Ready for fresh winter veggies? Start with these tried-and-true favorites. Basically, you’ll be using your garden beds or containers as a living, outdoor refrigerator. With proper care, these hardy vegetables will stay alive all winter long, and you can harvest them at your leisure. As the days become shorter throughout October and November, they’ll slow down and then stop growing. These five vegetables still have time to reach a harvestable size before they go dormant. "Storing" your carrots in the ground means additional free space for other purposes in your storage area.Have you noticed that hint of an autumn chill in the air? The days are getting shorter, but the vegetable planting season isn’t over yet! If you’ve been limiting your vegetable garden to one growing season, it might be time to try something new.You can dig carrots from tunnels whenever needed.While the tops may appear a bit tattered and torn by mid to late winter, they can be snipped at 1–2" above the root shoulder, giving your overwintered carrots a fresher look that distinguishes them from stored carrots. Overwintered carrots still have green tops.If you can justify using tunnel space for overwintering your carrots (rather than for spinach production, for instance), there are a few advantages to this approach that digging and storing your carrots cannot provide: The trick is to keep the soil insulated just enough to allow for easy digging of the roots throughout winter. Example: 'Sugarsnax 54'Įven in areas where low tunnels are appropriate, heavy row covers and mulching may need to be applied to prevent freezing. This is also the type of carrot commonly processed as a "baby" carrot by slicing the long root, then shaving the pieces down to snack size. Very popular in the US industrial segment. Imperator types perform best in deep, light soils that allow their roots to grow straight down, without small obstructions distorting shape. Long, slender roots often reaching 10" or more in length. Popular in Europe, Asia, and South America. As a result of their wedgelike form, Chantenay types typically have strong tops and perform well in heavy soils. Broad-shouldered, tapered roots, with pointed to slightly rounded tips. Nantes are popular around the world, particularly in Europe. Comprising myriad varieties, this type ranges in length and width from slender, pencil-thin roots to mini (3–4" long) to large (7–8" long). Cigar-shaped roots with blunt tips, some more pointed and not as blunt-tipped as others. Example: 'Atlas' is an improvement upon the French heirloom with sweet flavor. Types/varieties that are not characteristically prone to bolting.Earlier-maturing varieties, so they will be ready to harvest before temperatures become too warm.Varieties described as having good flavor even in warm conditions.Look for these 3 criteria when choosing varieties to plant in spring: These variations are why it is important to choose the right varieties for your spring sowings. Although most types can be planted in the spring for summer harvest, in some varieties, maturation during the warmer weather of summer can result in off-flavors that are unpleasant. When carrots send up flower stalks, the storage portion of the plant becomes woody and fibrous, rendering the crop unpalatable/unmarketable. When this threshold is met, they are directed away from the energy-gathering/storing, root-development phase of their life cycle toward the reproductive, flowering/seed-production phase. The types that more readily bolt have a higher cold-dormancy threshold temperature than those that do not bolt as readily. Kuroda and purple varieties, in particular, will typically bolt prematurely when sown in cool spring conditions. By virtue of this requirement, some types, when exposed to cool spring weather as juveniles, have a tendency to bolt - produce flowers and go to seed. Carrots are biennial, taking two years to complete their lifecycle, so they require a "cool" season in order to produce seed. There are a few exceptions to this, involving variations between different varieties' reproductive triggers and flavors, corresponding to changes in temperature. Most types of carrots can be planted in the spring for summer harvests.
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