Winter Crops. What Can You Sow Before Winter And When? Photo

One of the most valuable qualities of a successful gardener is a competent distribution of labor and time. There is always a lot of work on the ground, and therefore, having completed certain operations in the fall, you can relieve yourself a little in the spring. But what can facilitate spring labor? The answer is winter crops!

Content:

• What are winter crops?
• What are the benefits of winter crops?
• What can you sow before winter?
• How to sow seeds in late fall?
• Crops for winter sowing

What are winter crops?

The definition of what is sowing under winter is in the very name of the agricultural practice - sowing before winter. It is the sowing of seeds in the beds at a stable air temperature in the region of 0 ° C and a soil temperature of +2 … + 4 ° C is called winter crops. In different climatic zones, this moment comes at different times, if somewhere it is around the end of October, then in other places and in November.

What are the benefits of winter crops?

The benefits of sowing vegetables before winter are quite extensive and worth noting.

• Firstly, this is getting the harvest 2 - 3, and with a film cover and 4 weeks earlier than with spring sowing.
• Secondly, getting more resistant to return frosts, diseases and pests of seedlings.
• Thirdly, significant time savings during spring work.
• And finally, a greater yield of products from the same area, through the possibility of using repeated crops.

What can you sow before winter?

The choice of crops sown from autumn is wide enough. These are: spinach, lettuce, radish, parsley, dill, beets, carrots, salad mustard, onion, leek, sorrel, cucumber herb, rucolla, parsnip, coriander, rhubarb, cauliflower, red cabbage and Chinese cabbage.

In addition, before winter it is beneficial to plant garlic and onion sets, and for those who are fond of growing medicinal herbs, sowing sage, chamomile and valerian officinalis.

How to sow seeds in late fall?

In order for podwinter crops not to bring difficulties, it is necessary to prepare for them already from the end of September - the beginning of October. Preparation consists in digging, fertilizing and forming beds, choosing seeds, buying planting material.

A place for autumn crops must be chosen sunny, not windy, elevated - not suffering from stagnation of spring moisture.

Seeds should be chosen deliberately: buy varieties that are resistant to low temperatures and flowering, needing a short daylight hours, characterized by early ripening.

It is possible to apply for winter crops, both organic matter and complex mineral fertilizer, but always with a reference to the sown crop.

It is necessary to start sowing when temperatures stabilize in the region of the zero mark of the thermometer, usually this is the period of the first morning frosts. However, you should not rush to sowing - if the soil freezes and then thaws, this can provoke the germination of seeds, and then their death.

If time is missed, you can sow seeds over small frosts, just sprinkle it not with earth from the garden, but with previously prepared dry loose soil. Usually it is made up of equal proportions of river sand, rotted compost and simple garden soil.

The seeding rate for winter crops is increased by 25-50% in relation to the usual recommendations.

The seeding depth depends on the type of soil: for light sowing, it is carried out 0.5 cm deeper than usual.

And in no case, do not water the podzimny crops ! But be sure to mulch.

Crops for winter sowing

Planting winter garlic

Today, there are two ways to plant winter garlic. Their difference lies in the depth of the insertion of the teeth, and therefore in the timing of the work.

The traditional method involves deepening the planting material to a depth of 3 to 5 cm and is carried out 2 to 3 weeks before the onset of persistent cold weather. For the middle zone, this is the end of September, for the south and west - the beginning of November.

The second method is the deep landing method. It is performed with the deepening of the teeth by 10 - 15 cm, which allows you to start work from mid-August to mid-October. However, it is more rational in a cold climate, because it shows the best results there.

But choosing a planting method is not yet 100% successful. It is necessary to properly prepare the beds for garlic. And here an important rule is the inadmissibility of introducing manure under the culture, since it reacts to this fertilizer with a violent growth of foliage, the formation of loose heads and instability to diseases.

It is necessary to fertilize the soil in garlic beds by introducing ash, well-rotted garden compost (3-4 kg per square meter), as well as mineral fertilizers, for example, nitrophoska (20 - 30 g per square meter). If the soil is acidic - lime is added under the predecessor, clay - for digging sand. Dry, as well as moist clay soils are not suitable for growing garlic.

For planting, it is better to select the largest and completely healthy teeth of zoned varieties. Before planting, the planting material should be etched with a 0.1% manganese solution.

For the successful cultivation of this crop, it is also important to observe crop rotation. You should not plant garlic after onions and potatoes, since they, like this culture, love potassium and are damaged by the same diseases, and after cucumbers, pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants. If, nevertheless, the garlic is planted over the garlic, then after collecting the previous harvest, vetch must be sown in the beds, followed by the incorporation of the green mass into the soil.

A common scheme for placing garlic in a garden bed is 10 × 15 cm.

Winter planting of onion sets

Good performance is given by podzimnaya planting of onion sets, especially in cold regions, where not only an earlier harvest is obtained, but also a higher yield. The bulbs planted in the fall are less affected by onion flies, downy mildew, they are easier to weed. And in order to preserve the planting material until spring, you need to try very hard, so the purchased seed is immediately sorted and prepared for planting.

The timing of planting the sevka coincides with the winter planting of garlic, but if you need to choose which crop to devote time to first, then the onion can wait a bit. The choice of a site for planting onions is no different. However, the land on the onion beds should settle well by the time work starts, and therefore it is prepared in advance for 2 - 3 weeks. Recommendations for predecessors do not differ either.

In order for the onion crop to be successful, it is better to choose special zoned winter varieties for autumn planting and be sure to select healthy planting material. In addition, if there is a choice, it is necessary to plant sharp varieties - they winter well, do not shoot, and by the time of harvest they have the same size as during spring planting.

Sorting through the sevok, 4 fractions are distinguished: with a diameter of 1 to 1.5 cm, from 1.5 to 3 cm, over 3 cm and up to 1 cm (wild oat). Each of them has its own characteristics and therefore is planted separately.

The first fraction (up to 1.5 cm in diameter) and wild oat are the best choice for winter sowing, since they do not give an arrow, which means they give the gardener less trouble. They must be planted according to the 3 × 15 cm scheme and grown until the heads corresponding to the variety are formed.

A sevok, 1.5 to 3 cm in size, is often grown for early feathers. In this case, it is grown either compacted or with nests - 3 bulbs per nest.

Onions over 3 cm in diameter are planted according to the scheme 8 - 10 x 15 - 20 cm.

The seeding depth is determined at the rate of 3 bulb sizes plus about 1.5 cm, or the bulb height multiplied by 3, plus 2 - 3 cm of mulch.

Winter sowing of carrots

It tolerates winter crops and carrots well.

When preparing a bed for it, it must be remembered that this culture loves loose soil and does not at all tolerate non-rotting organic matter (a manured bed can be used for carrots only for 2 - 3 years).

Therefore, the earth is well dug under it, ash, mineral fertilizers (for example, superphosphate - 20-25 g per sq. M. And potassium chloride - 10-15 g) or mature manure (3-5 kg per sq. M.) Are added and, if the soil is heavy, sand is added, if acidic - lime or dolomite flour. They let the earth settle, and with the onset of stable low temperatures (+ 2 … + 4 ° C), they begin to sow.

Celery can not be the predecessors for carrots, but cucumbers, potatoes, onions, cabbage are suitable. In order for the harvest to be successful, early and mid-season varieties are chosen for sowing, or varieties provided for podzimny crops. It is even better if the seed is granular, and very importantly - dry!

When planting carrots in winter, the seeding rate of seeds is increased by about 20-25% (this is about 1 g per square meter), and also provides for a greater depth of holes - 4-5 cm and the distance between grooves 20-25 cm.

If the planting of seeds is carried out after slight frosts, the grooves are covered with a previously prepared dry earthen substrate or simple, pre-sifted, garden soil, after sowing the bed is mulched.

When sowing carrots in autumn, it must be remembered that podzimny planting crops have low storage rates, so they should not occupy large areas.

Winter sowing of beets

Beets are recommended for autumn planting because of the rather long growing season, reaching up to 130 days in some varieties. Its sowing is carried out when persistent cold weather sets in on the street with a temperature of - 2 … - 4 ° C, which in some climatic zones are observed already in late October - early November. Here the main rule is the need to guess the sowing time in such a way that the seeds do not sprout, but only swell, otherwise they will die.

For podzimny sowing, choose special varieties that are resistant to cold, or varieties of early ripening that are resistant to shooting. Seeds are sown dry, to a depth of about 3 - 5 cm, at a distance of 5 - 10 cm from each other, with row spacing of 30 - 40 cm.

Before sowing, the beds are fertilized with organic matter (5 kg per square meter) and phosphorus-potassium fertilizers (15 g per square meter), if the soils are acidic, add dolomite flour (5 liters per square meter).

Mandatory for beets and crop rotation. It cannot be planted after carrots, cabbage, but it is recommended after tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, potatoes and peppers.

In order to get a harvest from the beds sown before winter a week earlier, the beets can be covered with a film and removed with the appearance of the first shoots.

It is not worth planting a lot of beets in the fall, since they do not have high keeping rates.

Winter sowing of parsley, dill and other greens

When sowing parsley and dill in the fall, it is necessary to adhere to the same rules as when sowing other crops in winter: dig up and fertilize the beds in advance, sow after the frost has come, slightly increase the depth and sowing rate, and at the end of the work, mulch the area with a dry substrate.

Plating parsley, forming aisles 20 - 25 cm, while its seed planting depth can vary from 1 to 1, 5 cm. Dill fall embedded to a depth of - 2.5 cm, leaving the distance between the rows 20 cm Precursors for umbrella can not be performed. plants of their own family - cilantro, carrots, caraway seeds, fennel, and maybe cucumbers, cabbage, potatoes, zucchini.

In addition to parsley and dill, before winter, you can sow: celery, spinach, rhubarb, cucumber grass, parsnips, mustard salad. Like all other podzimnie crops, they will sprout much earlier than spring plantings and will delight, reminding you that everything has been done correctly.