Garden 2022

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UrbanHunter said:
I received 2 seed orders last night. The packaging from Johnny's seeds is impressive, capped mini-tubes (like test tubes) inside of the envelope to hold the seeds. Both orders were focused on greenhouse self/no-Pollination required plant varieties, I may take the time to get a starter tray going. My Spinach and lettuce is up in the greenhouse and it is almost ready to start transplanting individuals into larger 6" containers for faster growing in the warmer indoor growing station.

I now have the greenhouse to the point where the lows are holding about 25 degrees (F) higher than outside. This will let me maintain operations with outside temperatures down to 15F, which should get me through the winter. In the afternoons the greenhouse has been getting warmer than the house, so I can open the sliding door and use it to heat the basement with a fan....
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Well you are heading into winter the right way👍!
 
My first planting of winter carrots is up! I also have some give away tomatoes starting to appear (indoor plants started from my own seeds to give away to friends), bell peppers are up. I have been spending my free time cleaning the area around my indoor growing station, the okra from last summer are about to be moved in out of the cold.

It got down to 22F last night the greenhouse got down to 52F, so I am able to hold a 30 degree difference.
I ordered a bunch of small vials to store my seeds in, I figure if I label the outside of the vial and store them in small boxes holding 25 vials it will save me a lot of space and make it easier to just grab what I need. ;)
 
UrbanHunter said:
My first planting of winter carrots is up! I also have some give away tomatoes starting to appear (indoor plants started from my own seeds to give away to friends), bell peppers are up. I have been spending my free time cleaning the area around my indoor growing station, the okra from last summer are about to be moved in out of the cold.

It got down to 22F last night the greenhouse got down to 52F, so I am able to hold a 30 degree difference.
I ordered a bunch of small vials to store my seeds in, I figure if I label the outside of the vial and store them in small boxes holding 25 vials it will save me a lot of space and make it easier to just grab what I need. ;)
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30* is impressive!
 
shelled out sweet corn seed ...who gets kissed

DSC00943.JPG
 
overwintering a couple of old time collards for seed next year. super rare and seed is expensive. had 4 plants but as you can see the bugs love them.

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I spread out the plants in the greenhouse adding another shelf with lights.

20221213_154655.jpg


Multiple installments of lettuce and radishes are the active heat mat along with onion starts for the spring.

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Bottom shelf and floor including fig trees are happy

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At least I will be able to help The Princess that is still having trouble finding lettuce.

@UrbanHunter

What size pots do you use for radishes?

Ben
 
Hi @Neb, I grow my radishes in small 6 qt storage tubs, they don't make good fruit in the smaller starter cups, so I just try to grow 6 plants in a tub.

My greenhouse alarms started going off last night (below freezing in there) but...

I had put the metal-ized bubble wrap over the top of the growing shelves and made a curtain rod ( 1/2 copper pipe) around the outside of them to hold a set of clear shower curtains about 3" away from the shelves, and put the heating mats under the plants on the bottom shelf. The plants on the shelves are still standing this morning.... The temperatures inside the growing shelves stayed above 40F, the outdoor temperatures were reading 6F.

I am planning on closing out my Garden 2022 posts on New Year's eve, and will then move over to the GARDEN 2023 thread.
 
UrbanHunter said:
Hi @Neb, I grow my radishes in small 6 qt storage tubs, they don't make good fruit in the smaller starter cups, so I just try to grow 6 plants in a tub.

My greenhouse alarms started going off last night (below freezing in there) but...

I had put the metal-ized bubble wrap over the top of the growing shelves and made a curtain rod ( 1/2 copper pipe) around the outside of them to hold a set of clear shower curtains about 3" away from the shelves, and put the heating mats under the plants on the bottom shelf. The plants on the shelves are still standing this morning.... The temperatures inside the growing shelves stayed above 40F, the outdoor temperatures were reading 6F.

I am planning on closing out my Garden 2022 posts on New Year's eve, and will then move over to the GARDEN 2023 thread.
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I think I'm safe to say we all learned a lot from you this year!! Can't wait for 2023!!
 
UrbanHunter said:
Hi @Neb, I grow my radishes in small 6 qt storage tubs, they don't make good fruit in the smaller starter cups, so I just try to grow 6 plants in a tub.

My greenhouse alarms started going off last night (below freezing in there) but...

I had put the metal-ized bubble wrap over the top of the growing shelves and made a curtain rod ( 1/2 copper pipe) around the outside of them to hold a set of clear shower curtains about 3" away from the shelves, and put the heating mats under the plants on the bottom shelf. The plants on the shelves are still standing this morning.... The temperatures inside the growing shelves stayed above 40F, the outdoor temperatures were reading 6F.

I am planning on closing out my Garden 2022 posts on New Year's eve, and will then move over to the GARDEN 2023 thread.
Click to expand...
In case you didn't see lilmissy's post in GARDEN 2023, have you ever heard of "electroculture"?
 
I spent a little time working in the greenhouse, the plants were all dry so I delivered them lots of water... it got up to 57F in there today and after last night I was thinking about the growers when I was a kid, on hard freeze nights they would either use smudge pots try to flood the groves to keep from losing the citrus. I remember that the water needs to give off a lot of heat to freeze. Anyway siting on warmers my plants shouldn't freeze... My poor Okra are outside the embrace of the shower curtains I placed around the growing shelves, they are goners....
 
UrbanHunter said:
Hi @Neb, I grow my radishes in small 6 qt storage tubs, they don't make good fruit in the smaller starter cups, so I just try to grow 6 plants in a tub.

My greenhouse alarms started going off last night (below freezing in there) but...

I had put the metal-ized bubble wrap over the top of the growing shelves and made a curtain rod ( 1/2 copper pipe) around the outside of them to hold a set of clear shower curtains about 3" away from the shelves, and put the heating mats under the plants on the bottom shelf. The plants on the shelves are still standing this morning.... The temperatures inside the growing shelves stayed above 40F, the outdoor temperatures were reading 6F.

I am planning on closing out my Garden 2022 posts on New Year's eve, and will then move over to the GARDEN 2023 thread.
Click to expand...
So far 4x4 inch pots are doing ok dor my radishes.

Ben
 
UrbanHunter said:
I spent a little time working in the greenhouse, the plants were all dry so I delivered them lots of water... it got up to 57F in there today and after last night I was thinking about the growers when I was a kid, on hard freeze nights they would either use smudge pots try to flood the groves to keep from losing the citrus. I remember that the water needs to give off a lot of heat to freeze. Anyway siting on warmers my plants shouldn't freeze... My poor Okra are outside the embrace of the shower curtains I placed around the growing shelves, they are goners....
Click to expand...
The -4 degree with high winds resulted in an over night low of 27. Dig trees dropped some leaves. Coffee tree was not happy and most of the leaves are crispy. The lettuce didn't look happy but came back ok after a day inside.

Heat mats couldn't keep yp with cold. Running at about 50 degrees with a set point of 70 degrees.

I think the biggest issue was drafts and the high wind.

Ben
 
Neb said:
The -4 degree with high winds resulted in an over night low of 27. Dig trees dropped some leaves. Coffee tree was not happy and most of the leaves are crispy. The lettuce didn't look happy but came back ok after a day inside.

Heat mats couldn't keep yp with cold. Running at about 50 degrees with a set point of 70 degrees.

I think the biggest issue was drafts and the high wind.

Ben
Click to expand...

Yes the drafts associated with a 60 mph wind is a little hard to over come.

That is why I had to wrap my growing shelves with a shower curtain.
For me, the outside was 7F, inside the greenhouse was 30F and the plants on the growing shelves saw 45F. Today, the outside temperature got up to 30F and I saw 60F on the shelves, curtains closed.... Most of the plants are still okay.

I messed up and left out some container turnips outside, the rain filled the container and now the turnips are set in a 2'X3' slab of ice...
 
Well it's 1/1/2023 so 2022 is over... Last year I was finally able to find tomatoes that would fruit indoors, I increased my water barrel capacity by 50%, I was able to install solar panels and a battery bank to power my grow lights and irrigation system, I created a greenhouse are at my basement walk out. We were able to put a lot of green beans this year, have more herbs and chives than I can use, and learned that turnips grow well in indoor containers. I had good success with the squash this year the bugs still got to them but I had several layers of plants started 2 months apart and I was able to remove any infected plants and plant new plants in different areas to get a few more harvests.

Some things didn't work out, trying to move the small okra plants indoors at the end of the season was a flop, the temperatures in the greenhouse were not stable enough for them. My pole beans were too much for my trellis arrangement, most of the uprights cracked, and I should have netted my grape vines earlier to keep birds from nesting in them. I was slow at harvesting some of my outdoor greens and they bolted. I need to communicate better with the better half to make sure that we eat more of what we harvest.

Well that about wraps up 2022, we got lots of good produce, but
 
UrbanHunter said:
Well it's 1/1/2023 so 2022 is over... Last year I was finally able to find tomatoes that would fruit indoors, I increased my water barrel capacity by 50%, I was able to install solar panels and a battery bank to power my grow lights and irrigation system, I created a greenhouse are at my basement walk out. We were able to put a lot of green beans this year, have more herbs and chives than I can use, and learned that turnips grow well in indoor containers. I had good success with the squash this year the bugs still got to them but I had several layers of plants started 2 months apart and I was able to remove any infected plants and plant new plants in different areas to get a few more harvests.

Some things didn't work out, trying to move the small okra plants indoors at the end of the season was a flop, the temperatures in the greenhouse were not stable enough for them. My pole beans were too much for my trellis arrangement, most of the uprights cracked, and I should have netted my grape vines earlier to keep birds from nesting in them. I was slow at harvesting some of my outdoor greens and they bolted. I need to communicate better with the better half to make sure that we eat more of what we harvest.

Well that about wraps up 2022, we got lots of good produce, but
Click to expand...
But onward to a great gardening year!!
 
This forum is a good source for raising various topics of gardening and horticulture, so I have a few questions for you about maintaining plant life in greenhouses during frosts. Have any of you ever grown various vegetables in greenhouses in cold weather and how did you do it?
 
DarylEustoquio said:
This forum is a good source for raising various topics of gardening and horticulture, so I have a few questions for you about maintaining plant life in greenhouses during frosts. Have any of you ever grown various vegetables in greenhouses in cold weather and how did you do it?
Click to expand...
I have read on various forums that the heater, which is located inside the greenhouse, or special equipment that will maintain the temperature inside, helps in this question. I do not know which method will be correct, so I am looking for a guaranteed and proven answer to what I should do when the frosts come. Thank you in advance for the answer and good luck to everyone!
 
DarylEustoquio said:
I have read on various forums that the heater, which is located inside the greenhouse, or special equipment that will maintain the temperature inside, helps in this question. I do not know which method will be correct, so I am looking for a guaranteed and proven answer to what I should do when the frosts come. Thank you in advance for the answer and good luck to everyone!
Click to expand...
The details of your greenhouse will determine the answers. My ghetto greenhouse with heater does a good job but one day of -4 with heavy winds pushed the temp down to 17 which is bad for my coffee tree and dig trees.

I keep a high low thermometer in the greenhouse and log the low outside temp every day. That has led me to a rule that if the over night temps into the low teens I drag the trees inside the house.

Ben
 
speaking as one who has a short growing season and frosts into june.....I have a remote thermometer that registers the green house temp from the comfort of my home. I guess a high low thermometer would be good but I have low enough temps that I would have frosted plants if I didn't check them with the remote thermometer at night and the just around dawn dip in temps.
I only have a small green house for starting plants and hardening them off so I can plant them in the dirt. One or two portabe electric heaters and a fan work for now and at that I have to make sure the leaves don't touch the plastic cover on the greenhouse.
If the power goes out I have a small wood stove that would heat it and someone woud have to sleep in the greeen house to stoke the stove.
It has been a mild year since my slow growing squash just got frost nipped the third week of sept out in the garden.
 
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