WHAT TO PLANT

This chart is compiled from my experiences, along with recommendations from the Sustainable Market Farming website and Johnny’s Selected Seeds charts, along with a few other resources. It is by no means exhaustive, in terms of crops or possible varieties, but it provides an idea of the wide array of crops that can be grown deep into — if not all the way through — winter, depending on your location and infrastructure.

Sustainable Market Farming also has kept detailed results of kill temperatures for crops under different conditions (uncovered, covered, tunnel, etc.), which you can peruse on its website: https://bit.ly/2JeP2o0.

This information helps you know just how hard you need to work to keep particular crops and cultivars alive given the weather forecast.

Note: With forecasts, it’s very important to adjust for your particular microclimate on your property.

For instance, because my farm opens to the north-by-northwest, I tend to run about 2 to 5 degrees colder than the forecast. I often get frosts or freezes or much harder frosts/freezes than others in my county. Just on the other side of my woods to my south, it’s usually a few degrees warmer than the forecast, with less and milder frosts and freezes. Such is the difference windbreaks, orientation and other factors can make to your forecasted temperatures.