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I have been covering up our turnip greens each night that the temps get down to freezing. They look very bad when I uncover them, but they perk right back up.
We're been having regular freezes this week. In fact it's still only 32F now at almost 11am. But my turnips seem unbothered by that. I think it takes temperatures well below freezing to damage them, and well well well below freezing to kill them. Last winter I had several turnips overwinter through several low temps in the 0-5F range without any insulating snow cover, followed by about 8 weeks of snow pack from mid-January to early March. Outer leaves were turned to mush but the young inner leaves and root survived the winter.
We're been having regular freezes this week. In fact it's still only 32F now at almost 11am. But my turnips seem unbothered by that. I think it takes temperatures well below freezing to damage them, and well well well below freezing to kill them. Last winter I had several turnips overwinter through several low temps in the 0-5F range without any insulating snow cover, followed by about 8 weeks of snow pack from mid-January to early March. Outer leaves were turned to mush but the young inner leaves and root survived the winter.
Thanks for that info - it is a pita to cover and uncover them each day. My temp right now is 33.
My winter veggies: collards, kale, turnips are all doing well through early freezes here in Charlotte NC
I don't cook these much but make veggie juice because husband is not overly fond of them as a veggie but tolerates them in juice as long as there's some "good" juice like orange or apple to disguise them haha.
Rabbits continue to eat collards/kale that are not fenced in, happily no deer come to eat. After Thanksgiving I'll be extending fenced area to protect winter veggies that will transition to summer plants.
Yeah, I managed to keep my tomatoes alive up until Monday. Two days later the garden was blanketed in snow and temperatures seem unlikely to rise above 45F until December.
Tomatoes release something called ethylene gas, which acts as a hormone that induces ripening. So you want to basically place your tomatoes in a way that allows ethylene to build up to speed ripening. Some people like to wrap their tomatoes in newspaper to trap the released gas inside. Or maybe put all their tomatoes together in a closed box. I'm leaving my tomatoes on a table in the basement. There's enough of them close together that a fair bit of ethylene will build up even if it's not that much of an enclosed space. And since I have a large quantity I don't want them to ripen that fast because then I'll have more than I can eat all at once.
We're keeping our green tomatoes in a box with newspaper. We're able to pull about a half dozen out every couple weeks. These early girls do store well. Still have a few to go through from last weeks pull.
A little shriveled but the garage is set to 35deg F and when you bring them inside to 68deg F they do that pretty quickly. Still very tasty- have them on my BLT sammies.
This is our first time growing turnips in our small garden. How do you tell when they are ready to be picked?
What area are you growing in? Over here they're ready to pick at any time now - it's too cold for them to grow any more, although not yet cold enough for them to be damaged, so I can also wait a bit.
December 7 onwards looks like it will be rather cold though so I will probably pick them before then. It's not that it will be cold enough to cause permanent damage, but it will be cold enough for the ground to freeze, and looks like the ground will remain frozen for the following several days. In my experience, ground freeze causes frost hardy vegetable leaves to go limp (guessing because they aren't able to absorb any water if it's frozen?). If the ground thaws, the leaves perk back up again. But I'm not sure if/when the ground will thaw after the Dec 7-10 ground freeze forecast. Usually we'll get at least one thaw after Christmas before the ground freezes long term in the second half of January, but sometimes it stays frozen through late December and into January.
As I mentioned, my turnips survived the winter last winter. That included 0F temps without any snow cover to protect them, followed by getting crushed by 16-18" of snowpack, that then converted into ice and remained for almost 2 months. However, they weren't in very good condition for eating imo, and just went straight to seed in May-June. So in my climate, I think I shouldn't leave them in the ground too late into December, but it depends how the forecast looks. Your climate seems milder, so you might be able to leave them in all winter? But I suspect you're still too cold for them to grow through the winter? What are your December and January temperatures like?
In my experience, ground freeze causes frost hardy vegetable leaves to go limp (guessing because they aren't able to absorb any water if it's frozen?).
According to my wife- a hard freeze will cause the water in leafy plant leaves to freeze, and the ice crystal formation will basically rip the leaf cells apart- essentially killing the leaves. That will halt the growth of the tuber (if that's what it is). We pull them out at that point and place them in storage.
What area are you growing in? Over here they're ready to pick at any time now - it's too cold for them to grow any more, although not yet cold enough for them to be damaged, so I can also wait a bit.
December 7 onwards looks like it will be rather cold though so I will probably pick them before then. It's not that it will be cold enough to cause permanent damage, but it will be cold enough for the ground to freeze, and looks like the ground will remain frozen for the following several days. In my experience, ground freeze causes frost hardy vegetable leaves to go limp (guessing because they aren't able to absorb any water if it's frozen?). If the ground thaws, the leaves perk back up again. But I'm not sure if/when the ground will thaw after the Dec 7-10 ground freeze forecast. Usually we'll get at least one thaw after Christmas before the ground freezes long term in the second half of January, but sometimes it stays frozen through late December and into January.
As I mentioned, my turnips survived the winter last winter. That included 0F temps without any snow cover to protect them, followed by getting crushed by 16-18" of snowpack, that then converted into ice and remained for almost 2 months. However, they weren't in very good condition for eating imo, and just went straight to seed in May-June. So in my climate, I think I shouldn't leave them in the ground too late into December, but it depends how the forecast looks. Your climate seems milder, so you might be able to leave them in all winter? But I suspect you're still too cold for them to grow through the winter? What are your December and January temperatures like?
Last year it was very cold. I had it down in the low 20's a few night ago and the 10 day forecast calls for the lowest low to be low to mid 30's. The highs will be in the low 50's. I will be very happy to have some turnip backbone stew.
According to my wife- a hard freeze will cause the water in leafy plant leaves to freeze, and the ice crystal formation will basically rip the leaf cells apart- essentially killing the leaves. That will halt the growth of the tuber (if that's what it is). We pull them out at that point and place them in storage.
What about all the plants that can handle a hard freeze though? Obviously some plants die back to the roots or woody branches during hard freezes and lose their leaves, but a great deal of plants can hold onto their leaves under temperatures of 20F, 10F, even 0F, maybe even -10F, -15F?
For the plants I was referring to where the leaves go limp - they then perk back up once it's warmer. Whether it's a reaction to cold air or cold ground I'm not sure, but I suspect it's cold ground. I've even had it happen with plants like peppers when the soil drops below 45F or so where the leaves get droopy, and they bounce back fine. With the cabbage family plants, it seems to happen with ground freeze/hard freeze but then they usually perk back up again when temperatures get above freezing (even if only 35-45F).
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