WVU Update
Published as a Special Insert for Farm Bureau News Fall 2012
Try growing some profitable winter crops
W est Virginia growers can grow and market local produce most of the year.
Winter, a traditionally slow season for vegetable farming, can be a great season for growers to provide a locally grown alternative to consumers used to buying their fresh foods at supermarkets.
Produce marketed during the offseason can be sold at higher prices, which often justifies higher investment costs. To control the growing environment and produce food during the winter, state growers need to use high tunnels, row covers, cold frames, and superior varieties. When these season-extending tools are used together, food can be grown, harvested, and marketed year-round in the Mountain State.
Root vegetables – carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, and radishes – can be harvested or overwintered from October to April in high tunnels. High tunnels are unheated greenhouse structures that can be constructed and operated at a fraction of the costs of greenhouse production.
Winter-grown root vegetables are in high demand since they are very nutrient dense and have optimal sweetness resulting from cold growing conditions. Root vegetables adapt to cold weather and low light during winter. In some regions of West Virginia, root vegetables can be overwintered in the open field when mulched with 6 inches of straw or grown in a low tunnel cold frame protected with fabric row cover.
Carrots grow in a high tunnel for winter harvest.( Photo by Spring Valley Farm, Slanesville)
If seeded before mid-September in a high tunnel, root vegetables are ready for harvest before early December. Rather than harvesting and storing the vegetables, you can simply store them“ in ground” in the tunnel and harvest them periodically. Row covers can provide additional protection against low temperature in the high tunnel.
Leafy vegetables, including mixed greens( mesclun), kale, spinach, chard, and lettuce, can also be grown throughout most of the winter in West Virginia. Kale, spinach, and chard are exceptionally cold tolerant. Like root vegetables, they have a sweeter taste when grown in cold weather. Spinach grown in a high tunnel continues to produce new leaves even in the coldest months of the year. For high tunnel production, seed these leafy crops in September for early winter harvest or in October for succession harvests starting in February.
Lettuce does not tolerate extremely cold temperatures and low light, but it can be harvested in the high tunnel until mid-December. In February, lettuce can be reseeded for spring harvest.
Leeks are emerging as a popular vegetable for year-round sales. Leeks have a mild onion flavor; they can be
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Insert Provided by WVU Extension Service and Davis College of Ag., Natural Resources, and Design Fall 2012
West Virginia Farm Bureau News 13