GardenGoober said:
What did she do that they hung her?!! Yikes!!
dyzzypyxxy said:<a lightbulb flashes on over my head> Maybe you could 'encourage' your DH to ride his 4-wheeler around the veggie patch on a regular basis. It might tear up the soil and compress the tree roots which would slow them down from invading your veggie garden area . . . a win-win??
Looks like a rather rural area. Do you have deer and rabbits around? You also may need a fence in that case or the critters will be the only ones enjoying the fruits of all those seedlings.
RickCorey said:Maye there is a secret in your potting/seedling soil mix:
>> I basically just pulled the clump out of the plug, held it over a paper towel and they just fell apart in my hand.
Sounds like a great mix to me!
RickCorey said:The cold frame is intended to be somewhat warmer than the surroundings, and immune to harsh, drying winds. Thus you would put seedlings into the cod frame BEFORE it was practical to harden them in the cold, dry, windy outdoors.
A cold frame is like a gradual hardening off - a gentler form of "the outdoors" where you can park seedlings until the weather is warm enough to leave seedlings outside the cold frame.
RickCorey said:..., you might want to be ready to eat steamed seedlings...
RickCorey said: ...if a warm day comes along unexpectedly.
RickCorey said: - How hot does it get on a clear day when the un-shaded sun shines directly on the cold frame? Too hot?
- How do you vent the cold frame to prevent "steaming" the plants? Crack the lid in the morning before going to work? There are "gas cylinders" that expand at a certain temperature, and they can be used to open vents when the high point inside the frame reaches, for example, 75 or 80 F.
- How cold does the frame get at night, on your coldest, windy night? Does it hold enough heat from the daytime that your seedlings can take the cold?
RickCorey said:A small electronic thermometer with "highest" and "lowest" temperature memory would be one way to "proof test" your new cold frames, and learn when you need to open it up, or when you need to throw an old sheet or moving blanket over the frame.
RickCorey said:Alternatively, pick some extra seedlings that you can spare, and park those "volunteers" in the sunniest, or the coldest, parts of the frame. Then watch the extras to see if they freeze, cook or go into sullen shut-down from too-cool or too-shady conditions.
RickCorey said:I think the first year might be a "learning year" for cold frames.
RickCorey said:
>> - >> - How is it vented?
>> Below the front of the glass all across the front is a gap about 2" or 3".
Yikes! No steamed microgreens for you!
Umm, maybe that gap puts the emphasis on the word "cold" in your cold frame. A 2" gap, especially at a high point, assures relatively little heat accumulation.
RickCorey said:What you have now is probably safer than a tightly-sealed frame. It sounds safe from the Noon-day sun, but if you were also worrying about cold nights, the frame won't carry very MUCH residual heat into the nighttime.
RickCorey said:If you are like me and easily forgetful when rushed, "permanently vented:" is better than "maybe I'll remember to raise the lid on days that might become sunny, and remember to lower the lid hours before sundown on any day likely to turn cold overnight". Otherwise, I would only have cooked or frozen vegetables.
RickCorey said:One reason I haven't gone crazy making low hoop tunnels is that I KNOW I would forget more often than not, and doom my poor seedlings to temperature extremes galore.
Yours will shield plants from drying or chilling winds, and should moderate the night-time cold by at least a little, but right now the "permanently vented" feature makes it more of a sheltered-from-the-wind hardening-off-zone than a "keep them above 32 F despite hard frosts" warmth-providing shelter.
Or I might be wrong. Maybe the frame plus all that sun does warm up the soil enough to carry plants comfortably through a cold snap.
Remote thermometers! Nice! I used to daydream about cell-phone enabled automatic and remote controllers with little stepper motors to open and close vents ... but other people have already done that, for prices affordable by professional greenhouse operators, so that's no fun.
Listen to the voices of experience like Arlene and Sandy! Experience trumps theory.
RickCorey said:I've heard of widgets that people push in to prop a lid UP, but yours is the first time I heard of an insulating gap-filler that has to be pushed in to SEAL the gap.
I like your idea, especially when the main risk is heat, not cold.
Do you think you'll use them next winter to start some plants super-early?
Or sow some cold-hardy greens inside the frame in late fall, and plan to harvest them on into winter?
GardenGoober said:Probably cold-hardy greens since I consumes tons of kale and spinach for juicing.
GardenGoober said:...
I need to master putting 1-2 seeds in the seed starter cells!!
dyzzypyxxy said:Well, sometimes I go crazy and put 3 seeds in a cell, Tori. :nodding:
dyzzypyxxy said: It's twice as hard to 'abort' the two weaker seedlings . . but we must harden our hearts and do our thinning. Your baby plants are looking great btw. Still lots of thinning to do though, huh?
dyzzypyxxy said:Cold frames can be terrific, if you get the hang of using them at the right times of year. They can extend the fall season for some plants, and let you start things early in spring. But as Rick and others already commented, they can be tricky, and one sunny day of the lid falling down when you didn't mean it to, your seedlings are toast! One cold night when you forget to close it, plantcicles. Very unforgiving.
dyzzypyxxy said:Maybe use your phone to remind you when to open and close the frame according to the weather?
dyzzypyxxy said:Cold mornings, you can leave it closed until mid-morning when the sun reaches it, long evenings you can leave it open for air if it has really warmed up. On a cool, cloudy day you might want to leave it closed all day. Sort of depends what all you are growing in there, so probably a good idea to grow only 'cool' loving plants in the frame together, or only 'warm' lovers. Mixing the two, somebody's going to be unhappy.
dyzzypyxxy said:Lining it with rock sounds like a great idea for creating a dense heat sink for winter growing!
RickCorey said:Cold frames would be good for that, especially extending fall into winter.
You might try Tyfon for juicing, it is supposed to be very mild flavor but grows so fast that one author said you could feed the whole Red Army from a patch the size of a coffee table. It is vvery ccccold hhhhardy. It's a cross between stubble turnips and Chinese cabbage.
http://www.superseeds.com/holl...
http://blueboathome.com/blogs/...
RickCorey said:You're a gardener! You don't "NEED" to do anything the way others do!
RickCorey said:After all, no one looks at a flower and gushes "That looks EXACTLY LIKE every other flower I've ever seen!" Be like Frank Sinatra and "Do It YOUR Way!"