Many novice summer residents are surprised in the fall why the neighbors are sowing something before winter, because imminent frosts can destroy the seeds.
Please put your likes and subscribe to the channel "About Fasenda". This will allow us to publish more interesting garden articles.
The thing is that the autumn planting of onions, garlic and other crops gives excellent results in spring, and the snow cover, on the contrary, protects them from frost. Learn about the rules of autumn sowing from our material.
Why planting plants before winter is useful
The seeds of some plants tolerate wintering well (they are classified as stable winter crops) and even benefit from it:
- First, they are cold hardened. The weak perish, and the strong grow stronger. Their shoots are more viable than seed shoots that fell into the ground in spring.
- Secondly, the fruits of overwintered plantings grow larger, healthier, since the plants go into growth before they have time to wake up and harm the seedlings insects and soil pathogenic organisms.
- Thirdly, gardeners who dropped out in the fall have a timed race, a kind of 2-week head start. They do not need to wait until the soil thaws and warms up in order to process it in the spring. The lead can be increased by another couple of weeks, covering the plantings with non-woven materials, building greenhouses when the snow cover melts.
Are there any disadvantages to winter crops?
The disadvantages include the following points:
- death of seedlings from frosts that return after thaws. In such cases, winter plantings will have to be covered;
- shooting, which can occur in root crops with sudden temperature changes. Moreover, instead of lush tops, the plant forms peduncles (arrows).
What to plant before winter comes
Obviously, there are more advantages to autumn plantings than inconveniences, but you need to choose the right planting material.
They tolerate wintering well:
- winter garlic;
- onions from seeds and sets of winter-hardy varieties;
- sorrel;
- spicy herbs (lemon balm, oregano, mint);
- winter hardy beets;
- carrot;
- radish.
As for carrots, their seeds germinate much worse during spring crops than those that overwintered in the ground. It's all about stratification - the activation of nutrients during seed hardening.
To get a feather of green onions in the spring, sow nigella seeds thickly in the fall. Also for spring salad products in the fall are sown:
- dill;
- spinach;
- all kinds of salad, including arugula;
- celery;
- cucumber grass;
- parsnip.
Cabbage also winters well: Peking cabbage, red cabbage, cauliflower. Its seeds are also worth sowing in the fall.
Is everything taken into account?
It should be borne in mind that the risk group includes medium-stable winter crops, primarily beets and carrots, prone to flowering when the variety is chosen incorrectly. The most resistant are the following beet varieties:
- Cold resistant 19;
- Egyptian flat;
- Polar flat K-249;
- Wintering A-474.
Among carrots, winter is better:
- Vitamin 6;
- Nantes 4;
- IIOH 336.
Radish is also not so simple. It needs a long daylight hours, and the following varieties adapt better to wintering:
- Rose red with a white tip;
- the varieties Zhara and Zarya, habitual for a long time.
When to start the autumn sowing
Ideally, it should be sown with a persistent average daily "zero", but for insurance against unexpected thaw it is worth waiting for the first frost and temperature difference from + 3 ° to -5 °, then start the autumn landing. But the beds need to be prepared in advance.
Have a nice harvest!
Do you know what to sow in autumn to get early shoots in spring?
Original articleand many other materials, you can find on ourwebsite.
Read also about hilling potatoes in the following article:Hilling potatoes: terms, rules, when and how to hilling