Last of the Lettuce

[JimWWhite]

We're here in Central NC which I believe is Zone #7 and yesterday I cut the last of my romaine lettuce. We've been keeping it covered up at night and we lost a few heads to the hard freeze but I do think this is the latest we've had fresh lettuce. Next year I'm going to do a winter cold frame or frames and plant the fall lettuce in them. We still have kale and collards and they are thriving even though we've had 12F temps lately. We thought they were gone but when it rained this weekend they jumped right up and looked very healthy again. Earlier this year we had the last pot of fresh collards on Valentine's weekend so you know with the winter we had down here they are very, very hardy indeed. The brussel sprouts also are still looking healthy but I think I got them in too late to make any this year. Maybe they'll survive through the winter and make in the early spring as it start to warm up again.

 

[lesa]

Congrats on your late lettuce! I think you would be very happy with cold frames, down there. No reason you couldn't grow lettuce year round, with that kind of setup. Don't pull those Bsprouts- you could very well see growth in early spring. That happened to someone on here last year (can't remember who...) What is your last frost date?

 

[JimWWhite]

I believe here in central NC we can get a frost the last week in April. I am going to build at least one large 4x8 cold frame next month using hay bales and hopefully a large sliding glass door if I can find one at the ReStore. Maybe they'll have both sides and I can set up two of them. I'm going to set them both up in the middle of the garden so they'll be convienent. And I'm not going to mess with the brussel sprouts because they just may make. I think I'll probably mulch them with some more straw to give them a bit more protection but they'll be good until April or so.

 

[Andy J]

After several nights of temps from 15-25 degrees,my Romaine and Buttercrunch lettuce have finally killed over.I believe if the temps were normal for for this time of year in zone 8,they would be fine.I'm going to leave a few heads and see if they will make a comeback.

As for my Oak leaf lettuce,the cold hasn't affected it the least.I planted some the last week of November and it came up well but its growing real slow.

If we had normal temps,I believe all my lettuce would be in great shape.I can't wait 'till spring to try even more different types of lettuce.

Andy

 

[vfem]

I grew baby lettuce for salad, and we lost a bunch too... we're 7b south west of Raleigh.

I lost a bunch of chinese cabbage too because of all the ice & the snow we had.

I have a few heads of jersey cabbage I'm going to cut and bring in... its had it, and they are as big as they are going to get.

Last year & the year before I grew covered greens well into January.

 

[dragonlaurel]

I've still got a little baby lettuce holding on. The collards already got some frost-burned leaves, so I don't know how they survived. I put the top part of a soda bottle over the plant on freezing nights, but that's all.