Persephone month & winter planting

[Zasso Nouka]

So we're into the Persephone month now with daylight being less than 10 hours but thankfully this far south it doesn't actually last very long, only till the 15th of January.

In another week or two it will be time to start seeding slow growing crops like sweet peppers and chillies indoors. Nasu are also a good one to start a week or two after that if you have a polytunnel or greenhouse you can move them out to at the end of March.

With winter solstice falling on the 21st of this month if you aren't going to get heavy snow towards the end of next week is a good time to start seeding hardy early spring crops like kabu, kale, nabana, corn salad. They will need protection with horticultural fleece while young and you'll need to keep a close eye on them for signs of bolting as it starts to warm up but should nevertheless get a decent harvest while waiting for less hardy vegetables to come along. Now is also a good time to seed carrots for a spring harvest, providing you have a suitable variety.

We start preparing our potato beds now so there is plenty of time for any weed seeds to sprout and be flamed off before planting begins at the end of February.

[Mister G]

Thanks for sharing.

On most nasu and chili seed packages, they advise to start sowing no earlier than February in the Kanto area. Is it because you are starting them in a greenhouse under cover?

[Zasso Nouka]

We start them indoors by a window and they get transferred out to out poly tunnels/vinyl houses around March then transplanted into our fields around the end of April. That means we can get about a month head start on other nasu farmers that grow outside.

You would need a heated greenhouse to get them through January and February in the Kanto region.

[Zasso Nouka]

We're out of the Persephone month now as today's day length is 10 hours and 1 minute . They were saying on the news yesterday that spring could well be coming early this year and AccuWeather is also predicting that February might be warmer than you'd expect so could be a good time to risk a few packs of seeds on some early plantings. Even if there is a brief cold snap and extra layer of horticultural fleece would probably provide sufficient protection to get any young crops through.

[Zasso Nouka]

Well, we're back in the Persephone month again with day length less than 10 hours so expect slower growth rates than at other times in the year.

Solstice is only a few weeks away so it's not long till daylight starts getting longer and by the second week of January day length will be over 10 hours again.

Keep warm everyone.