Cool-Season Vegetable Varieties – Harvest to Table

Cool-season vegetables are for planting and emerging in past due winter, early spring, or in past due summer time, autumn, and early winter. The ones crops do easiest imaginable in temperatures between about 40°F and about 70°F (4-21°C). Many can withstand temperatures colder, on the other hand few can thrive in temperatures warmer.

Make sure that cool-season crops planted in spring have enough time to reach maturity forward of the weather turns warmth. Conversely, make certain that cool-weather crops planted in past due summer time and early autumn have enough time to reach harvest forward of the principle heavy freeze or massive snowstorm.

Check out the seed packet or the plant markers that come with vegetable starts to look what selection of days the seed or plant requires to reach maturity. Then plan your sowing, transplanting, and harvesting accordingly–marking your calendar.

Once the weather warms, cool-season crops it is going to be performed and you will want to plant warm-season crops.

Hardiness is a time frame used to provide an explanation for a cool-season plant’s talent to survive winter without protection. The words “hardy” and “semi-hardy” are essential when deciding which crops to plant where you are living.

Brussels sprouts plants covered by fresh snow awaiting winter harvest.
Brussels sprouts crops lined by the use of contemporary snow looking at for winter harvest.

Table of Contents

Hardy crops

Hardy vegetables can tolerate a hard frost—about 25° to 28° F (-3 to -2°C). The hardiest crops are kale, spinach, and collards which is in a position to tolerate temperatures throughout the low 20s and high youngsters.

  • Broccoli
  • Brussels sprouts
  • Cabbage
  • Collards
  • English peas
  • Kale
  • Kohlrabi
  • Leeks
  • Mustard greens
  • Parsley
  • Radish
  • Spinach
  • Turnip

Semi-hardy crops

Semi-hardy vegetables can tolerate a gentle frost–most often about 29° to 32°F (-2 to 0°C). They are superb for spring and fall gardens.

  • Beets
  • Carrot
  • Cauliflower
  • Celery
  • Chinese language language cabbage
  • Endive
  • Irish potatoes
  • Lettuce
  • Radicchio
  • Rutabaga
  • Salsify
  • Swiss chard

It is imaginable you can to search out that transplants or vegetable starts art work easiest imaginable in autumn. That implies summer time crops can keep throughout the garden for a few weeks longer. Vegetables started indoors in early spring extend the emerging season as smartly.

Moreover throughout the coldest emerging spaces, a double cover of each and every a tunnel and cold frame may keep the soil from freezing.

Lettuce and onions grow under a plastic tunnel in winter.
Lettuce and onions increase under a plastic tunnel in winter.

Recommended cool-season vegetable crop types

• Arugula. Easy salad variety matures in less than 50 days. Arugula is mild-flavored when grown in cool must haves; plant by the use of mid-autumn in frame or tunnel for harvest all over winter; plant over again in January.

• Beets. Select types that mature in 55 days or a lot much less; try to seed beets 10 weeks in advance of the principle frost: ‘Bull’s Blood’ (40 days) early harvest heirloom; ‘Chioggia’ (54 days) surprising ringed heirloom; ‘Golden Globe’ (55 days) sweet-flavored heirloom; ‘Red Ace’ (53 days) honey-sweet hybrid.

Broccoli. Select a broccoli variety maturing in about 60 days and superb side-shoot production: ‘Early Dividend’ (46 days) excellent side shoot building; ‘Patron’ (60 days) mid-late season hybrid; ‘Arcadia’ (70 days) cold-tolerant; ‘De Cicco’ (60 days) mild-flavored heirloom; ‘Early Green’ (65 days) extended harvest from side shoots; ‘Gypsy’ (58 days) heat tolerant; ‘Packman’ (55 days) hybrid.

• Brussels sprouts. Select types that mature in 100 days or a lot much less. Long-season cool-weather Brussels sprouts are at all times easiest imaginable started from transplants. Taste improves with each fall frost. Can transfer 6 to 9 weeks earlier freeze with protection. ‘Long Early Dwarf Danish’ (95 days) freezing temperature enhances style; ‘Oliver’ (90 days) early harvest; ‘Jade Cross’ (100 days) holds smartly in poor local weather.

• Cabbage. Select cabbage types that mature in less than 90 days. Harvest forward of the principle freeze. ‘Gonzales’ (60 days) small head; ‘Ruby Perfection (85 days) hybrid for fall storage; ‘Fast Ball’ (45 days) compact head; ‘Earliana’ (60 days) great style.

Carrots. Select types that mature in less than 60 days. Carrots may also be stored throughout the ground where the soil does not freeze. Increase in a cold frame safe from a hard freeze. In crucial winter areas, cover carrots with straw throughout the frame.

Cauliflower. Select cauliflower types that mature in less than 60 days. Best started 10 weeks forward of the principle fall frost. ‘Snow Queen’ (50-60 days) is simple a very simple care for hybrid; ‘Violet Queen’ (54 days) early hybrid; ‘Early Dawn’ (45 days).

Chard. Select chard types that mature in 60 days or a lot much less. Make a choice leaves as they mature and the plant will produce additional. Will keep producing until onerous frost; frozen chard leaves will come once more with a thaw. Grown in a cold frame can produce all over the winter. ‘Argentata’ (55 days); ‘Fordhook Giant’ (58 days) mild-flavored heirloom; ‘Lucullus’ (50-60 days) long-bearing heirloom; ‘Rhubarb Chard’ (60 days); ‘Ruby Red’ (60 days).

Corn salad. Germinates easiest imaginable in cool soil. Corn salad might be very cold hardy. Reaches maturity in less than 50 days. Harvest all the plant at about 4 inches or decrease and are to be had over again. Plant in a cold frame for all winter use.

• Endive. About 90 days to maturity, on the other hand you are able to harvest earlier. Plant endive past due summer time for a fall and winter harvest, early spring for a summer time harvest. Escarole is hardier on the other hand each and every will do smartly by way of winter with cold frame protection. Endive: ‘Full Heart Batavian’ (85 days), ‘Large Green Curled’; Escarole: ‘Nuvol’ (50 days).

• Garlic. Plant cloves in fall to resolve superb root growth, not best growth. Garlic will mature in 7 to 8 months. In past due fall cover the emerging bed with straw and best dress with compost. Garlic matures in summer time when the tops fall over.

Kale. The internal leaves are most often tastier than the outer leaves. Kale may also be harvested from under the snow. Low-growing types are easiest imaginable for cold frames; taller types aren’t as cold hardy. ‘Vates Dwarf’ (65 days) low emerging; ‘Winterbor’ (65 days), ‘Blue Curled’ (65 days); ‘Red Russian’ (25 days) gentle heirloom; ‘Toscano’ frequently referred to as ‘Luciano’ (30 days) heat-tolerant savoy heirloom; ‘White Russian’ (50 days) frilled, dissected heirloom,

• Kohlrabi. Best grown in fall and winter; increase kohlrabi outdoor until a hard freeze then harvest and store; increase in a cold frame or plastic tunnel for a longer harvest. ‘Grand Duke’ (48 days) hybrid; ‘Early White Vienna’ (55 days) open-pollinated; ‘Purple Vienna’ (60 days) open-pollinated.

Leeks. Get began leeks for winter harvest in early spring, a long-season crop. Bunching leeks will increase to pencil size in 8 weeks or so; they can be harvested since the spring-planted leeks increase to maturity. The fastest maturing types are able in about 80 days. ‘Electra’ (145 days), ‘Titian’ (90 days); ‘Varna’ (70 days).

• Lettuce. Lettuce season is spring, summer time, and fall in cold spaces; fall, winter, and spring in extremely popular spaces. Select types that mature in 60 days or a lot much less. Lettuce can take most efficient this kind of lot freezing and thawing, even in a cold frame or tunnel; crops must achieve harvestable size by the use of early winter; winter types can survive by way of winter in a cold frame if safe from multiple freezes. Select leafy types quite than heading types for the earliest harvest. Looseleaf types are fast-growing, less than 50 days. Butterhead types form a head and require about 75 days. Romaines require about 70 days. Imaginable alternatives: ‘Winter Density’, ‘Green Wave’; Butterhead: ‘Dear Tongue’ (46 days” heirloom buttercrunch; ‘Dark Green Boston’, ‘Summer Bibb’; Romaine: ‘Cinnamon’ (65 days), purple romaine heirloom; ‘Parris Island’, ‘Valmaine’; Looseleaf: ‘Lolla Rosa’ (53 days) looseleaf heirloom; ‘Salad Bowl’, ‘Oak Leaf’, ‘Green Ice’, ‘Red Sails’, ‘Ruby’; ‘Simpson Elite’ (53 days) heirloom.

Mesclun. Mesclun grows similar to lettuce on the other hand is able partly the time, about 25 days.

Mustard Greens. Sow mustard greens in fall for harvest all over winter. ‘Tatsoi’ (45 days); ‘Mizuna’ (40-60 days).

• Onions. Bulb onions are planted in winter for past due spring or summer time harvest, most often 90 to 120 days. Bulb onion thinnings can be used as green onions. Bunching onions and green onions may also be harvested in about 70 days. Bulb onions: ‘Fiesta’, ‘Yellow Sweet Spanish’, ‘White Sweet Spanish’, ‘Southport Globe’, ‘Stockton Yellow Globe’. Small bulb and bunching: ‘Red Beard’ (85 days) bunching, increase by way of winter, harvest summer time; ‘Red Long Tropea’ (90 days) purple bulbs, harvest mid-, past due summer time; ‘Rosa di Milano’ (110 days) barrel-shaped; ‘White Spear’ (65 days) past due bunching.

Parsley. Varieties all mature in about 80 days, on the other hand parsley takes a minimum of 21 days to germinate. ‘Darki’, ‘Drausa’, ‘Italian Dark Green’.

• Parsnips. Hardiest of root crops, plant parsnips early summer time for next spring harvest maturing in about 120 days; winter over with out a protection even in coldest spaces. Dig parsnips when the soil has thawed. Parsnips can store for 4 to 6 months.

Pea seedlings in early spring.
Pea seedlings in early spring.

• Peas. Sow peas for autumn harvest a minimum of 60 days forward of break of day frost; leaves and vines are hardy, not the pods; freezing will damage the pods. Use an A-frame plastic cover to extend the season by the use of 3 to 4 weeks. Low-growing types come to harvest earlier. China, snow or sugar peas: ‘Dwarf Grey Sugar’ (65 days); ‘Mammoth Melting Sugar’ (75 days). Garden peas: ‘Freezonian’ (63 days); ‘Green Arrow’ (65 days); ‘Maestro’. Snap peas: ‘Sugar Ann’ (56 days); ‘Sweet Snap’ (60 days), ‘Sugar Rae’ (70 days), ‘Sugar Daddy’ (75 days); ‘Super Sugar Snap’ (60 days).

Radicchio. Radicchio matures in about 60 days. Heads will survive all winter under the safety of a cold frame on the other hand it is best to increase them to maturity forward of the weather gets too cold.

Radish. Will also be one of the vital final crops sown in fall (and one of the vital first in spring); radishes increase easiest imaginable in cool, rainy must haves. Radishes may also be harvested as early as 25 days and will keep in cool soil for up to 60 days. ‘China Rose’ (52 days); ‘Tama’ (65 days); ‘Cherry Belle’ (25 days), ‘Champion’ (24 days), ‘April Cross’ (45 days), ‘Icicle’ (30 days); ‘Snowbelle’ (26 days).

Spinach. Spinach will germinate and increase at temperatures merely reasonably above freezing and continue emerging until freezing. ‘Indian Summer (39 days); ‘Winter Bloomsdale’ (45 days); ‘Olympia’ (45 days); ‘Tyree’ (45 days).

• Turnips. Turnips are the most efficient tasting when more youthful and gentle. Select types that mature in 40 days or a lot much less. ‘Market Express’ (38 days); ‘Tokyo Cross’ (35 days).

Additional about emerging vegetables in cool local weather:

Planting the Autumn, Wintry climate, and Spring Garden

Extending the Season

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