Quote:
Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha
Pecker, that is a super neat structure. I have a few temperature questions since you're local to me, hope you don't mind my curiosity living thru your experience. I can't believe how warm your high tunnel is when its this cold. Did you add the heater to start growing inground tomatoes or transplants on March 15? That sealing up the cracks should take care of the nasty herbicide drift we both had last year.
Do you already have a propane tank for your home, or do you rent one for the tunnel? Without the heater on, what would be the min/max temperature on a 20 degree cloudy and sunny day. Are you keeping the heater 24/7 on to maintain the 80 degree temp? Was that 110 degree reading when our winter suddenly turned into sunny 50 degree days last month?
What are the soil temps like? Are you going to put plastic down to warm up the soil before planting? Any cold weather crops like broccoli in your plan?
Hope you have a great growing season!
- Lisa
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No prob, I'll do my best to answer q's.
I added the heater last aug. in preparation to extend the season. in mid October I planted potatoes (never grew, soil too cold) and lettuce. I set the t-stat to 40 and it would only run at night.
I'm thinking my transplants (basement) will grow better in containers on March 15. Based on last fall's potato experiment the ground will be too cold.
We live outside Lincoln on 1 acre so we already had a 1K gallon propane tank for our house. No heater, 20 deg cloudy day = 25-30 in greenhouse. No heater, 20 deg sunny day = 60-80 in greenhouse. I actually have a temp logger records a temp every 10 minutes to a database. I just crunched the data for Jan a few days ago, it's amazing how warm it is, no heater either. I'll post the graph later today.
Yes, the 110 deg reading was the 50 deg day last week.
I would bet the soil is pretty cold, I've never measured though. No, Im not going to put down plastic. I will try a few early toms in containers and in the ground and see what I get.