Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: savbo on October 06, 2010, 19:31
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Hi - anyone got any recommendations for salads to grow over winter in an unheated greenhouse? The floor is all soil so plenty of space once the tomatoes are out and it gets a good scrub...
M
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If the greenhouse is unheated, will it be frost-free? Salads are mainly water and thus I suspect they may freeze / die if frosted?
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I'm growing corn salad, rocket and parella and escarole (Italian winter lettuces)
Last year the escarole froze where water dripped on it, but carried on growing as soon as it thawed out :)
IMO You should really have started all the stuff before now, so they are ready to plant after the toms.
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Actually, I was thinking of doing some winter salad in my cold (very cold, pane missing) greenhouse or coldframe. Seeds of Italy have one called Meraviglia D'Inverno which they said can be sown July to December, and they say Parella can be sown Sept/Oct. They have a number of lettuce types which can still be sown now, but in an email they've just sent out they particularly recommend Meraviglia, Lamb's Lettuce, Spinach and Chicory Grumolo Verde for good resistance to cold.
Anybody ever tried their Black Radish? That can be sown now but I'm not sure whether it's a salad type radish or one of the bigger roots.
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There are quite a few lettuce varieties that can be grown through winter if you check the seed catalogues. they don't actually grow much in the depths of winter but they don't die. In last year's severe weather I had lettuce, chard, spring onions and chives in pots in the unheated g/house, as well as container grown leeks, parsnips and carrots.
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Actually, I was thinking of doing some winter salad in my cold (very cold, pane missing) greenhouse or coldframe. Seeds of Italy have one called Meraviglia D'Inverno which they said can be sown July to December, and they say Parella can be sown Sept/Oct.
Just bear in mind that if you don't sow them till December they won't be ready to eat till March/April, depending on the weather, just when you may need the space for spring sowings. The parella I sowed 3 weeks ago is only just germinating now, everything has slowed up already :(
I think they're all worth trying though to see what will grow in your area :)
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The Meraviglia and Misticanza are fabulous. Mine got frosted a few times but shrugged it off. I sow mine into a large seed tray and a metal box from M & S that held a bit of a food parcel last Christmas - few holes in the bottom and voile. I sowed a couple of rows across the trays every other week and I had fresh leaves every day. They're very hardy. They got frosted a few times but shrugged it off and were not damaged. I grew Advantage cabbages too
At the moment I've got Misticanza going great guns, Meraviglia, spinach and oriental leaf mixture which looks really perky and all are being eaten now. I just do them as cut and come again. Not sure about the oriental leaf mix but the lettuce mixes will keep going through winter quite happily
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ta everyone esp CQ, off to see if B&M have any of the SoI stuff before I shell out on postage!
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I sowed a small tray of winter White Lisbon but zilch, nada. You win some .......
Those seeds of I packets are massive. I could send you a pinch :)
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Thanks for reminding me! I have some of the Winter Marvel lettuce seeds from Real Seeds that I'd forgotten about. If you're interested it's at the bottom of this page (http://www.realseeds.co.uk/lettuce.html).
In last year's severe weather I had lettuce, chard, spring onions and chives in pots in the unheated g/house, as well as container grown leeks, parsnips and carrots.
I have carrots in a pot on my balcony, actually in three pots. The first two were planted in time and so now they are a small but good enough size to use. The last pot I planted, not thinking I'd get anything from them but didn't realise that the seeds don't keep well so figure I had nothing to lose. Are you saying that if I just leave them throughout winter they will keep for next year?
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Winter density and mizuna worked well for me last year, they even survived the really cold weather in Jan / Feb
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I tried some Winter Gem lettuce last year in an unheated greenhouse. They grew ok until the end of December and then they just seemed to give up and wilt.
It seemed to me at the time that it was a lack of sun / light rather than either the cold or too much watering.
Perhaps there is a trade off here. A partially shaded greenhouse is fine when you want to avoid the worst of the hot summer sun, but you then suffer if you want to grow things in the winter?
I
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What a great list of greens. My mouth is watering ::)
I have also grown coriander and miners lettuce with success in a winter glasshouse. I cant grow coriander for nuts in the summer - it bolts too fast - but the winter crop is fabulous.
Pip
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Perhaps a grow-light is called for? (But then a greenhouse would be a bit pointless - might as well have a warm / insulated cabinet I suppose ...)
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you don't need warmth for these crops in winter - they're hardy :)
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Indeed, but in my experience they don't do much in the way of growing.
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Had good success with Winter Gem and Arctic King lettuce last winter in grow bags in cold greenhouse but you need to sow little and often to keep a succession (I usually forget this bit). An electric propagator to start off the germination helps speed things up but can also kill the seedlings off if you get them too hot or keep the heat going too long.
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you don't need heat to start off winter lettuces etc. The greenhouse can get quite warm even in winter if the sun comes out
Here's my tray of mixed oriental leaves that I got from the cold greenhouse today for tonight's stir fry
I'll sow another tray full tomorrow, and I'm going to try coriander. I've got my basils going beautifully but they'll have to go up to the house as it will soon be too cold for those. The corn salad looks ace as well
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Looks good compostqueen. I just started spinach in the cold greenhouse and I'm starting a raised bed for salad this week.
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I know we are all talking about a cold greenhouse but would I be able to grow salad in a heated greenhouse just as easy......
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We're talking winter salads that are designed to withstand cold. They'll get hot and bothered and probably limp in the heat
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and cost a fortune to grow :ohmy:
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I had some lovely sarnis today made with leaves out my cold greenhouse. Mixed orientals and some Misticanza with toms and a cucumber that I found (which I fear is the last of them, sob). Oh and some corn salad too