September 12, 2016

Avalanche column 

September 1, 2016

Yes as we progress through August, winter greens season is not too far off. With a little forethought, greens can be reliably harvested all winter.

A number of greens crops are traditionally harvested as a plant. This means that in order to have a continued winter long harvest you need to have succession plantings.

During the winter months this can be a bit tricky because with cooler weather and lower light levels it becomes difficult to replant.

It is much easier for an established plant to regrow a leaf as opposed to growing a whole new plant. This works exceptionally well in the winter and also during the warmer months too. The reason for this is well rooted plants.

Care must be made not to over harvest the plants because this can shock the plants into slow or no growth.

Some plants that lend themselves to this are: kale, Swiss chard, spinach, mustards, collards and lettuce to name a few.

Myself I like to have two separate beds or have beds where during the winter I only harvest half of a bed so that part of the crop always has at least 2 weeks growth between harvests. Even with doing this through the winter my greens have progressively smaller leaves for harvest until the weather begins to warm. Once the weather warms you could almost harvest twice a week to keep the plants to a controlled size.

Continuously harvesting leaves has a tendency to keep a plant in a vegetative state. Harvesting leaves delays a plant from bolting. This leaf pruning will work for so long until the life cycle of the plant cannot be overridden any longer and the plant flushes to bloom.

Usually this means harvesting smaller and smaller leaves as the flower stalk elongates but with lettuce, the plant goes unpalatable bitter.

When a gardener notices physiological plant changes, these are the clues that the plant is getting ready to bolt. Once you notice this it is a good idea to reseed their replacements. With some greens this means you have to wait until cooler weather for them to grow. Spinach does not like temperatures above 85 and only does well in the cooler part of the year.

One very interesting thing I have found with growing spinach in west Texas is that it becomes very sweet during the winter. I think this is due to very slow but steady growth. Places farther north the plants are harvested as mature plants that have ceased growth due to cold weather and much lower light levels. But here in West Texas light levels never go below 10 hours and our winters can be cool. It is this slow growth in cool weather that makes the spinach sweet. Once the weather warms in spring so goes the sweet.

Gotta love local in season veggies. It always gives you something to look forward to from the garden.