Hey guys! I’m new at this greenhouse thing, and I’ve only had veggie/flower gardens for three years now. Lockdown gave me my new favorite hobby! My boyfriend got me a greenhouse for Christmas and I’m super stoked! I’m in zone 3b/4a (it’s kind of a fine line between them where I live)
I started pepper, tomatoes, lettuce, and zinnias on Sunday and I’m not sure if I can leave them in the greenhouse. It’s gonna be 55 today but rainy, and overnight it should be 40. Should I keep my starters inside, or can I put them in the greenhouse? We don’t have a thermometer in the greenhouse yet, but we’re planning on getting one. I have some lettuce in there now that my boyfriends mom gave me (she rules) and they were fine overnight the last two days, but I know lettuce is cold hardy compared to other things.
The thing I’m struggling with is that I’m scared to leave stuff in there if it won’t germinate because it’s too cold overnight. I know a thermometer would be helpful but we haven’t made the trip into “town” to get one yet.
Any tips would be great! Also there’s an obligatory cute dog photo on the end because everyone loves cute dogs 🐶 ❤️
by Formal_Coyote_5004
8 Comments
Whoops, wrong photo of my dog but I guess you get to see some houseplants lol it’s hard to take photos of black dogs anyways. This is the correct one
https://preview.redd.it/xqzwgqub09xa1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=5dce852145add8693efab4975f5b13c6b759729d
He likes laying in the lilies and I should tell him no, but those beautiful bitches don’t care about anything they come back strong no matter what… lol they’ve had many feet of snow pummel to the ground on top of them and they don’t care 🙂
I don’t know if this is typical, but one thing to remember is greenhouses don’t stay much warmer over night than the ambient temperature around them. I think I saw maybe 1 or 2 degrees extra in the greenhouse at 3 am. So I germinated my seeds with the paper towel method then moved the seedlings into pots and moved the pots into the greenhouse. This way they germinated, and still got to spend a couple chilly days outside.
Lettuce can go out no problem, tomatoes and peppers like it much warmer. Even if they do survive colder temps (less than 10C), they are not happy and can stunt, so best to keep them inside until overnight temps in the greenhouse are at least 10. Not until June I would guess. Lettuce is very cold hardy though, and prefers cool temperatures, they will love the greenhouse in the spring! edit: if your peppers havent sprouted yet, they need at least 20C temps to germinate. I need mine in a hot sunny window indoors with the heat on for that to happen.
Those type of unheated greenhouses are perfect for hardening off tender plants started indoors. They protect the tender seedlings from hail, hard rain and wind that would tend to tear them apart. As was mentioned above the insulation value is nominal and you have to protect from over heating on the really sunny days.
What type of greenhouse is this.. do you recommend, and where can you purchase one?
Halcyon stuff. Wish I lived in a less windy place where such a greenhouse might have a chance.
3b! When is your last frost date?
Looks like your pup is happy your plants can go to the greenhouse so he can have his room back!
I start almost everything indoors under lights. Much easier to monitor temp and moisture to ensure a good germintaion rate.