filling, Filling, FILLING

[digitS']

Okay, the greenhouse furnace went on March 27th and aaalll of the seedlings, went out there the next day. This may have been the latest date for me to turn on that furnace in the last 10 years!

Now, the greenhouse is FULL!

Flats of some of the hardier plants have been spending the daylight hours in the new hoop house/attached shed. Actually, only some of the daylight hours since it takes as long as 4 hours into the day to get the temperature in there to about 50! During the nights, those flats are back in the greenhouse - on the floor . . .

This morning . . . as of just today . . . I've got a heater on in the hoop house! Fan, too. There's only the rosemary which can shrug off the 33 where things started at 6am this morning. The dozen+ flats of snapdragons, asters, etc. will be showing up when I've got the thermometer to 50!

The shed insulation was finished yesterday. The doors (2) were the last and I put foil-backed insulation board on them. The walls and roof are insulated with fiberglass bats. I'd like to cover the interior walls with cedar boards (like the exterior) but haven't located some old fence boards for that purpose, yet. I'll paint them white when I do or . . . the walls will just get the insulation board sheathing.

After nearly an hour . . . it's 40 in there!

Steve

 

[digitS']

The jury is still out on whether my little 800 watt heater can keep the 8' by 16' little structure warm enough during freezing temperatures. Warm enough would be, say, 45 when it is 30.

It was 30 at 6am and 32 at 9am. There was zero sunlight other than a general "lightness." In other words, there would be no way of knowing where the sun was in the sky because of the heavy clouds. The hoop house had reached 47 at 9am after 3 hours of heating. Right now, it is 52 in there but I can now identify the location of the sun (still no clear shadows in the backyard).

This day is what I was anticipating. Push has now come to shove. I will begin the 2nd round of up-potting the tomatoes and I've gotta get the earliest ones separated a little. They are starting to stretch so 18 in a flat is too many! Iwould be pleased to move them out of the greenhouse but there are better choices than tomatoes to go into the hoop house.

Oops! There's the sun! The greenhouse itself is warming and, at 11am, I can turn off the furnace in there. In minutes, that should be true in the hoop house. . . . until tonight. Then, I will need to decide if the snaps and asters should stay in there. Supposed to be lows in the twenties :/ the next 3 nights so . . . it is likely to be back to the greenhouse floor with those babies!

Steve

 

[Collector]

You really have a lot of plants to juggle around, hope your heat situation works out. Good luck with it...

 

[thistlebloom]

Whew Steve! You must get some kind of workout with all of that plant transport. Soon...soon, the nights will be more consistently warm.

 

[digitS']

I left them out there with the 800w heater and a fan . . .

I'm so tired . . . Oh, I only went out once after 10pm . . .

It didn't fall into the 20's outdoors as was predicted and has been 32 like, forever! The new hoop house is 44. Gosh, that's good enuf for snapdragons and things . . . zzzzzzzz

S'

 

[digitS']

The hoop house dropped to 39 by 5am.

I don't like to see that and probably should have tried to stop the fall at 42 at 4am. There was this illusion before my eyes at 4 , that the sky was overcast.

Since it is now 28 outdoors, I can see that there is some consistency in the hoop house performance. I hadn't really intended to go with that small of a heater but had also thought I'd pushed the envelop as late as I could utilizing the space in the main greenhouse. Truth be known, I've pushed that envelop a lot farther other springs :/.

Steve

 

[canesisters]

Having always lived in VA, it's hard to imagine 20's and 30's heading toward the end of April.
Once it gets warm - how warm does it get? Here we usually get about 1 week of 'spring' and then jump directly into 80's and 90's with HIGH humidity.

 

[digitS']

The high of 47 and the overnight of 28 probably sounds about right for you in January, Cane'?

The high and low won't be that close together after the spring moisture blows away. By September, there can be as much as a 40 difference just on a kind of normal clear day and clear night.

Little moisture/humidity, the summer highs might break the 100 barrier but it isn't likely. Let's see . . . . the last week of July and the first week of August in 2012 = two afternoons in the 70's and 3 afternoons in the 90's (the other 9 days had 80's for highs). I didn't look further in the WS records but those are usually our warmest weeks.

Oh, and on only 2 of those mid-summer nights was the low above 60.

Steve

 

[digitS']

The little things are fairly much out of there. They were cool-season starts and have graduated to unheated space.

This is really just "half full" because the tomatoes and peppers are only taking up half of their flats. They need room to grow or they'll just go straight up!

Steve


this evening just before sundown

 

[thistlebloom]

Oh those are handsome plants Steve! Your little hop house seems to agree with them. Mine are still such babies, I'm starting to get anxious...

I'll be home Thursday and am going to up pot them. Hopefully that will encourage them to grow a little faster!

Plus it will be warmer! And sunny!!