hobby greenhouse. to heat or not to heat.... that is the question.
So i have been lucky enough to acquire a small 6 X 6 hobby greenhouse. I am in southern new york, zone 5. Basically i just want to try starting seeds early this first season. I have been hoarding milk jugs, painting them black and filling the with water as a passive heat source. But what happens if i go three days with cloudy weather? Can i really expect that i wont have low temperature injury on my seedings, say... in late february or march?
Comments (11)
7 years agoI hobby greenhoused for several post-retirement years, after being raised and working in my Dad's commercial flower operation back in the '30s-'40s. Used it to over winter citrus and a few potted tropicals, as well as a place to temporarily move potted lettuce and chard raised in a "screenhouse" during hard freezes, which we get only a few times a year. It's useless in our hot summers.
Although the greenhouse is well heated electrically, I found it way simpler and more reliable to start seeds in the house, on a shelf in a big old oak bookcase located in a room that stayed at about 70°. I hung the biggest fluorescent lights I could fit below the next shelf up, hanging the lights a few inches above the trays. I fed the lights through a cheap Intermatic TimeAll timer. If I needed warmer temperatures, I put a seedling mat with thermostat below the trays needing heat. Not only is this simpler and more reliable, but as a bonus you don't have to trudge out in the weather to check newly hatched seedlings, which my Dad taught me to check on several times a day.
Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder. When I got too old to greenhouse anymore, my wife took it over, and she prefers to start her seedlings out there.
"Screenhouse"
Greenhouse
Landmark Horticultural Management thanked billalaRelated Discussions
Greenhouse heat
Comments (2)Bottom heat on once seeds have germinated causes all sorts of potential problems so isn't ever recommended. 45 degrees is fine especially if the air is kept circulating. The bigger problem is your 90 degrees inside during the day. Ideally that needs to be kept below 70. There are a couple of other discussions about this issue a bit further down the page if you want to read through them as well. Dave...See MoreAdvice for heating my small hobby greenhouse
Comments (4)I'd use the upright heater with the fan. You want to move the heat around. But I can tell you that with all that concrete on the floor and lower walls, you are going to have cold seepage. You don't mention what you're going to do with those kneewalls, so here's what I would suggest. Rigid insulation, such as styrofoam boards on the inside of those walls, vapor barrier and some kind of waterproof wallboard. A floating floor above the concrete deck, beginning with 1x2's nailed or glued to the patio, concrete board over the 1x2's and tile, brick or stone covering with a good waterproof coating. We had a similar setup built on our patio up in Colorado and the room was cozy and wonderful even with a blizzard raging outside. It wasn't a greenhouse, it was more of a conservatory, because it had a solid roof, but there were huge windows all the way around the three sides. We used a glazed tile in a terracotta color and it looked real nice. My plants loved it and they thrived in that room. The floating floor was the main reason that it was comfortable in there. Your plan so far looks wonderful. Cheryl...See MoreHobby Greenhouse Heating
Comments (7)OT. I'm in zone 7. I leave my canna's in the ground. I also have some in large pots.(see picture) I just cover the pots with a pile of leaves. I do take in the Nancy's Revenge. I leave most of my other EE's in the ground. Black Magic, Big Dipper, uprights. Even the one's in gallon pots come back but do not grow well unless I transplant them into the ground or larger pots. You know how it is. You buy stuff and it just never gets planted. I doubt they will get envasive if they die down each winter. You may have to seperate them but mine do not get out of control....See MoreWould I need to heat my Sonoma County greenhouse?
Comments (6)I love greenhouses and their potential. I've always found, though, that smaller "hobby" greenhouses don't live up to their hoop-la. The small size makes it difficult to control temperatures -- too hot in the summer (even with "venting") and too cold in the winter (little heaters heat uneveningly in such small houses). And, maybe more importantly, the small size doesn't allow for good placement of plants, enough space to actually grow anything in worthwhile quantity, and good traffic flow. They almost always quickly get stuffed with miscellaneous items just for storage. Along with spiderwebs and dust. With that said, get the biggest one that will fit your site. I've always told my gardening and design students that the minimum for even a "hobby" greenhouse is 14 by 21. That allows for side benches and a middle "work" table/bench. Use the greenhouse for seed germination (flowers, veggies, specialty plants, etc.). Move transplanted seedlings out to a tall coldframe to actually grow them on and harden them off. Grow tomato plants in the ground. There are hundreds of cool-season/short-season tomato cultivars that will do well in Sonoma. In a greenhouse, you'd have to grow them in small pots and tomatoes don't really like small pots. Grow lettuce outside in the winter and hose off those aphids. Lettuce grown in a greenhouse suffers tremendously from the occasional overly-hot winter day (compounded in the greenhouse). Grow some just-too-tropical plants that need a little winter protection and a little more heat than your summers provide: various orchids, bromeliads, epiphyllum, Eucharis, begonias, plumerias, and so much more. Joe...See More- PRO7 years ago
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There is no need to provide tropical conditions for any plant over the winter. As long as it's kept above 40*F at night they will survive.
To answer your question from before (landmark horticultural management) with out heat you will see damage on the young plants no doubt if started in end of Feb-early March. It really comes down to how bad to you want to start.
Here is a corner of the GH yesterday btw I will start my seeds in about 2 weeks :D
Signs of spring are showing up with buds starting to open.
kudzu9