Topic: Crops that survived the freeze

[saddad]

Was very pleased to find my Landjiker Cabbage, that were frozen solid when I cut one during the frost thawed out with no ill effect. The carrots have come through although the tops and necks have been scorched and the celeriac, which I thought was a "bit" tender has survived although a bit discoloured on the crown. How has it been for you?

[pumkinlover]

Not as good I am afraid.
My only cauliflower was spoilt and a lot of the  cabbage.  In the past  my plants have survived cold weather but I wonder if it was because of the warm and wet before the freeze?

[saddad]

I think so, most were still actively growing so the tissue was softer than it would normally have been in December. The books all advise against using high nitrogen fertilizers late in the season for that very reason. I lost my Sicilia Violette Cauli, but the All Year Round are still looking good. 

[Tee Gee]

I harvested my last lettuce yesterday. O k the outer leaves were a bit tatty but the heart was lovely.

[saddad]

Still have some winter gem in the large greenhouse (unheated) and rocket, the bronze arrow are coming along well to keep the cropping going..

[gray1720]

My beetroot, excepting the Crapaudine, are knackered, and my savoy cabbage are now collapsed heaps of slime.

On the bright side, it's all dug, so I can start afresh without needing to tear around.

[pumkinlover]

I thought that Savoy were really hardy, it must have been the warm and wet first as we have already discussed.
Wonder if the farmers are having the same problem?

[markfield rover]

The greenhouse went down to -7 lost everything including fleeced plants but so far the citrus plants are seemingly okay .

[Tee Gee]

I have around a dozen fresh tomatoes left at the moment.
They are the left over unripe fruit that I put in a tray around the beginning of December, which have finally got around to ripening!

[gray1720]

I thought that Savoy were really hardy, it must have been the warm and wet first as we have already discussed.
Wonder if the farmers are having the same problem?

I thought the same - I reckon it's the lush autumn growth that's done it.

[JanG]

I thought that Savoy were really hardy, it must have been the warm and wet first as we have already discussed.
Wonder if the farmers are having the same problem?

I thought the same - I reckon it's the lush autumn growth that's done it.

My Savoy cabbages are fine. Temperatures of -7 here and they were outside and unprotected.
I wonder what the variants were. Mine were smaller than usual as they had been held back by aphid attacks in autumn but I can’t think of any other special circumstances.
I live in a major area for brassica farming so I’m guessing the farmers are OK with at least their cabbages. Cauliflowers are a bit more chancy. Some of mine are looking a bit sorry for themselves but might hang on and produce heads. 50-50 chance I’d guess.

[Plot22]

I  stopped growing winter cauliflower some years ago. They nearly always made decent heads irrespective of the weather but they are in the ground such a long time and usually held me up with planting the current years crops. But but back to the question club root resistant cabbage have survived as also the red club root ones. Brussels have survived but are smaller than normal, leeks a bit hit and miss but we have had enough for ourselves and the family. parsnips smaller than normal but that suits us as we do not want the oversized ones maybe due to late planting. My wife has just picked the last of the Sugarsnak carrots. Its the only variety that I grow now. She has been looking after the allotment these last few months as I have had a double bypass  and has done brilliantly.

[small]

I've had virtually nothing in the plot for months, just starting to assess what I can get done so inspected all round today - the plain leaf parsley has turned completely to mush but the curly leaf has survived. All the other herbs are fine. I'm hoping that the intense frost will have killed the shamrock which had totally infested everywhere.

[George the Pigman]

Had it down to -8C here. The leeks were OK apart from some of the smaller ones were mushed up. The self blanching celery got hit and had to be pulled though if the frost hadn't been so deep it would have survived. The swiss chard and perpetual spinach were badly hit but will recover. The moolis were turned to mush.
The cabbages, caveolo nero, broccoli. remaining beetroot were fine as of course were the parsnips and very tasty too. The Brussels Sprouts were generally OK but in the older ones lower down the stem which had opened up the softer central leaves had turned to mush but the harder outer leaves were OK. I guess exposing the soft inner leaves had done for them. The smaller tight sprouts that formed later further up the stem were fine as they missed the worse frosts.
Didn't have any cauliflowers, squash family or carrots left in the ground at the time.

[saddad]

The Celeriac is going mushy in the crowns... since it thawed out, going to clear it and make soup...

[Digeroo]

I sowed something called Japanese spinach in October.  It seems to be a brassica (round seeds) and that it is still looking very perky.  I sowed a lot of rye as a cover crop some in November and that is looking very good.  The last sowing is now at the red spike stage and the roots look very good with lots of side roots on each plant.  Nice to know that every hour over 1C it will be still be growing. 
Blackcurrants will like the cold I think it stimulates the flowers to set and produce well.
Russian Kale did not notice.  Cold? you call that Cold? it said. 
My artichoke is good, it was the only seedling from 2009 to survive into 2010.  That winter went down much colder.

[Paulh]

I thought my cabbage were OK but they are to some degree damaged inside by the frost and the pests have moved into them to take advantage of that. If I grow so (too) many cabbages again, I'll know to harvest and store them before the big frosts hit.

[George the Pigman]

Diggeroo I'm very interested in your Japanese Spinach.
I gave up growing ordinary spinach years ago as it always bolted and switched to a cut and come spinach which is basically a green Swiss Chard. It survives pretty low temperatures in winter but got hit this December when it got down to -8C.
What variety was it? Looking online there seems to be a lot of things called Japanese spinach.

[Vinlander]

We went down to -5C  & got a lot of leaf damage to the Meyers Lemon - a shame since we had over 40 delicious lemons this year. Apparently the wood should be OK at -5C so fingers crossed.

The 'Pineapple Guava' (Acca/Feijoa) seems untouched.

OTOH at the polytunnel in its frost pocket (-7?) I still found some very ripe Physalis mollisima fruits inside their lovely paper lanterns... All the less ripe ones were kaput so presumably the sugar level was the key protection!

I haven't got round to examining much veg outside - but I suspect (on my clay) that waterlogging from torrential rain could have killed as much as the frost did.

Cheers.

[Obelixx]

Our brassicas were hit by the drought this summer so were still teeny when weshould have been harvesting them this autumn.  finally got some rain in November, swiftly followed by hard frosts for days on end in December.   We finally gave up on them last week and lifted off the nets so the chooks could peck at will. 

What's left will go on the compost heap and we'll start again as soon as some decent planting weather arrives.  I have a dozen plugs of pointy cabbage, potted on and waiting to go out.

The onion sets I planted last November kept their heads sown till the NY but are now growing well as it's been warm and very wet.