Cold Blooded Seedlings

Hey All,

As my seedlings grow and my inside space dwindles to zilch, I've begun watching the temps for signs that I can start moving plants to the green house. I know that snaps can take pretty cool temperatures as can corncockle, and it runs in my mind that cineraria can too. Are there any others that you know of that would be just as happy with 45-50° as they are at 65-70°?

pansies

Yes! I forgot about pansies. Thank you Edge!

Petunias, marigolds gazanias, lobelia. I would think anything that has a germination recommended temp of less than 70ºF would be fine. I put a whack of seedling in the greenhouse & we have extreme cold temps. The last few nights is has been just under 50ºF. Nothing seems affected, even the coleus & impatiens

Oh Joanna that's great to hear. I'll probably have to run a little supplemental heat on some nights but I really need to get some of these flats out of the house. Can I ask how big your seedlings are? Some of mine aren't real big yet so maybe the smaller ones better stay inside awhile longer?

Here's a few pictures. Some still really small & probably would be larger with more heat, but it's been extremely cold here. The forecast is for more sunshine & warmer days later this week.

Pavlova Aster

Purple Rain Pansy

Purple Knight

10 week stocks

salpiglossis

LaLa. I have evrythign otuside in gh right now. Don't have any heat in their and the plants have been doign just fine at 40 and little above at night. They don't grow when it that cool, btu the heat the next day gets em going again.

I have to put mien out, my plant stand I knocke dit over and haven't fudn the glue to fix it back together again.

LaLa Jane, The sun will really heat up your greenhouse, so perhaps a little electric heater for night time would help keep it a acceptable night temp. Or a propane tent heater, but use a fan to keep the air moving. Most propane heaters now a days have a low oxygen sensor & if the air isn't moving or fresh air piped in, the pilot light will go out. If there is no pilot light, then you should be fine.

It was -26ºC last night (-15ºF) & the greenhouse stayed at +15ºC or +59ºF

Wow... you stil that cold Joanna. brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Not normal to be that cold...but it happens. Full moon today so the weather will change for sure...thankfully

Joanna your plants look great! You guys have encouraged me and I think I'll try moving a few out over the weekend. It's supposed to dip back down into the teens on Thursday but after the weekend the night time temps are back into the 30's. Last fall was the first I was able to use my GH and I'm afraid that the poor thing doesn't hold heat too well. But if I stuff all the cracks with insulation and turn my little electric heater on at night I'm sure I can keep it in the 40's. My coleus and other tenders didn't seem to mind it too much last fall, but I didn't know about tiny seedlings.

While we're on the topic of greenhouses and my inexperience, do I have it correctly that the plants don't need hardened off before going into the GH? They won't sunburn? My understanding is that I don't have to worry about that until I take them out of the greenhouse, but a little reassurance would be wonderful.

I put bubble wrap on the inside & at night I put blankets on the roof. This is only because of our extreme cold temps. Lala, You could probably get away with putting blankets on the roof for the cold night with a heater inside.

Joanna could you explain the blankets on the roof? On the outside of the greenhouse? How do you hold them in place?

(Sorry folks, I've strayed a bit off topic here but it's still good info.)
;-)

That's exactly it. It wasn't windy so they stayed. I really made a difference & since it is so darn cold I tried everything I could think of.

Lala.. I take sheets and tie strings to the corners of the sheets , toss them over the gh and then use buckets of wter to tie the strinsg to, to keep them from blowing off.

You gals have been a big help! I'm very excited to start moving things out to the GH this weekend. Keeping everything rotated under the lights in here has become a full time job and moving even a portion of the flats out there will reduce my work greatly (and probably keep the seedlings happier too.)

I suppose my first year with a greenhouse can be compared to the first time I winter sowed. I'm nervous about it and skeptical too...and will dance a jig when everything actually works. LOL!