Winterizing eBuckets

I've searched through the forums, but can't find a definite answer, so please forgive me if it's there (it's just so much info to sift through!)

I'm growing a fall garden in my eBuckets (and other homemade self watering containers). I've never had them out over the winter before.

What is your experience in leaving them outside in a region that does freeze in the winter? Is it possible to continue to grow through winter, or will the buckets crack?

I'm also thinking of insulating them in some way, with blankets, actual insulation, foam, or those air packing sheets (unpoped, of course).

Thoughts? Below are my broccoli's in the eBuckets currently, growing quite well :)

Hey, Kindlekat,
Don't panic! The key to the great brassica harvest is to have your plants well underway by the time the cold sets in, and you're WELL on your way. Very nice looking growth.

Regarding eBuckets out in the cold. I can only speak from my experience in Houston's Zone 9a. Mine have stayed out in our relatively mild winters for the past 3-4 winter seasons. Only cracking I've experienced is with the lids. Never had an eBucket crack on me yet!

I've left my cabbages, cauliflowers, broccolis and greens out in a MILD freeze overnight (below 30 for a couple hours, with the freeze usually setting in around the early morning and then temps warming up as the sun comes up), with just a sheet thrown over a hoop. (You can see them in the hoop collage attached)

When we had a hard freeze coming (dipping below 30-28 degrees for an extended period of time like the 4 days in a row we had this season), I first hosed down all the plants and watered them well, then threw the sheets over the hoop. They were fine.

In D.C. where your temps stay way down for a number of days, you might need bigger guns, like a small space heater placed under your hoop or some Christmas lights under the hoop. Whaterver will generate enough heat to offset the freeze for a coupla hours til your sun comes out to help heat the hoop up.

[Uh, you DO have a hoop, right? If not, you can make one in 15 minutes, tops! Just get a length of PVC pipe and cut it into 12" pieces (stakes). Pound these stakes into the ground around your planting site, at 12" intervals. Then, get the 10' lengths (the ribs) and bend them over. Situate the ends of the ribs into the stakes you pounded into the ground. The diameter you settle on for the stakes will be determined by how strong you want/need the ribs to be. The ribs will need to fit inside the staked pieces, so test them at the HD or Lowe's when you buy them.]

Here's a pic of mine when I only had sheets to throw on top in a hurry. Since this pic, I've bought some 4 mil plastic contractor's sheeting to use during the really colder days when the sun can give me some heat inside.

Hope this helps!

Linda

Linda,

That is INCREDIBLY helpful, thanks!! Didn't think of christmas lights, but that would definitely do the trick to cut that temp during those cold snaps. Of course, I'm talking standard lights, not the newer LED ones that don't produce as much heat. I'm hoping by the time we hit that snap (January/February are the days at a time for freezing temps, but sometimes Nov/Dec) I won't have much in the buckets growing and I won't worry about dying, only cracking the buckets.

Love the hoop idea, and I'll definitely be doing that later on, as my buckets are already in a row as well! Will definitely post a picture once that happens. So glad to know the plastic is durable enough to take the freeze!

Thanks!

Kindlekat,
If you stagger plant, and come up with a freeze protection system for your brassicas, they will grow thoughout the winter, if protected. I grow cabbages here from December until they either bolt in the heat or the wormies take over around March-April.

Just off the top of my head, if I lived in D.C. and had all the cold days you have, I'd probably try putting the eBuckets under a plastic-covered hoop by day, vented some on the ends so the heat builds up enough to keep em from freezing, but not so much that it fries the plants or makes them faint. Then, I'd lower the vents, and shove the space heater or Christmas lights underneath at night. They should grow fine, long as you can provide some heat under that hoop at night. Heat will build up on its own during the daytime, from the sun and warm the soil in the buckets.

Linda

Linda: I love your hoops and your set up. The bucket handles make nice hoops for things like lettuce and then put row cover over them in above ground beds. Or it seems like they would. Too small to cover anything taller than lettuce though. I've been tripping over my HEBs and earthboxes, as they have all been sanitized and cleaned out and put into the house til I get my shed the way I want it and can fit them all in there, sigh!
joy

I hear yah, Joy, on the organization thing. I'm about to move back into my house, and a top project is to trick out the garage walls to accommodate storage AND gardening items. I can't wait to have a potting bench and a potting mix bin!

P.S. I have a cool design for a space-saver wall cabinet that doubles as a seed starting center with shelves and fluorescent lights! It folds up (like a Murphy Bed) into a cabinet on the wall with doors.

Linda,

Oh please share where you got the design! I still need to build a composter and potting bench for next spring, but that project sounds right up my alley!!

I'm looking forward to having more organized garden equipment in my life, but waiting until the weather is cold enough that I DON'T want to be outdoors, which is the perfect indoors organizing time for me!

Gymgirl: You go girl, I am anxious to see that design. Please share the details with us. My supposed greenhouse (I call my green outhouse - as it is too small to be anything else), is where I'm leaving my potting mixes in totes for the winter. That way I can have enough room to put all my ebuckets and EBs and GPs in the shed. It will also leave easy access to the mixes when I need them since it is right next to my container garden spot. It will be a pretty simple fall, just strawberries, and this winter, potatoes. Then in February, look out, I'm busting out with the Spring/Summer seeds. LOL

I'm trying crookneck squash for the first time this Spring/Summer and going to try spinach again, I found one that is supposed to be slow to bolt.

joy
joy

Had to share my weekend project somewhere! Self-container compost tumbler!
(Wasn't entirely made out of wood, so I didn't feel right posting it in the woodworkers forum)

You Go, Kindlekat! Totally Rocks!

KindleKat: That is awesome. I've thought about composting; but, haven't got that far yet. I know, I am slow sometimes. LOL I love that composter you made though, good work.
joy

Kat,
Post some updates on those eBuckets! I have to grow vicariously through my friends, since I don't have a single thing in the ground. Only one teeny, tiny, little cabbage seedling in a strofoam cup.

But, I've promised everyone in my office that if Cathy Cabbage grows up to be a mature head of cabbage, I will lovingly cook her and invite everyone for lunch in my office!

So, pray for my cabbage seedling.

Linda

Gymgirl: If history speaks for itself, that cabbage seedling of yours will be a mammoth cabbage come picking time.
joy