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Vegetable Gardening

coldframe w/pics

13 years ago

I built this last wk to start my toms and peppers in,a friend gave me the window and I bought 6 2x4s and a sheet of 4x8 styrofoam with silver backing,I wrapped the outside with styrofoam and the inside with styro giving me a thickness of 5 5/8 inches.I put a cpl two litres half full of water to heat up during the day to release heat at nite also ran a string of xmas lites in it for nite time temps..the first temp reading yest.was outside temp 38 inside temp 102 at 930 am.It heats up too quick on sunny days,I have to make sure to open the window a bit

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Comments (7)

gblack
13 years ago
How low does it dip at night?
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years ago
Cool. That size box you'll probably want about 2 gallons of water in a dark container against the back wall for real cold nights - 38 is too cold for toms and peps. Put your thermometer low and against the front wall so the sun doesn't shine on it. That window may have UV blockers in it so be careful when you transplant plants that you don't cook them. Last, you'll experiment and find the best amount to open the window, but I suspect about 15-20% open will prevent them from cooking. Hopefully you are hooked and will build more to get an early start and in fall for your greens.

Dan
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tomva
Original Author
13 years ago
thanks for the tips dan,this is my 1st time with a cold frame,gblack Im gonna take readings all this wk and will let u know hopefully I can keep it warm enough at nite to go ahead and start
ezzirah011
13 years ago
Thats a pretty sweet set up! I will have to keep something like that in mind when I build my next cold frame.

NICE!
franktank232
13 years ago
38F too cold for tomatoes? I had mine taking colder temps then that last spring in my plastic tent... I had several bananas that handled mid 20F's with not much damage other then some burnt leaf edges. They could handle it i think because during the day it was 90-100F...

Very nice setup.
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years ago
Sure, they may survive, but the photosynthate needed to maintain survival takes away from metabolism and growth is slowed. And I wouldn't want to expose newly-popped toms or peps with only cotyledons to those temps.

Dan
glib
13 years ago
Nice, but the insulation under should not be there as the ground provides a lot of thermal ballast for both heat and cold. Even better if the thing could be buried, partially, or up to the top. I don't think there is room for water containers in there, unfortunately, but you need a lot of water to make up for the ground contact.

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