Down to 31 last night. Left 65 watt bulb on and heater on low. Up to 43 now, but GH is maintaining at 66 with only the light bulb and no heater.-- noticed heater wasn't running much anyway when I was out there checking things out. Small fan running to circulate air. Installed some strips of bubblewrap in ceiling and some of walls and keeping mylar blankets around plants About 2/3 the way up, allowing some light in. Have some partial panels of pink insulation board and egg crate mattress over door. Will pull blankets up into a "tent" tonight around tomatoes. Ordered some additional mylar blankets to keep on hand, cheap ones from Amazon. I like that they are flexible and easy to work around the plants. They are tough and don't rip, but if you poke a hole in them then they will tear. Tape them up and they do fine. Using lots of clothespins to clip stuff together.
Wonder what temp would be if I turn off the lightbulb. Might experiment and see if it holds its own. Very cloudy so not much sun to warm things today.
It all seems to be working fine. Yipee!!
Love having this blog. Will be helpful next year to see what 2014 was like and what worked/didn't work.
Was thinking it was a lost cause. Lots of blossoms on the Bradley heirloom tomato plant but no tomatoes --until this morning! Two of them caught my eye. Yipee!
I have lots of tomatoes on the little cherry tomato plant so am happy the Bradley is finally producing. Hopefully the cold weather hasn't hurt them. Last night went down to 33 degrees and I had heat in the GH that would come on when the temp in there got down to 45 and then it would raise it up to 55. I made a "tent" with the mylar blankets and it worked well. Today is only in low 50s but we have sun so the GH is maintaining at 62-65 without any added heat.
Got the new plant pole hanger put in (that hubby built me- he says I've got to quit dreaming up ideas though ... he has a lot to do ! haha). Have 4 plants on it - and room for 4 more -- all in less than 2 sq. ft. of floor space. Bad news .... something's eating my tomatoes !
Lettuce, arugula, and two kinds of radishes are doing well. Also mammoth jalapeños and cilantro. Salsa anyone?
Found this cute folding stool at Walmart On line (free ship to store)- great in my small greenhouse. Very stable. Fun to just sit in there and view the plants from a different height. It's a little taller than a standard chair-more like a short barstool.
