It’s February and honestly, I thought I’d be planting by now but God had a different plan when he created the wind, snow and ice. Geesh, we can’t get away from it this year. It’s been brutal. Two years ago I was harvesting maple syrup by this time. That means the temperatures were above freezing every day!
It also means that nothing gets put into the greenhouse yet. I do have some updates for you though.
I borrowed a small heater from a friend to see how it will heat up. The first day I had it up to about 45˚ with outside temps at just below freezing. Just a reminder here that nothing actively grows under 50˚. So, my idea is to keep the daytime temperatures between 55˚ and 60˚ to actively grow some early greens like Swiss chard and spinach. As the temperatures continue to rise I’ll add more seeds to the pots to start growing vegetables to put in the garden as soon as frost is past. For now, I’m just monitoring day and nighttime temperatures as well as monitoring the temperature from the top to the bottom of the stairway. It’s pretty interesting, really.
I’ve found that the temperature between the top and bottom of the stairway varies by up to 10˚. The bottom is usually warmer than the top without the heater going but with the heater going the top is warmer than the bottom.
I had to move the top thermometer off the concrete wall. With the heater going it was throwing the temperature cooler because it was touching the cold concrete. Once I placed it in a pot it registered the top temperature 5˚ warmer.
Since adding the heater, all the pots full of soil are thawed out. It took three days for the temperature to stabilize and the concrete walls to begin to hold heat through the night. This is something I hadn’t even considered. During the first two days the temperature was barely rising above 50˚ but now, even during days that it was 16˚ outside, the temperature inside the greenhouse was 54˚. It’s looking pretty good.
Next year we’ll have to make a couple changes. The ribs of the greenhouse have loosened, leaving the plastic to flap with all the wind we get here. I’m not kidding when I say the wind is probably between 20-30 mph regularly. It’s brutal. Some of the plastic has torn at the junctions of the spine too. I’m hoping we won’t have to replace it before we can remove it.
I think next year I’ll add some big black buckets of water. The black will attract the heat and the water will help to stabilize the temperature during the cold nights. Ideally, I’d love to begin adding seeds in February. There’s a little bit of a learning curve this year.
I got my seed shelf set up with grow lights in the basement. I plan on direct seeding some of the greens in the greenhouse pots and also sprouting some inside the basement and growing them out a little bit under the lights. I think they’ll both do fine, I just want to see the difference in hardiness and growth rate between inside and outside.
I’ll also use the milk jug method. If you haven’t heard of this method yet, it’s genius. No greenhouse needed!
I’ll be back with a third update in the next couple weeks. Hopefully, by then I’ll be able to show you something green!