Hoop House Monitor

digitS' said:

This is what is depending on me tonight:

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I'm not worried about the flower starts in the other hoop house or what is in the greenhouse with its great big, garage furnace. The snapdragons and such in the other hoop house can take a frost.

Down there by the blue box will be the little electric heater. The box is my work stool and it will be outta there .

Behind the heater will be the fan. What I'll need to do is monitor things well enuf to know if I need to put 2 little heaters in the shed.

By the way, those marigolds - I can't remember how vulnerable marigolds are to real cold temperatures . . .

Steve

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Really nice!

Both outdoors and in th hoop house, it is 41°.

Rain is washing the plastic film and, at 3:45an, has been for several hours.

It was 48° at midnight and I knew I could get away with a more normal time for rising but, it's time to go out and warm things up!

Steve

@digitS' .. Your hoop and plants look absolutely wonderful!
Good to hear your night shifts may be over. After one night of monitor duty I would probably be fired.

I will still be shuffling for a while, at least the real tender stuff. I can keep the porch up by about 10 degrees with the heater, but the low 30's scare me into hauling at least the toms and peppers back to safety. That would not be possible with all that you have out there... oh I would be a wreck!

It is 100% tomatoes now, @Lavender2 . I'm trying to do right by them.

The hoop house is also about 97% full. The plants aren't all as widely spaced as they could be but some aren't very big yet.

Others need to go on some bamboo stakes and I may as well get to some of that while there is still some light.

Steve
trudging off in that direction

The hoop house is 45° and it is 42° outdoors.

At 4:30am, I guess this might mean I won't have to turn the heating system on . . . nah, heading out . . .

Whoa! @thistlebloom , take note. There's an 80% chance of rain/snow(!) Sunday morning.

Steve

Robin out there singing!

I'm geared up (hearing aids) and walking back out of carport. What's that noise?

Oh, furnace is on in greenhouse. Why's it sound like that??

Open door . . . seems normal. Step a few feet away and realize there's a robin singing!

An hour before sunrise . . . Hey! We now have 14 hours of sunlight!! I checked the Naval Observatory (LINK)

Transits, angles, where the Celestial Bodies are . . . You can use their data/computer for eclipse info . . . may as well get the prophetic jump on the Space Jaguar.

. . . and the neighborhood robin.

Steve

more snow?? Someday I'll quit talking about it and actually get something done about the hardening off problem I have here.

Being gone for most of most days doesn't help, and sudden thundershowers don't either. My indoor situation is just not adequate....

thistlebloom said:

more snow?? Someday I'll quit talking about it and actually get something done about the hardening off problem I have here.

Being gone for most of most days doesn't help, and sudden thundershowers don't either. My indoor situation is just not adequate....

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Right there with you!

I was moving tomatoes around in the hoop house yesterday and found a little Gary O Sena. I don't know if it was the size or the fact that it was pushed up near the plastic film but it had that purple underside to the leaves that tomatoes get in the cold. It has to do with phosphorus uptake, we are told.

All of my tomatoes will look like that after they are set out in the garden. It will last a few weeks.

The larger plants leaning over little Gary O can't help but it is getting a fair amount of sunlight, at least on one side. I'm wondering if it is getting enuf warmth.

It was 48° in the hoop house at 2am, I promptly went back to bed! 46° now and 42° outdoors. I may as well go out, supposed to be 37° soon.

I don't know how I was really doing this sort of thing when I was still working. Even now, with a lot more control of my schedule, I was away too late yesterday (after 5pm and all that 50° air was being sucked into the greenhouse with very little sunshine. I'd never let that happen if I'd been here.

Oh well, toughen up those little guys for their purple debut outdoors!

Steve

It was 37° outdoors at 1:30am according to the weather service. 43° in the hoop house. I got the heat on.

They had predicted 35° as a low. There is rain about 100miles out and on its way. Maybe those clouds will put a stop to the temperature slide.

A drink of water and an additional pillow here in the lazyboy . .. .
Steve