I usually set up my greenhouse on deck to move my starters there before I can plant them to the garden. This year I am was thinking to avoid it due to my unemployment status and high cost of electricity. However, my plants have different thoughts. Despite a planted them a bit later they growing twice faster and really become unhappy inside. So I have to set up greenhouse, but I want at least to minimize the cost as much as possible. I have reflective insulation, but it is nightmare to install every night and store during the day - the deck is just 10X10. Any idea for inexpensive, soft, easy to fold material that I can get in size 25X25 feet (or sew to the size) with decent insulation quality?
I checked vegetable blankets, but they come up to pretty high $ number to get the size and thickness I need.
I use old blankets. But my thinking is just run the greenhouse colder at night. Warm it just enough to keep the plants above their critical temperature. For many things that would be freezing. You can’t be much colder than that at night so heating cost will be low.
If there is a Harbor Freight near you they regularly have coupons for 72" x 80" moving blankets for $5.99. It still would be expensive for 8 of them to make appx 24’ x 26’, but they would be durable and reusable. If you could get away with using a bunch of small clips or clamps to put them together they would be real easy to fold up and store when you are done and they would probably last for years, although you might want to put cheap plastic over them if it rains. As I’m typing this, it’s starting to sound like a bit of a bother, but it is one option. http://www.hfqpdb.com/best_coupon/72"+x+80"+MOVER’S+BLANKET
I thought I waited long enough to start my tomatoes, etc… but everything is growing like crazy. I started them in solo cups and they were already getting a little root bound (especially the cukes) so I have been repotted them which I didn’t want to have to do. I might experiment with root pruning and also pruning some leaves because some plants are way to advanced. I really don’t want to plant til mid-May. I have always kept the small plants under basic fluorescent fixtures with cool bulbs, but this year I went with one cool and one warm bulb in each. Next year I’m not going to start the seeds til around this date (4-22)
Yes, I was actually researching alibaba to buy cheap fleece blankets, what I have is cotton, and if it rains they will be unmanagable . But shipping kills the idea. Peppers and eggplants can survive a night just above freezing, what kills them is a sunny day after. The contrast between cold pot soil and hot air in greenhouse wilts them badly. I never tried to do it every night, just when heater failed, and didn’t like it.
Yes, we have harbor freight near by . After some design work I think I need 20 x 15 should be enough, and your idea sounds very promising! Thanks!
I’ve seen the same thing with figs. Warm weather plants don’t like that cold soil.
I stock up on regular old acrylic blankets at thrift stores, or garage sales, for a few dollars, and use them over my cold frames (and garden crops) when needed. They definitely help keep the heat in on cold nights. They’re manageable when wet and aren’t too heavy (though certainlly nicer dry!). A few sewn together might be able to be thrown over your greenhouse? I’ve used them for insulating curtains inside my regular greenhouse, too.
Before I had a greenhouse, and living in a small cabin, I had to transplant seedlings out into cold frames before things really warmed up enough and was always amazed how well they did in spite of the cold (but above freezing of course). Sue
Plastic disposable drop cloths for painting are inexpensive and may be a good way to keep the blankets dry.