Winter's final toll?

[Monika]

Having now cleared the debris off the allotment, I realise that , to date, this winter has been more damaging than I first thought:

The frost killed most of the brassicas, including kale Cavolo Nero and Ragged Jack, purple sprouting broccoli Rudolph, swede Marian. Kale Dwarf Green Curled has survived and so have Brussels sprouts Cascade, but quite a few of the sprouts have rotted inside.

About half of the leeks (Snowstar) have gone mushy so for next year I'll grow Musselburgh again which seems to stand better in low temperatures. Most of the beetroot Monika which had stood through two recent winters have not survived this one.

Parsley has survived (just), rosemary has its tips frozen off. French tarragon and bay were in large pots in the cold greenhouse and have survived (the tarragon is showing new tips coming through).

And, presumably, we have not seen the last of this winter yet!

[oldherbaceous]

Managed to pick Brussel sprouts, purple culy kale, a couple of savoys and also dug some parsnips, but the other winter greens have all succumbed to the elements.

Hopefully we will get away lightly for the rest of the winter.

[John P]

Kale,Parsnips,Parsley,and some Carrots(Autumn King) with a row of Spring Cabbage have survived. JP.

[Colin Miles]

I was going to complain about my 'most frost resistant cabbages' - Tundra. This is the second year in a row I have lost all the cabbages. Last year it was January King. The leeks - Neptune - are also mushy.

But the Brussels - Brilliant - have survived though pretty tasteless, and all the sprouting broccoli, Garnet, Red Arrow, Claret. Parsnips fine which is what you would expect.

[Compo]

Well most things survived but it was a bit milder here possibly
the purple sprouting snapped on some of the leaves but is romping away despite the damage, the plants are odd shaped but look very healthy. I have january king, excel and a winter cauli all small in size but growing away, so we will see what actually fruits.

Has anyone tried the flower sprouts that were new for last year the plants are great, but the flower sprouts small and not very big? Could be the weather. We will see.....how it goes

[DiG]

Last year the temperatures here were just as low but most of my veg survived. I can only put the failure down to the sustained period of cold with the daytime temperatures staying well below freezing.

While I am sorry to hear that other growers have lost plants over this very cold spell, as a relative novice in the veg growing world, it is comforting to know that it is probably not anything that I have done that has caused my losses. Very few mentions on the TV programmes or in magazines about the failures.

My experience this winter has been similar with respect to the brassicas. Cabbage ‘Tundra’, Cavolo Nero and swede ‘Brora’ were particularly badly affected. I am managing to harvest some sprouts (Bosworth) although some of the larger ones have rotted inside, as Monika’s have done.

The spring cabbages have survived so far. Hopefully, the pigeons won’t find their way in to the bed as it only has the side protected; I removed the top just before the snow.

Diane

[oldherbaceous]

Dear DIG, i think the pidgeons are probably waiting until the spring cabbage reach a nice size.

[Elaine]

We have lost all our brassicas for the second year running..cabbage, sprouts, purple sprouting and caulis, all mummified under the snow. The leeks are very poor. To add insult to injury, our potatoes, stored in the allotment shed, well protected ( we thought) by newspapers and fleece have had it too. They obviously froze solid and when they thawed, were useless.
The spring cabbages have survived, probably due to the wire netting pigeon protection keeping the snow from cocooning them.

I am not at all happy, having to buy greens from shops again.

Cheers.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I've also lost much more than usual, half my stored potatoes, quite a few of the taller brassicas which the weight of snow bent over and they've rotted from the damaged stem. The frost killed most of my winter cabbages, but the brussels are OK and quite a few of various kales. The leeks did OK even though they are supposed to be a more tender early one - Jaune de Poitou, although one or two went mushy and I've still got quite a few usable ones.

I wonder if February is going to be a return to the cold, I can't remember one when we didn't get at least some snow. It hasn't been as bad a January as we usually get. Isn't gardening exciting - we never know what is going to happen next!

[Monika]

I think this year's problem were the very low temperatures coupled with brilliant sunshine during the day. The plants will have dried up because they could not take up any moisture (they actually looked completely limp, as they might in a very dry summer).

Two small rays of sunshine: I lifted all the parsnips in early December, prepared and froze them in chunks (as suggested by somebody on this forum) and thereby saved them. And today, whilst digging, I found two perfectly good beetroot which I will use over the weekend!

[Primrose]

My Mussleburgh leeks survived all the ice and snow, but strangely the torrential rain last week has turned most of them mushy inside. Only the very thick stemmed leeks have survived unscathed. My Cavalo Nero looks OK, but can't figure out how the whitefly managed to survive the sub zero temperatures.

[Tigger]

We've lost all of our greens and the autumn sown broad beans. The herbs look as though they might recover yet and most of the leeks have survived. just waiting to see if the asparagus is still there!

On the up side, the garlic looks better than ever, onions have made it through and the early peas and beans I put in the tunnel have managed so far without heat.

[Colin_M]

It's really useful getting everyone's feedback here.

Like others we've had mixed success. Less has died this year compared to 2009-10, though my brassicas were covered with Enviromesh which may have offered some protection.

I was going to complain that our Cavalo Nero wasn't romping away, but see I'm lucky to have any alive still . Some of our garlic has come up but the rest is still waiting to peep. I think we usually get a good period of growth here in Bristol in Oct/Nov. However it was much frostier than normal for us by November so I guess that growth has yet to happen.

Our unpicked beetroot wasn't as lucky and is now a dark purple mush in the back garden It seems that whitefly have mastered the art of winter survival, so I may have to resort to JB's nicotine treatment soon.

[Monika]

About the beetroot I found, apparently undamaged by the frosts: I baked them today because they seemed perfectly firm, but on peeling them, I really did not like the smell of them - musty, so they ended up in the compost after all.

[glallotments]

Our cabbages have gone mushy too - we thought that the red cabbage had survived until we cut one in half, The over wintering brassicas have had a battering with only the curly kale looking healthy - we'll have to wait and see how/if they recover in spring. I think it was being weighted down by snow for so long that spoiled them.

Over wintering onions look OK with some spring onions surviving. Carrots and parsnips are fine.

Parsley is battered but has fresh green shhots and the rosemary is perfect. Other herbs generally look a bit scraggy at this time of year so we'll have to wait til sping to see if they grow away.

We're picking our way through stored potatoes - throwing any out that look frosted. The squash hace suffered more this year though with some Crown Prince frosted even when stored in the cold greenhouse.