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Vegetable Gardening

Growing plants to maturity in cold frame?

16 years ago

I posted this in another thread but thought I should make a new one b/c the question is a bit obscure in the other post.

Here the summers are hot and often windy, protection from the elements is needed, I have a coldframe and I was wondering if I could get any advice on growing veggies to maturity in the cold frame. Has anyone here done this? What sorts of vegetables? How to go about it, etc. Any advice would be welcome! : )

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Comments (8)

momamamo
16 years ago
I suppose that certain quick-growing veggies could be grown to maturity in a cold frame, but it's important to understand that cold frames become ovens on a hot day unless you keep the lid open. Crispy critters. Automated vents would be an absolute necessity if you're not at home to adjust the lid when weather demands it.

You might also try row cover fabric or shade cloth to surround the plants in the garden itself. However, it's said that stocky plants are developed by the play of wind on plants.
glacier1093
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks momamamo, I understand that I would have to keep it well ventilated. The idea is for my cold frame to double as a sort of raised bed. Keep the plants warm in spring and winter and protected in summer. Any other advice?
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Would a large cold frame be warm enough to grow citrus here?
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I have a 20 by 30 hoophouse in zone 7b (Raleigh, NC) and my citrus do fine most of the time. I have two small electric heaters running most nights and when it calls for below freezing temps I use a wood burning stove. The wood stove can really crank out some heat but you have to baby it all night long - hopefully I will get better at it over time. Some of the citrus decided to suffer this year (even though it has been mild so far) so I have rigged up a tent inside the hoophouse, a sort of greenhouse inside a greenhouse. I put one of the electric heaters in it and run it all the time - so far it seems to be helping. You could partition off sections of your structure so that one section is super heated while others are not and keep the really delicate stuff in that section. Heating the hoophouse is not the problem. Keeping the heat inside is the big problem. Plastic sheeting just doesn't hold on to heat very well. You can allow things to cool down to the point where your plants go dormant and then you can lower the light levels by covering the structure with a pool cover or other sort of thermal covering. You can eventually get the covering built up to the point that the whole thing keeps itself warm - but you won't have much light which the plants need to stay active. But by encouraging them to go dormant (dry, cool and dark) you won't have to do much work and often they survive til things warm up in the spring. All of this falls apart if you want to grow crops at the same time. If you increase the light levels enough to encourage growth then you have to keep the space much warmer. I have all sorts of citrus and they do not always follow the rules - some that are supposed to be delicate have no problem with winter cold while some that are supposed to winter hardy almost die each year. Some do fine for years and then all of a sudden go downhill, so you have to be flexible. It can be done, but it does require a bit of planning and work. If it was easy, everyone would have citrus in their gardens.
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Cold Frames - when safe to plant ?
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Yup soil temperature is the best, but for some I use just a little by guess and golly. If a seed pack says as soon as the ground can be worked Then plant early. As a general rule a cold frame will give about 1 month of early growth, of course that growth will not be as fast as later planted seeds. I would not start any heat loving plants in the cold frame, but use it to harden off some of those seedlings. I am on my second batch of cold frame radish The first planted 3/23 and boy did they grow slow, my cabbage was started from seed in late March. I left spinach over winter under the snow. It restarted this spring and I have three pickings off it. My seeded spinach is still a month from harvest and will bolt by harvest time.Look at each plant very carefully even tomatoes have very different temperature adaptability I hope this was of some help to you. Oh and you can gain about a month in the fall too. I need a bigger frame and will have one come fall. Curt#
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Tasty, you'll probably need to wait at least 4 weeks or so, but really it depends on what you are growing. I think that the cloche helps established plants grow faster and better in cold weather and survive frosts that they might not otherwise survive, but for most crops if it wouldn't germinate or survive at all without the cloche it's probably too early to grow even inside a cloche. Perhaps someone knows better than me. You might do well to get a copy of _The Maritime Northwest Garden Guide_ by Seattle Tilth, it will give you good guidelines on when to start growing stuff.
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This is my first year starting seeds indoors. I have always planted directly in the ground or in 6 packs once it was safe to leave them outside. If my seed starting goes well, I'm looking at making a cold frame similar to the one in this link. I'm hesitant to buy this one because there is only 1 review on Amazon and it is pretty flimsy and the seller reviews on Walmart are not that great. But the design is what I'm looking for. I was looking at 4 shelf greenhouses but they don't handle wind well. This would mainly be for hardening plants in the spring. Made 4' long it would be the perfect size to fit right against the bottom of my porch. I could even screw the 2x4's into the porch support posts to secure it. I'm wondering if I can use plexiglas for the top, sides and front? Or for this year, instead of spending a lot, I could use heavy duty plastic and then get the plexiglas later. Here is a link that might be useful: Picture of Cold frame
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bomber095
16 years ago
One year at URI, I was in charge of the cold frame at the Master Gardener area. From seed to maturity, I grew spinach, chinese cabbage, bok choy, kale, and swiss chard. I kept the lid cracked about 4" They came out great
glacier1093
Original Author
16 years ago
Cool : ) what season was it?
bomber095
16 years ago
Spring to summer. Stuff was out of there by mid-July
bcomplx
16 years ago
I grow spring salad crops in a frame, though I remove it as the plants get big. I'm on a windy ridge, too, and wind protection is a huge benefit this time of year.

I grow spinach and mache through winter in a framed wood box with shower door lid. They've recently been promoted to row cover only, and the frame is getting filled with a new generation of leafies. What fun!

If you can remove the translucent lid you use in cool weather from your frame, perhaps you can replace it with a window screen or other semi-shade cover in summer. I've done this before and it worked really well.

Here is a link that might be useful: my website
glacier1093
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks guys. Has anyone ever done non-leafy veggies in cold frame to maturity? Just curious to see if it can be done : )
kayhh
16 years ago
Sure, you could do it. But once days are hot and frost is no longer an issue, the best bet would be to just remove the lid. The thing is, I can put most of my seed grown veggies and flowers into my cold frame when they are 6 inches tall - about 6 flats. But that same space would only hold 2 full grown tomatoes. Kay.

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