Seeds/Plants in the Greenhouse

The greenhouse was several weeks late arriving – not because of the builder but because we didn’t make the decision to get it til it was past the ideal time to get it set up and have seeds started. The floor is treated boards with about 1/4″ space between them. I’m sure that space will get bigger as the boards dry out but those spaces allow cold air to come right up through the floor. We do need those spaces in order for water to drain out. In the greenhouse in Texas, it sat on the ground and we added 5 or 6″ of small rocks/gravel and that would heat up during the day and help keep the greenhouse warm at night. The greenhouse here, sits about 4 – 6″ off the ground so there’s plenty of space for cold air to get under the greenhouse and find its way up through the cracks into the greenhouse.

Next Fall, I will put thick plastic down on the floor and then put some kind of insulated outdoor type rug down on top of the plastic. It won’t cover 100% of the spaces in the floor but hopefully, it will help.

With the heater going in the greenhouse, on the coldest night, the temp in the greenhouse will only go up about 10 degrees warmer than the outside temp so keeping plants in there at night isn’t happening. We had a 16 degree night last week. Tomato starts don’t do so well at 26 degrees, plus that night we tried to run two heaters and tripped the breaker.

So, all the tender plants get hauled into the downstairs garage on the cold nights and we have had three or four nights in a row with temps in the low 20’s and days in the upper 30’s so some of the plants have gotten quite leggy from being in the dark garage. Before late winter next year, I’ll have a setup in the garage with grow lights.

I’ll still have plants for the garden and I’ll supplement with plants from the garden center.

The cold doesn’t bother the lettuce so much so long as there’s no frost on it but I’ve still been bringing it into the garage on the coldest nights.

There are five different kinds of sunflowers. I’m going to plant sunflowers along the inside of the fence on the sunny side. The birds should appreciate those.

The San Marzano tomatoes are good for canning. I planted 16 and I think 13 have germinated. I’ll be happy if I get 10 good plants, but, of course, I’ll be happier with 13. 🙂

The pepper trays have been sitting on heat mats and not a single one had sprouted . . till this morning. I planted probably 40 peppers, maybe 6 different kinds. Peppers are so slow to germinate. I told Vince yesterday that we may have to buy pepper plants and there’s one happy little plant popped up. Hopefully there will be more. I would love to have at least 5 jalapeno peppers, 5 cayenne peppers and 10 bell peppers. I’ll slice or dice the peppers, freeze dry them and will be thrilled if I get enough to make it through the year without having to buy peppers.

Two of the six luffa seeds have sprouted. My goal is to have three plants. If these are happy and grow well, I’ll get enough luffa for a couple of years. I have two sponges left from when I grew them in Texas about 5 years ago. The garden in Texas was bigger and I had plenty of room so I planted about 20 luffa seeds and harvested over 300. I gave them to anyone who would take them and saved the rest. I slice them and use them as a scrubbie in the shower, and I use them for washing dishes.

My preferred method for starting sweet potatoes is to spread out a few of last year’s small potatoes on moist soil and let them sprout, then plant the whole potato/sprouts. We kept last year’s crop in the garage downstairs where it stays dark and cool and we’re still eating sweet potatoes and these small ones from last year will become this year’s crop.

This time of year, I’m always hopeful but time will tell if the garden is going to do well.