Bubble Wrap the Greenhouse for Insulation

I'm having a problem taking that leap of faith that I can start my cool season plants in the greenhouse, it just seems against nature this early. I need to get a good thermometer that marks coldest/warmest temps so I can see what is happening at night. We are still hitting below freezing, but then I see your GH surrounded by snow and think it must work. I'm going to have to pick up a propane heater, that will make the difference.

Grammie, our plants had to deal with temps that fell to 19 degrees a couple of weeks ago. We had them in a greenhouse that was huge and not airtight. Although we used some kerosene heaters in there, the leaves did get burned a tich, but the plants are currently doing great. There's some stuff you can do to help them out - water the evening before low temps, do what Joanna did and cover the roof with some kind of blanket. How many are you going to start? It might be worthwhile bringing 'em in for a night if it's going to be that cold....

Ugh, Jay, that's the story of my life....

We are probably related. =0) Or go to the same church... Our Lady of General Confusion.

You TOO???

Well, actually, Our Lady of Perpetual Frustration gets a lot of visits, too...

Wonderful church names, I've attended both, too. Is there an Our Lady of why did I come in this room?

I thought that was "Hail Mary, why am I here?"

hahahaha, snort!

On the Equine Forum, instead of LOL, we use SOL -snort out loud!

Yeah, I'm the one facing the wrong way in the choir. =0) Always on the wrong page and showing up on the wrong day.

St. DayMinder, watch over me...

LOL

Last week I forgot to put stuff out on the porch for the charity truck coming by, last night I put it out for today but they aren't coming until tomorrow. Oh well. I love SOL.

Love those church & prayer names! And SOL!

Everything worked out great. Got thru the extreme cold snap and I don't think it would have been possible without the bubble wrap.

I may have over did the seedsowing...started to transplant into larger seedling pots.

Happy the bobble wrap worked for you, I love it.
You do have a lot of transplant, don't think I can count that high. ^_^

I've learned that I can't fill all my shelves with starts because they require twice the space once transplanted. oops, I'm in trouble.

I think I may make a shelf for a triple decker in the middle of the two sides that get the most sun.

My Big Greenhouse is still just in the "I wish" category, but I went down to Phoenix yesterday on other business and managed to come home with two dwarf citrus trees from two different Valley nurseries -- a pink grapefruit and a tangelo. If we don't get the Big Greenhouse finished by end of summer so I can plant them in the ground there, I will keep my new babies in their 5-gallon pots in the Little Greenhouse. I know I am taking a chance on keeping them alive over the summer, and possibly next winter as well, but I am so anxious to get started! They both have blossoms on them and smell so good.

Mmm - one of the few things I miss about Phoenix, those blooms are intoxicating.

I so love reading about everyone adventures with their GH. I so want one so bad. I miss living in the south were we can get started on plants so much earlier. Up in northern Ohio it seems like it is June some times before it is safe....

SOL love this

Janet

We'll have everyone snorting soon, ha!

You have my sympathies, Janet - I was raised in So Michigan, and I don't think I could survive the length of the winter up there as much as the temps. It was okay as a kid, but as a gardener.... nuh uh.

If Eliot Coleman can grow year round in Maine, you can too. Better get you a GH of some sort soon... even a quick and dirty of PVC and contractor's plastic will help relieve the blues!

Who is Elliott Coleman ? Year round in Maine? That's gotta take some doing!

He wrote "The New Organic Grower", "Four Season Harvest", and another on winter gardening. He points out, quite correctly, that most of the US has got plenty of sunshine during the fall and winter to grow things I think NM and AZ are the same latitude as North Africa), we just don't have a history of making use of it. He uses unheated, single plastic layer hoop houses in Maine and has crops year round.

Check him out, he knows what he's doing and it's not that hard once you get the GH and basic skills. =0)

Forget the supermarket.

Hmmph. I'd love to.

jayryunen:

I went and check out his books. Off to the library to have them do an inter library loan if they don't have it on the shelves. Then if I like what I'm reading back to amazon to purchase it.

Thanks for the information.

Janet

Four Season Harvest , love it , check this site

http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/

Fantastic! Thanks, I've bookmarked it. =0)

Well every one you are right about BW, Get it for free that is FREE, Used as a wrapping at our furniture store. Ask or bribe them not to cut and save.. Also check on the other coverings, I use the plastic to worm up the soil before tilling, They have a sort of spun cloth that I use as a floating cover over the garden in spring and fall.
My greenhouse was made using Quonset bows and the 2x4's from pallets. easy to hand staple the inside plastic cover to wood in winter.Now I use the BW. on the insides to 6' the rest (top) I use the thinest plastic film and staple through a 1"x1" piece of plastic (milk bottle?) Keeps the staple from cutting the BW/plastic.
This what I found, Flat poly sheeting works on the outside very well. The better plastic will last several years. I have had over 2' snow with no problems. Wind is bad on flat sides
In very cold country, think about going below ground with a curved roof.
For the floor I found used brick laid down with out mortar works best. easy to move and lets water out.also cools when wet in summer. Also a great heat sink. I have a blower that takes the hot air from the top of the GH and blows through a 4" pipe to a 4" drain pipe under my floor, three layer of brick. Floor never freezes.even after several days of hard freezing out side.and no heat other than the sun
A lot more but for now ,, Thanks for reading this

goshute, your my kind of man, I love to use throw aways.
Keep the ideas coming.

The furniture store... great idea! Thanks. =0)

Goshute - do you have pictures you can post? Thanks for the furniture store idea. I need to replace mine this fall and was wondering if I could get some "recycled."

Progress report: Well, my clever trick of stacking milk bottles full of water with scrap plywood shelves on them, then putting my 5 gallon pots of geraniums & the dwarf fig on top, only worked for a couple of months. The bottom row of milk bottles have gradually squashed themselves, so I removed them (starting at the top, of course). The bottom layer now holds only juice bottles, which seem to be made of thicker plastic. I had enough to support the second row, but will have to collect more. The geraniums & fig tree are back on the top shelf. Don't know how long it will last, but by the end of April I should be able to remove everything from the little green house anyway. For next year, I will have to build some more substantial shelving!

You've got me saving my plastic jugs, AZ. =0) You're an inspiration.

Are milk jugs better than the 5 gallon buckets I've been using? I got them free from the High School, seems the teenagers eat a LOT of pickles. I know they have been very sturdy for my shelves.

Cathy, sounds like your 5 gallon pickle buckets are better! Wonder if our local high school has any that they just throw away? I'll have to check on that. The milk jugs I have been using are just the standard, flmsy ones from the grocery store.

Jay, I think _you_ are the inspiration! I think everybody who reads your posts gains a lot of information -- and I will bet that most people yearn after the lifestyle you have carved out for yourself. I know I do! Born & raised in a city, always lived in one city after another, raised three boys, but always wished I was back on Grandma's farm.

I certainly wasn't raised on a farm! LOL No way was my mom doing that; it was bad enough I loved horses.

Nope, I've just made it up as I go... bit by bit I've been piecing and adding and learning from others.

Just like you are...
=0) Jay

I'm just wondering if they absorb heat as well as the thinner plastic. I'm going to paint the side that faces the sun black after the summer, maybe that will help?

They probably will -- since the gh pros recommend using big old rain barrels, metal but nowadays plastic ones, and they also recommend painting the fronts black. And putting them at the rear of the greenhouse. My little bottles are just anyplace I had room to put them. I will probably continue to use them in the little greenhouse, but if/when we get the big one built will try to find big rain barrels.

I hope I am in the right spot for my question. Daytime temps here are ok in the GH, but nite time is a different story. I don't have access to bubble wrap, and no time for gathering gallon jugs for water warmth. Do you think if I used those emergency foil "blankets" that reflect light, they would maintain a little warmth for the overnite. I have so many seedling starts, I really need to put somewhere. Got carried away with seeds this year, figuring on being able to move to GH the 1st of April, however, the weather is not cooperating. Any ideas??

I would run an extension cord & run a little space heater