Treat a winter crop as a fixed stock that you draw down, not a crop that regrows, because plants grow little in short days. Size the bed by measuring how much a square metre holds at the autumn cut-off, dividing the weekly need into the whole winter’s total and adding a margin for losses. If the bed holds less than the winter needs, sow more area in August or plan for stored food to fill the gap.
A harvest-only winter crop is a vegetable that stops growing in short days and is picked through winter from the stock that was standing in the bed by late autumn.
The Bed Holds What It Held In Autumn, Less What You Eat And What Is Lost
The carrier guide (Four-Season Growing & Season Extension) says plants grow very little when day length is under 10 hours and that without the August sowing there will be no fresh greens from November through March. In deep winter, a leaf you pick is a leaf you do not get back for a long time. Planning then becomes accounting.
Worked Example: How Many Square Metres?
Illustrative inputs (replace with your own measurements and demand):
- Fresh greens wanted: 50 people × 0.1 kg per person per week = 5 kg/week.
- Winter length of harvest: 20 weeks (about November to March).
- Total: 5 × 20 = 100 kg.
- Standing stock measured at the autumn cut-off: 2 kg per m² (found by cutting and weighing one square metre of a comparable bed).
- Area needed with no losses: 100 ÷ 2 = 50 m².
- With a 30% allowance for losses to cold, disease and animals: 100 ÷ (1 − 0.30) = 143 kg of planted stock, so 143 ÷ 2 = about 71 m².
Every input is an assumption for the sake of the arithmetic. The point is the method: measure your own stock per m², fix the need per person, and divide.
What You Need
- A scale and a square-metre frame (four sticks).
- A record of the cut-off weight from last year.
- Cover to cut losses (Cold Frames & Low Tunnels).
Method
Step 1: Set the weekly need.
Step 2: Sample. At the autumn cut-off, harvest one square metre of a representative bed, weigh it and record.
Step 3: Compute the area as above.
Step 4: Plant it in August (Staggered Sowing Schedules).
Step 5: Ration the harvest. Plan to pick evenly through the winter, outer leaves first, and watch the stock. A bed eaten in December leaves nothing for February.
Step 6: Fill the gap with sprouts (Indoor Sprouting and Microgreens) and stored vegetables (Root Cellar Integration).
Common Mistakes
- Planning on regrowth — it does not come in deep winter.
- Eating the best leaves first and fast — the bed empties early.
- Ignoring losses — voles, rot and frost take their share.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Indoor Sprouting and Microgreens — filling the gap
- Combine with: Caloric Budget for a Community — what greens do and do not contribute