We can never put down new plants early, not until after the May long weekend. Every year I thought it would be all right but there's always one big storm that killed most of the young ones. This year, I am not going to risk it.
We can never put down new plants early, not until after the May long weekend. Every year I thought it would be all right but there's always one big storm that killed most of the young ones. This year, I am not going to risk it.
That is likely wise..
good news The sun popped out today, well a little bit anyway....in the heated bed all three type of radishes came up and are well along, kale is through the surface, I think the carrots have poked up, no sign of the parsnips yet
I dug down in the unheated potato bed, and there all good, now with warmer weather they should take off. I should have another bed of potatoes planted this Sunday.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
My potatoes are now just poking up in that unheated bed that was covered in snow
I had a couple extra pieces when I planted that bed so I just stuck them in one of my solar electrically heated beds just to see what it would do.
Big difference! amazing what just a little added heat will do.
Im up to 62 potato plants in the raised gardens, will do another bed Thursday and then be up to 86. Then I have to build more raised beds.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
up to 86 potato plants in raised gardens...I have to build more now, I need at least 100 potato plants to keep me in potatoes year round.
And here is a picture from how I was building these beds, remember I used old junk steel pallet racking for the frames, I also used sheets of old rusty steel for the bottoms, that's two sheets of 14 gauge steel, and in this picture I had just cut the drainage slit in the bottom so I could recover any extra water used in watering the plants....I still havnt got the water recovery built for the beds yet, maybe by next year. After this pic was taken, heavy plastic sheeting was put down then the bottom was covered in plastic soffit material (because its perforated), then on top of that, stainless steel screen (like heavy gauge, window screen) was rolled out, then lastly the dirt was added....yes over kill, but these beds will last forever, or longer than me x 3.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Couldn't wait to get more raised beds built so I quickly put together a 10 x 7.5 foot semi raised bed for potatoes from old used over head roll up insulated doors, then filled up with dirt...I have now achieved escape velocity in potatoes, 5 types, north of 120 planted
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Peppercorn, good job! My main garden is underwater at the moment due to the flood warnings in Eastern Ontario. My raised beds up near the house are planted though.
A note of interest. I planted my first batch of potatoes April21st in the first raised bed (un heated), then it went dark and sub 0 for something like 7 days. Here is a picture of that same bed that was covered in snow. Note the middle row, most every plant there is doing way better than in either row on each side closer to the edges. Just what must have been absolutely a very marginal greater heat retention towards the center of the bed looks to have made a difference, just a interesting observation I thought I would share.
at the same time I planted these, I stuck a couple in one of the solar heated beds, I just did it cause I had a couple left over pieces and here is the difference when heat is added...this is roughly at 22 days now.
Things like Radishes and Kale are doing ok.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I cant believe this, I just walked out to my garden and checked the temp and its 2.5, maybe 3 degrees C, I had to light the fire this AM. Worst spring in a awful long time.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I missed your initial thread on how you were going to heat these?
Are you using heaters that farmers use for cattle troughs?
We have raised beds but didn't place insulation around the edges but i did build them to the ground, so there is little to no air flow underneath. Now i'm thinking that I should pull back the dirt and in insert some insulation on the sides.
Great ideas!
Well Dang, I had planed on propane for heating when I started to build these, but this spring I changed my plans and thought of having them heated just by solar electricity. I hooked up two 24 volt panels in series to run 3 electric heating elements. I first used these immersion heating elements from
Princess auto surplus section but they made the water way to hot, so I scrounged around and found a few elements that survived the fire, the wattage info is burnt off of them but from memory they were in the ball park of 200 watts or so at 120 volts so at the voltage I am using them at they are roughly 70 watt elements. Seems to work well for me the water doesn't seem to get hotter than 125, 130 degrees F. Though now heating is not really needed so I will be unhooking them until fall comes.
there is roughly two 5 gallon (each) containers, each kept at (it varies with how much sunlight we get) roughly 120 degrees, so that's a fairly large thermal flywheel, once warm it stays that way.
I will heat these in the future directly off my DC Buss but I have to bury a line out to the garden, and I havnt had time for that yet.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
This picture was taken one hour ago, I cant believe it, and its been going this cold, or near so most nights. I just took this above picture and there was a piece of left over poly carbonate at my feet laying on the grass. I picked it up and there is ice on it!! I cant believe it...this has been the worst spring, low sunlight/cool temps that I can remember. Its may 17th , for xbgrfdnhghjjhn,mk sake, I am having to light a fire in the wood stove, again.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
a quick and cheap way to build a raised garden from scrounged parts.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
still puzzled by that middle row, and its still doing better than either row on the sides.
here is a bed planted something like 6 days later after the real cold snap. Even random growth in each row.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Now grazing from the garden as I do my watering in the morning..............
The potatoes coming along just fine, taller than a coke bottle now
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
We got snow after the May long weekend (Victoria Day). Unbelievable! Finally put the young tomatoes into the ground yesterday. Our growing season is so damn short that we probably won't be getting many tomatoes out of them. 👿
