Cold Weather Crops

Summer Squash

As the colder weather approaches, we are starting to take out the summer crops (squash, corn, cucumber, eggplant, melons, gourd, pumpkins, tomatoes, etc.) which need temperatures from 65-90 degrees F to grow and are killed by frost. Marin is generally pretty cold from October to March and gets some light frosts during the colder seasons so we need some semi-hardy crops that can sustain temperatures as low as 35 degrees F (like beets, broccoli, Swiss chard, lettuce, carrots, celery, etc.) These crops are normally grown from the late fall and through the winter in mild climates, good for any small Bay Area farms. It should be interesting to see how these crops react to the cold weather, my question is whether or not the the frost will stunt the growth at all. Our summer crops turned out great and I'm sure our winter crops will too!

Collard with frost on leaves