I would cover the Cabbage and Kale. We have been in the single digits and the uncovered rutabagas are just fine. The tops look rough, but we have been in the teens and single digits for over 10-15 days.

In years past, the leeks have been fine until I couldn't chip them out of the frozen ground. I have no experience with Brussels, celeriac, or parsnips.

We will be in the deep freeze from Wednesday until next Monday and it won't be above freezing and single digits lows.

Jay

i would cover cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts. leeks should be fine. might be some foliage die back but should not be fatal. not familiar with the other crops.
makes the most sense to harvest what you can at this point.
good luck. when it goes much below 20 i cover the stuff that's already inside and still have some loses.

cover the celariac, kale and cabbage. The rest can take the cold with no loss of quality (kale can take the cold but you might get a bit of damage on some leaves if not covered.

A single layer of AG 30 will protect things well and even AG 19 should give you great protection. If you get any snow that will add to the protection.

I would cover the ones that bring in the most money first. Root crops will usually continue better than above ground crops.

You do know that even cotton sheets will help some, just NO plastic. Anything that is fabric (again NO plastic) will help.. Time to find all those older sheets and blankets (just don't make the blankets too heavy).

Even leaves will help protect (try to stay away from the walnut leaves).

Are you going to have rain, also? Our weatherman is watching what you will be getting, since your weather will become our weather less than a week later after it goes over the mountains.

I'm not growing for market in the winter, but my heart is heavy for my fellow farmers here. What a bummer to have this so early in the season! Good Luck Mark, and I'd be interested in a report, when it's all over, on how things turned out!

Thanks folks for the advice and kind words. It's great to have this group as a resource and a place to connect with similar growers . I also find myself with a deeper sense of respect for those of you that manage to pull off winter farming in much, much harsher climates than mine. Kudos to you.

It sounds like with the exception of the rutabagas, it's the brassicas I need to worry most about. If I include the kohlrabi and overwintering cauli with the others mentioned, that totals about 1200 bed ft.
Then there's some small plantings like carrots and celeriac that need it too. And the salad and spinach in the greenhouse.
I do have tons of AR-19 but it's in a complete state of bundled chaos, so today is going to be a lot of fun......

I'll report back when it warms up and let you all know how things did.
-Mark

Oh, more advice is still welcome, especially specifics like what Jay mentioned about the rutabagas. Thx

Good luck, I am glad I can help. There are so many factors that need to be taken into account. Wind, moisture, warmth the day before and day after, amount of sun, etc, etc, etc. I am sure you know that.

We have a winter market on Saturday and an artic cold front moving in tonight. I will be harvesting all my kale, lettuce, chard, cilantro, bok choy, and maybe some dill. I also still have tatsoi growing outside with some row cover over the top. I didn't know that stuff was this hardy I got my carrots dug, washed and bagged yesterday while it wa 65 degrees. I also watered everything in the high tunnels. They were lookin a little thirsty!.

After I get it all harvest, we will cover everything up and unfortunately it will remain covered until at least next Tuesday. It is suppose to be below freezing for highs until then, at least.

Jay

If you have enough AR-19 I would cover the more sensitive crop twice I mean double cover it.While clear plastic is useless for the cold,heavy BLACK plastic is very useful as a top layer over the floating covers unless you get too much rain,for indoor greenhouse it works very good as top layer too.Good luck!

You can also put a sheet of plastic over top of the row cover on it's own set of hoops. We do this for a lot of things and it works very very well as all of the wind of blocked and the row cover keeps the heat in and keeps the plastic from touching anything. But there has to be a layer or two of row cover under the plastic.

Leeks and parsnips can survive all winter here so cover them last. I have never grown celeriac. Kale is hardier than cabbage or Brussels.

Here is my report from the 4 season forum from 11/16. I like to gather as much info on cold weather growing as possible.

"It got down to 11 degrees here Tuesday morning so when I picked for market Thursday afternoon I wasn't sure which crops would make it even under row cover. Mizuna under one layer got touched enough to be unpickable. Napa under 2 layers was ok but outside leaves were damaged. Chard under 2 layers seems about done but a few inner leaves were fresh. Most lettuce under 2 layers was ok but some of the outside leaves died. Broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower was not dead but was soft. I didn't get a chance to check beets. Kale, spinach, tatsoi, arugula and bok choy were all quite good under 2 layers and have shown growth. Pea shoots under 2 layers were still alive and delicious. Turnips in the open didn't look great leaf-wise but were pickable. Carrots and parsnips were fine as well as leeks and scallions. Parsley, dill and cilantro under 1 layer were fine but had no growth. I plan on another picking of greens and carrots."
A week after this I picked baby rutabagas that had not been covered and leeks.

How did things survive? I am looking at single digit temps, and maybe below zero for lows next week. Way too early for this to happen and with such cold temps we will likely lose some things like collards and kale as well as all lettuce. But we have lots of storage crops for our winter markets.

If they have row covers on they may be fine.

So here's an update for anyone interested.
Temps at my place hit about 8F at the lowest, and never got above freezing for 8 or 9 days. It was colder not far from here on the valley floor where most of the larger farms are. This storm was the coldest one we've had since 1972.

Here's the damage report as of now: (rc=row cover)
Rutabagas- no rc, seem fine
Brussels sprouts- rc, lost some flavor and crunch still salable,
Cabbage- rc, some outer damage, fine if peeled a bit
Celeriac- rc, fine
Leeks- rc, fine
Carrots- rc 2 layer, fine
Kohlrabi- rc 2 layer, some texture loss, salable
Spinach and salad- in high-tunnel, rc, fine

Yet to be determined: Kale, parsnips, overwintering cauli, tokyo turnips, radish, various greens.

Thanks for all the advice!
-Mark

The parsnips will be absolutely fine. They always overwinter for me and then I save seed.