Help! How Cold Can Brassicas Stand?

Front roared through here this morning, dropping temps from 63 to 38 in less than an hour and the wind is blowing 25-30 mph. It is supposed to get to 19 for a while tonight. We haven't had this kind of cold in four years. I asked in the vegetable forum early this morning and have not one response so I will ask here amongst my smart friends.
I have lettuce, carrots, cabbages, brussel sprouts, broccoli, onions, garlic, Mexican and creeping oregano, and rosemary. Here is what I have done so far. Harvested all broccoli, radishes, carrots that were big enough. Cabbages and brussel sprouts aren't ready yet. Some lettuce went into my fridge rest is still outside. I have piled leaves around my young brassicas then covered with blankets, same with carrots and onions, garlic too. Nothing for my big plants.
Web says many different things, 25 degrees, 9 degrees, protect, don't protect, die, won't die. Sigh.
In a week we will be back to warmer temps and I really don't want to lose them for one or two nights of cold.
I even have my one remaining milkweed trussed up like a Christmas goose in hopes I can keep some leaves viable for Marty's caterpillars. Fortunately I am through lambing, I learned my lesson four years ago but I have two of my does that are close to popping.
How do y'all handle the winter weather for your winter veggies?

mulch well with leaves and cover the lettuce. You want good insulation. Our ground never freezes so dont sweat the root veggies but mulch and cover to save the tops so they can continue to grow. I have never had the cold affect my broccoli or cabbage or brussel sprouts. The milkweed can be saved by taking cuttings and place in water in a bright window. The plant itself wont freeze but the leaves probably would.

This morning my thermometer read 17 F degrees.
I never recorded such low temperature since I lived in this house (9 years).
I didn't cover anything, since the forecast was not showing any rain, also I wanted the sun to warm up the plants.
So far, here what I have planted outside and nothing has been damaged: broccoli, fennel, garlic, onions, radishes, beets, tender lettuce, kohlrabi, carrots, parsnip.
Let's keep finger crossed.
The sun is up right now, no wind and the temperature reads 31 F degrees.
Looking forward to some warm weather.

Block from wind. onions, garlic shouldnt freeze. Cabbage family wont handle SUSTAINED freezing, again Block from wind. Anything piled up around the plant - pine needles leaves straw should help. Snow would insulate- even grass stays green under snow. Ice will kill. As long as the plants are healthy to begin with- they will be ok. Sounds like you did good, they should be fine while sun shines.

My Kale and Collards are doing fine with no protection, the Swiss Chard is also alive, but not looking as good. Our temperatures have gone down to 15 so it was pretty cold.

Mine I am not goin to touch, look like dry frozen sculptures now. Shall see what pulls thru and take pix when my camera thaws out a bit longer...

My temps have been quite a bit lower than anything I see here the cabbage seems to be the toughest the collards did good until we got into single digits 3° some of my stuff was covered with leaves and it is not dead BUT it is "burned" almost to ground level it is raining here today so that will help warm the soil up in my fall gardens the lettuce is usually the first casualty followed by the chard..If you are doing all you can then the sun is the real enemy unless you can hose everything down before the sun gets to it I am having real good luck with some row covers made of white plastic barrels split lengthwise down the middle I have six halves and everything under the six is thriving JOE

My firespike looks like black curtains and ditto my brugs and lantanas. Duranta also burned but not all the way to the ground.

((Sorry to hear that, Marty!))

1) bronze leaf mustard- I might get 2 plants survive, just too small.
2) salvia-and a rosemary appear fine
3) lettuce, some froze but tasted great at warmup, along with collards, oregano, thyme, and parsley
4) found in my parsley and have yet to id
5) radish, onion, and fern leaf dill
none were covered, now they are drowning, all are surprises

Kitt, that is the cutest caterpillar Ive seen in a while but I dont know his/her name. Sorry.

Wow I wish I would have planted my romanesco, I didn't think I could grow squat during winter.. Silly newbie lol!

Kitt - I think your mystery caterpillar is (or should I say 'will be') a turbulent phosphila moth :)

Hmm, Kittriana, rosemary is ALWAYS dead in the winter up north. You either have to bring it in, treat it as an annual, or buy this special expensive cultivar called Arp. You guys down here have all the luck. ^_^

You nailed it! well, smilax I have tons of, he needs to relocate away from my parsley!!!
Becky- I am in a microclimate- wierd things grow or die with no reason. I wanted green things to munch on when I come in off the road and am sick of iceberg lettuce and tomatoes parading as salad all yr long. I did manage to get my meds tended, but didnt get everything tended again. Joy, if my stuff lives, it lives, I will be there as soon as the kids and grandkids survive these flus...and I get back from the northern areas...
which romenesco- squash, broccoli, cauliflower? Broccoli was an Anasazi veggie- that area is cold and the snow doesnt melt in the shadows- the wind sucks the moisture out of frozen clothes and snow, and broccoli thrived. I know the newer strains are more heat tolerant, tho. Every farmer all the way to Oklahoma that I know has his greens planted and bigger than mine for winter- onions, garlic, mustard, turnip, beet, collards, radish, cabbages to avoid the heat and cabbage worms of late spring, I have to look Lipan up again- english peas even do good as fall/winter crop- snow wont faze em- or didnt used to anyway. Gotta go mark my pix

I have 3 rosemarys goin good- they waited til summer was over to do so...non are Arp. This one I will take cuttings of when I trim and take to Joys, and in Ardmore, Ok I grabbed a twig of what I believe to be 'Spice Island', stuck it in a small juice bottle, ignored til fall when roots showed up, moved to dirt and ignored it totally. It is now splitting into branches, and nex Jan I will trim it. The prostate rosemary the ants are trying to take it over, and there was air on the roots around it when I got home, I packed more dirt, but then it rained and the ants are back. sigh. No pix of the prostate on this laptop..

However, my paperwhites are blooming! Annnnnnnnnd, I have 5 fat caterpillers. I had 6 but lost one. That's not a euphemism...He is literally lost, in, "I cant find him."

Better watch those birds- cat snatchers they are, my paperwhites are halfway up, no blooms yet

Kitt - Hope you can find him and move him away from your herbs too :)
I hear you on the wanting fresh veggies, really hope to do good this year w mine. This will be my first year growing a PLANNED garden. Up until now it's just been one bumbling experiment after another, tucking things in here and there hoping they like where I put them, a LOT of trial and error. Luckily Mother Nature has been very forgiving and my ol black thumb is beginning to show some green!
I have some romanesco "broccoli". I use the quotation since I later learned it's technically a cauliflower. Should have planted it sooner, guess I need to look up when my next chance is..
Peas too. I have some w 'marvel' in the name. Was it English marvel? Idk, too lazy to google now.
Lipan is an hour west of Fort Worth, smack dab between mineral wells and stephenville, off hwy 281.
Wish my rosemary looked half, shoot, a tenth as good as yours.. Mine are brown down to 3-4 inches above soil!

Wow! I found this picture of the moth caterpillar, amazing
https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/20048113!
O.K. I will try again

https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/20048113/fullscreen

Well I give up, it doesn't work. Now it does, go figure.





This message was edited Jan 10, 2014 11:02 PM

Cool pic Josephine, if you cross your eyes it almost looks like they're trying to spell a word! Lol

Thank you Becky, how did you know it was this moth so quickly? Is it common in your area?
It looks like it could be damaging to some plants, I couldn't find what it feeds on, do you know?

smilax-

Wish I could say I identified him thanks to my vast knowledge of bugs, but I just googled him :D

I found #6!!! today I have 6 fat cats and they are indoors, Kitt. There is a native nursery near me but they only had two plants and only one had some leaves. I could not get off work before they would close so my neighbor pitched in and swung by there on her way to pick up her child at school. Today, I found another nursery a bit farther away that had 3 gorgeous bushy plants so I had to go get them. The bigger the cats get, the faster the foliage disappears. I never knew they ate so much. They turned the last two plants into "sticks" in 24 hours. Im hoping this latest will get them thru to pupation. I began to wonder if they will just keep eating as long as there is food? I hope not.

They are prob in hyper mode cuz of the weather bein cool. Gotta get those biscuits before the other chow hounds find it. Seems the closer to Fall it is, the faster they eat everything to nubs. Or maybe its the heat... tuckered out this morn. Brain snoozes takin over,

Be careful with those brain snoozes. They can turn into bent fenders. Ask me how I know. chuckle.

Auto pilot. like MIB. Like a banker knowing figures. Brain snoozes for me justmean I miss exits, level out and headfor the other coastline and get rested and happy. Cops dont want us to do that so keep drivers tired all the time on cheap unpaid city runs. Headin for the cold north now.