How early is too early? Question about early starts and wintering over indoors

[HamdenRice]

This is partly in response to the what is still growing in your garden thread, and the many experiences others have related.

This is the first year I've grown a late fall/early winter garden and I find it amazing. I had an arugula and baby collard salad last night for dinner that was nothing short of amazing. The taste is like no salad I've ever had.

My only regret is that I wish I had grown about 10 times more, because I was really just experimenting and there's not enough for salad more than once or twice a week.

It's about 30-40 degrees at night and this is not killing the Brussel sprouts, arugula, collards, parsley, sage or cilantro, but I assume the end for some of them is near -- a deep freeze or snow.

But if I was able to go this long, how early can I start with these cold weather crops on the other side of the big freeze? Would these same crops do well at similar temperatures in the spring -- late February and March, for example?

Also, before the basil died, I took a cutting, and it is growing roots in water in a window sill. I also took a tomato plant cutting, but surprisingly it's not growing roots yet, but it hasn't died.

If the tomato and basic get rooted in soil, can I put them out in the early spring for an early start, and the tomato, being an annual, will it produce fruit?

I'm thinking of putting down seeds in flats for new parsley, collards, brussel sprouts, arugula, lettuce, and spinach now for very early spring. Has anyone done this successfully?

P.S. I'm in NYC, forget the zone number.

[Kolesar]

1. Start "cold season" crops in August

And expect to harvest them into January. I don't think it is practical to start anything outdoors now through March. I don't think the seeds will germinate in the cold soil.

You could set a cold frame around your lettuce and greens, or put row covers on your big plants. I had luck mounding huge piles of leaves around my brussel sprouts and broccoli and they did last into December.

The classic "Four Season Harvest" explains this. I just read it, so I missed a year.

[wildeyed]

2. The problem with starting seeds outside in early spring is that they take forever to germinate.

Last year I had great luck with early kale, broccoli and lettuce that I started in flats in Feb and then transfered into the garden. I direct sowed spring mix around March or April and that did well, too.

Currently I have bok choy and red leaf lettuce that has been surviving 20 degree night time temps and complete neglect, so I may do those again in the spring. Chard should do well, too. I have never been able to grow carrots under any circumstances. Sigh.

Those first green salads in the spring are pure heaven. I didn't get around to planting much for the fall, and I am regretting it now. The store bought lettuce is so blah!

[uppityperson]

3. Our tomato surprised us by living 3+ yrs, brought inside during winter.

The first yr we brought it in because it had green tomatoes on it we wanted to ripen. It continued to live and we had our first new batch in April. It lived outside the next summer, back inside last winter, back outside this summer. MrUP doesn't want it inside again, so we are letting it go free this fall.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. If it roots, the basil should do fine all winter in a sunny window.

I have friends whose Italian relatives did that every year in Queens.

Tomatoes aren't really annuals-- we just treat them as such. In warm enough areas they can winter over and produce for a least a second season. I don't know how well they would do indoors however.

Starting seeds in flats is a good idea the parsley and greens but you should time it so that they're germinating about 6 weeks before the last frost date (find this out with a google search.)If you plant healthy starts and a late frost happens you should be able to save them by covering them at night with a floating row cover (this is a lightweight synthetic fabric that protects from lighter frosts without flattening the plants.) If you're really serious about extending the season, build cold frames or a simple greenhouse. You only have about 4 months of real winter in a typical year and it would be well worth it for the leafy greens alone.