I have several comments on this. First of all, the easiest way to answer this question is to tell you to look at the Johnny's Planting chart for winter growing. I have been doing winter gardening for 5 years now and it is one of the better resources I have found. Too bad it just came out this year. I used 5 years of trial and error to develop my personal calendar. Also the Eliot Coleman books on Winter Harvest have charts too, very good resource. I put the link for the Johnny's planting charts below.

Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Winter planting charts

We use various systems to grow our winter produce. What works for me, may not work for you. Also, Mother Nature will always beat your best effort! Different crops follow different schedules.

Here are the Four systems and crops we use them with.
Transplants, Direct Seeding, Movable High Tunnels and Storage.

An important piece of advice, the days are getting shorter every day in this fall, so missing a planting window by a week can mean the difference between having a crop and not having a crop. I try to never miss my planting dates in the Fall. I have even taken days off from work (school teacher) to ensure planting happens when it should.

Transplants: Lettuce, Kale, Chard, Collards, Bok Choy, Napa Cabbage, Tokyo Bekana, Dill, and Cilantro.

I aim to start transplanting Kale, Chard, Collards, Bok Choy, Napa Cabbage, Tokyo Bekana by the end of September to the first week of October. These transplants were started from 8/25-9/1.

Lettuce, we do the same thing but we stagger the plantings. The time from seeding to transplanting is 3 to 4 weeks. So we usually do start succession 1, wait 2 weeks, start 2, wait 10 days start 3, wait 7 days and start 4. Then we plant them out at 21-28 days later. This way, we have lettuce all winter long (hopefully). We only do looseleaf heads. I gave up the baby lettuce, too much work. We also plant Summer Crisp/Batvarian lettuce, many of the varieties available. I am happy with their performance. The reason for the staggered start is the smaller lettuce handles the cold much better than the bigger heads. I plant 4 rows to a bed, 8 inches apart. I charge $2.50 a head, so that is $30 every 2 feet. (if all are harvested). They average over .5 lb (early season) down to .25-.3 of a pound (later in the season). This winter has been hard. All the mini head romaines froze out, total loss.

Two week difference in the 1st and 2nd planting. The 2nd planting was just transplanted in this picture.
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Direct Seeding: Spinach, radishes, haikuri turnips, cilantro, tatsoi, and carrots.

I direct seed these crops in early October but not past Halloween. These would be planted in high tunnels, sorry no pictures.

Movable High tunnels/low tunnels: Carrots

We direct seed carrots in late July/early August for winter production. They always take longer than the charts say (IMO). When the cold starts coming in late October/early November, we move the tunnels or cover up the low tunnels. Then we harvest as needed.

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I have been really happy with the low tunnel carrots this year. It is the first time I have done them this way. I will be doing it again next year.

Final method Storage crops: Turnips, Daikon Radishes, Watermelon Radishes, Rutabegas, some Radishes.

We direct seed these in August- September and harvest before they freeze in November.

I am sure I overwhelmed you with information, hope it helps.

Jay

Jay,

Thankyou for taking the time to respond, I hoped you would : ) I've read many of your post and have taken lots of your suggestions over the last year.

Direct seeded crops, no plantings past Halloween. When will you begin direct seeding again? Feb./March?

You get your transplants in the ground by the end of September/early October but do you continue planting transplants thru the winter, or is this your last transplant date until early spring (and if so, when in the spring do you pick back up transplanting)? Hope this makes sense!

Daylight lengths are of concern to me, as you mentioned. By mid-Feb we'll be back above 10.5hrs of daylight.

Your low tunnel carrots look great! What are you keeping them covered with in the winter? Any need to irrigate/water them during this time?

Good questions.

Question: Direct seeded crops, no plantings past Halloween. When will you begin direct seeding again? Feb./March?

Well it depends, I should be planting carrots now, but with bitter cold weather and the high tunnel not ready for them, I am waiting. I usually plant carrots in January, then start harvesting by early May. The rest of the crops, it is a toss up. I don't have markets until the end of April/early May, so I try not to plant too early. I usually start mid February for most direct seeded crops, but I also take a long hard look at forecasts and weather.

Question: You get your transplants in the ground by the end of September/early October but do you continue planting transplants thru the winter, or is this your last transplant date until early spring (and if so, when in the spring do you pick back up transplanting)? Hope this makes sense!

I quit transplanting in October-early November. I usually aim to start transplanting cool season crops by early March, tomatoes around March 20th and Zucchini and little cucumbers by April 10-15th. My goal is to be the first or one of the first ones to market with each crop. I can gain and keep market share this way.

Day length is super important.

About watering, you have to just monitor. If it is a warm, sunny winter, then yes you will need to water more. If it is cold, dull, cloudy then maybe not. IMO, it is best to start off the winter season with everything very well watered. I usually water the lettuce and kale buildings in December and again in January, when conditions are favorable. I usually don't water carrots in the winter, but you have to monitor. If they start drying out, and conditions are favorable, then water them.

The carrots have been covered since early November with the row cover, then plastic. In my location, I have lots of wind, so I buried the edges with dirt. I don't want to disturb this, if I can help it. So I just, take an 18 gallon tub, and crawl on in from the end and dig what I need. Not the funnest job, but it beats having to fight the wind shoveling dirt.

Jay, I just want to say it is so nice to have someone like you who describes how you successfully grow without bragging and being an egomaniac. There is a guy like that on the faecbook CSA growers forum who has such an ego! Your posts are not like that at all.

Thanks minnie, I appreciate it.

I enjoy sharing what I have found out. I have had many people help me along the way, so I am just returning the favor. I only ask that those who take any of my advice, to please help someone else out. We are all in this together, no need to reinvent the wheel.

Jay

I second that Minnie, and the same to you as well! This site and all of your post have been, without a doubt, the best resource I've found. University studies, reports, etc provide great information but to have feedback from real growers in "non-perfect" growing conditions has been a real asset in getting my farm & production off the ground.

I'll third that!!!! Jay you are fantastic. I know you are a super busy guy and really appreciate the time you make to share your knowledge.

Minnie, I know exactly who you are talking about. ;)

Jay,

When you typically plant carrots in Jan., do you pre-germinate the seed and then plant? If not, does the seed typically germinate and grow slowly until weather improves or does it sit without germinating until later in the winter? Do you have any kind of soil thermometer under your low tunnels and if so, what temp do you look for?

I have pre-germinated my seeds before and had great luck (especially on items I have difficulty with like Parsnip!). Germination temps are considerably higher on lots of crops than the actual desired grow temperature. A bit on for direct seeded crops : )

That link to Johnny's schedule refers to the importance of the "Persephone Period" where there is less than 10 hours of sun.

What if you have days length that never gets below 10 hours? Our shortest day was 9 hr and 53 minutes. We can have a few stretches of days that don't get above freezing with lows in the teens, but it's more common to see highs in the high 30s-low 40s and dipping into mid-20s at night

Do we just keep planting? Plant early and toss on a row cover?

I just plant the carrots, it can take a long time or short time to germinate. Just depends on the weather. I don't pre-germinate anything. It has taken 2 to 4 weeks for them to germinate.

Lazygardens:

I suppose you could probably plant and keep on growing all year long, in high tunnels and low tunnels of course. There may be a time of slowed growth, but not very long. I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. At my location by the end of January/early February you can see plants starting to grow more. January 27th is usually the first day with over 10 hours of sunlight.

Some protection with row cover you should be fine.

Jay

Eh ... seeds are cheap, and I have plenty of time, so I'll experiment.

The brassicas (wild mustard weed) is doing fine, recovered from the snow and 10F nights and the pigweed is sprouting ALREADY so I guess I could be growing something.

LOL DeRock. See I am not a b**ch. That jerk just makes me livid. I have never been able to NOT say something when someone is really out of line. Others are wiser than me in that respect. I just get fed up with the injustice of someone thinking they are all that!