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is it too early?

wildlife, gardening, environment, Rural living, Pets and Vets
mutantpoodle
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is it too early?

#410674

Postby mutantpoodle » May 10th, 2021, 8:05 am

is sit too early yet to put my tomatoes into unheated greenhouse?

I am losing control of windowsil in the lounge and spare bedroom as they all getting large!

bungeejumper
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Re: is it too early?

#410680

Postby bungeejumper » May 10th, 2021, 8:41 am

I feel your pain. I've got 15 tomato plants which are as much as two feet high and are desperate to go outside. (Some are for friends.) And perhaps 50 climbing french beans and forty-odd sweetcorn plants, and untold multitudes of courgettes and other goodies. And I'm about to take the same leap of faith, because we're running out of window space in the house. :lol:

Ordinarily I reckon to get my greenhouse and outdoor tomatoes out by early May, which is about three weeks earlier than the textbooks say (we're in Wiltshire), and I've never had any frost problems with them. This year has been colder than usual, which means it hasn't been possible to even think about doing that. But I'm looking at the forward weather forecasts now and I can't see any night frosts between now and the end of the month. (Depending on your location, you might have something different.)

Greenhouse should be safe now, anyway. If you've got any fleece, keep it handy. Good luck!

BJ

stevensfo
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Re: is it too early?

#410751

Postby stevensfo » May 10th, 2021, 12:49 pm

bungeejumper wrote:I feel your pain. I've got 15 tomato plants which are as much as two feet high and are desperate to go outside. (Some are for friends.) And perhaps 50 climbing french beans and forty-odd sweetcorn plants, and untold multitudes of courgettes and other goodies. And I'm about to take the same leap of faith, because we're running out of window space in the house. :lol:

Ordinarily I reckon to get my greenhouse and outdoor tomatoes out by early May, which is about three weeks earlier than the textbooks say (we're in Wiltshire), and I've never had any frost problems with them. This year has been colder than usual, which means it hasn't been possible to even think about doing that. But I'm looking at the forward weather forecasts now and I can't see any night frosts between now and the end of the month. (Depending on your location, you might have something different.)

Greenhouse should be safe now, anyway. If you've got any fleece, keep it handy. Good luck!

BJ



May I ask if and how people heat greenhouses these days? I still have nostalgic memories of the smell inside my grandfather's greenhouse, especially that typical pungent aroma of tomato plants, but I'm pretty sure that he used some kind of paraffin heater at times. I guess that there are simpler methods these days?

Steve

PS As a kid c.1971, he once gave me a small and very old propagator that I kept in my bedroom for my own seedlings, though at 10 years old, I'm not sure how long the interest lasted. What I do remember though is the propagator involved an electric light bulb, soil and....water, in very close proximity to each other. I don't think my parents realised what I was doing for quite a long time, till one day, I found it had gone, and my dad's hair starting to turn grey! ;)

bungeejumper
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Re: is it too early?

#410757

Postby bungeejumper » May 10th, 2021, 1:11 pm

stevensfo wrote:As a kid c.1971, he once gave me a small and very old propagator that I kept in my bedroom for my own seedlings, though at 10 years old, I'm not sure how long the interest lasted. What I do remember though is the propagator involved an electric light bulb, soil and....water, in very close proximity to each other.

Still a popular technique for growing certain (ahem) "herbal" crops, I believe? Although the guy in the next village from us was probably unwise to use 500 watt halogens. The police helicopter's thermal cameras were onto him in no time. ;)

You can still get paraffin heaters for greenhouses, but they're not very eco, so people don't like admitting to owning them. I did look into the possibility a few years ago, but it soon transpired that the fuel cost of raising the springtime temperature by three or four degrees would have been comfortably into three figures. Instead, we put our faith in a few bits of fleece on cold nights. Anything less fussy than a melon vine seems to cope.

BJ


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