress and also some Winter Gem in the greenhouse (at 4X what lazza paid for his packet they had better do something!) :wacko:
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Was thinking of getting and growing some Misticanza, although I must say I am slightly put off by the price of postage from SOI, the cheapest is £2.50 for a 14 day despatch, If I want them next week it'll cost £6.99 for 1 pack of seeds!
Anyway that's not my question, what I'd like to know is will the Misticanza germinate in an unheated greenhouse from now till next spring or will I need to germinate indoors? Was also thinking of growing some corn salad and rocket and wondered whether they will germinate and grow and the same conditions
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If you order at this time of year the seeds usually arrive within a few days, in my experience ;)
They will germinate well in the cold greenhouse, in all but the very coldest weeks of winter...when I start a few in the spare bedroom.
They take longer to germinate in the cold, but they do come though ;)
I'd get your rocket and corn salad started asap, as I find they won't germinate as easily as the lettuce in the cold, and they grow slower than the lettuce anyway.
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How did everyone do? Was there feast of famine? I'm thinking of doing this later this year, so will look forward to your feedback. :D
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Still picking salad from the greenhouse :)
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Still picking salad from the greenhouse :)
Thank you, I shall mark a date on my calender in case I forget, or miss a thread. (If there is another.) :D
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How did everyone do? Was there feast of famine? I'm thinking of doing this later this year, so will look forward to your feedback. :D
I am still harvesting too. Though I am having to buy an iceberg a week from the shops to bulk out my salads, I'm getting small amounts of lambs lettuce, baby chard, beetroot leaves, mooli and spring onions from the poly tunnel. Need to get them out once the outside crop starts growing to make way for the summer crops...
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Mine were OK up until probably mid-December, but the later sowings didn't do so well, giving just small green shoots which then grew no further when I put them out. Maybe I put them out too early.
On the other hand, the last sowing (made in January) now seems to be picking up after a period of dormancy at small-shoot stage :)
So, all-in-all, worth the 50p outlay!
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Mine are still going strong (as is the spinach). Had some leaves over the winter but they are racing along now. :)
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Down to the last three butterhead lettuces now, but the mixed salad leaves are going well... two pickings already and plenty to come :D
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I just keep putting all the varieties in and picking them as leaves.
Another thing I do is to buy the packs of "fresh lettuce plants" from the supermarket and plant them. The plants are usually 4-5 inches tall and have a good head start if you plant them in February.
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My Misticanza salad, endive and chicory mix from SOI is still going great guns as is my Mesclun and another oriental mixture I sowed. I've been picking the stir fry leaves alternately and the regrowth has been brill :)
The SOI leaf mix is extremely hardy and is happy even if the temperature plummets. I grow mine is full size seed trays or a deep tin or box, in the unheated greenhouse. I like to grow them under cover as it keeps the leaves clean so they don't need washing before use :) They are more than happy outdoors but I'd keep covered with fleece etc to keep them clean. You don't want soily, sandy leaves
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My American Land Cress and Winter Gem lettuce both germinated but barely grew at all over the winter - my greenhouse doesn't get much light when the sun is at its lowest and I possibly didn't help by growing them on the staging which is on the darkest side (thought it would be less cold away from the floor but probably should have put them in the lightest possible place.)
Oh well, a small step up the learning curve...................... :)
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I'm still eating the same mixed salad from SoI as C Q ;)
All the corn salad is gone now and I pulled the rocket up a couple of days ago as it was finally running to seed, the chard was eaten more by slugs than by me - so won't bother with that again :(
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Just read through this thread from the beginning, and it's great - I never knew you could continue producing salad leaves in an unheated greenhouse! We eat a lot of salad throughout the winter as an alternative to veg with main courses, etc. We therefore get through bags and bags of mixed leaves (even when 'diluted' with iceberg!) so I'll definitely be trying this.
The article 'Mind the Gap' by Joy Larkcomb mentioned by Compost Queen is available to look at on Amazon - if you search for her book 'Grow your own Vegetables' and then click 'look inside', you can use the 'search inside this book' box on the left hand side. Type in the words 'mind the gap', and it will bring up the pages concerned. You can then scroll down and read the article in full.
I love growing the various mixes in the summer - they're brilliant for planting in a trough or tub and taking with us when we're on the narrowboat. They just sit on the roof, and solve one of the problems of not having access to shops or supermarkets! I'll now be able to do the same at home in the winter :)
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Don 't forget you can do the oriental mixed leaves too and they are FAB :)
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Yes, I use those in salads too - I was using 'salad leaves' as a sort of generic term really to cover a multitude! :)
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I was in there grazing on them today, tasting the individual leaves to see what they're like. I think I'll take a slice of bread down there with me tomorrow :)
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My neighbours on their plot have had great success - they're lettuces/leaves are a foot tall and they haven't bolted - they look really yummy!
Emma
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I have grown a fantastic crop of chard in my unheated greenhouse over this winter. After the toms were out in the autumn I planted out the chard. I think I had sowed it around mid summer and grown it on. I have had three decent cuts off it already this year. Just starting to bolt now. Which is fine because it's time to dig out and replace some soil and get the toms back in.
Incidentally it was lucullus I found bright lights all show but tough and stringy outside
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Right thanks for that tip. I didn't rate the Bright Lights much flavour wise either, although it does cut a dash out on the plot :) :)