If you planted up in September or October, your plants should have established their roots by now and hopefully done a bit of growing. They may still be quite small, and that’s okay.
My plants still look very young
If they are growing outdoors, either in beds or pots, then it is to be expected that the plants will still look fairly young. It will depend when you planted them – those planted in September will be further ahead than those planted in mid-October – and on how warm it has been in your area. We would hope that most of your leafy crops will have a few leaves growing by now, whilst other root veggies etc may still look quite sparse.
How can I help the plants grow faster?
The very best thing you can do for winter plants is to give them warmth and shelter from the cold and wind – you can do this by using cloche tunnels, or horticultural fleece. If you’re growing in pots, you may consider moving pots into a greenhouse or porch. Warming the soil helps too – if you can add a mulch, that’s a great way to help soil temperatures regulate.
When will I be able to harvest them?
You might find you can begin harvesting some of the outer leaves of plants like winter lettuces or salads, or a few spinach and chard leaves. Others, like pak choi and tatsoi may still take a while to reach maturity and you might need to wait until mid/late December. Sometimes we find that kale, wild rocket and a few others take a while to get going – if they haven’t made much progress yet, they may have simply slowed down for winter already. If this is the case, you can expect a nice flurry in early spring as soon as the temperatures begin to rise.