Hoop House Monitor

[NwMtGardener]

Yes chilly here this am, but the sun is up!!! I cant wait til Tuesday, forecast is GORGEOUS and i'm supposed to be off work!! Mostly i'm looking forward to my tomatoes, etc. being able to (maybe) have their first sleepout in the greenhouse that night!

Got to try and get the yard mowed today when all the dew dries off...its going to LEAP UP with this sun today...

 

[digitS']

In the 30's at 12 and there's a breeze at 13mph. I hope that wind dies well before dawn with its predicted 32°.

RidgeRunner talked on the cold frame thread about the temperature dropping below the WS predictions. I can almost count on frost on rooftops if the open country around the airport is below 38°.

Then, there are the microclimates. I think a little too much can be expected, tho. There is just greater exposure and greater protection, if we are just talking about one side of a tree or another. Still, there are hills and dales.

Frost and freeze doesn't always have too much meaning if a plant can die five degrees above freezing. Kinda makes you wonder what is going on. Stress, I imagine.

Heating system is on. I don't want to see the shed drop below its current 43°. The plants have all been moved back, away from the plastic film.

Steve

 

[digitS']

Freezing. WS has it as 34° with a wind chill of 25°.

I just know the roofs are white with frost. The pickup is covered with an impenetrable layer of ice and the lawn is frosty and sprinkled with graupel like a child's birthday cake!

Damaged lilies again this year. Imagine that only some of the peach blossoms are going down. Should be early enuf for more blooms.

Oh, the hoop house is 47° .

Steve

 

[digitS']

Tired of monitoring the shed-attached hoop house, I moved the oldest tomatoes into the other hoop house. Yeah, a move that required another heating system. So now, 2 heaters, 2 fans, 2 hoop houses!

Power is from the greenhouse with its gfi outlet. It's been on nearly an hour and I will go out and check things. Outdoor temperature has dropped into the 30's. I'd expected colder at 1am after the WS changed its forecast. Motivation to get me up, anyway. Now, I need follow through.

This late-night monitoring is becoming tedious.

Steve

 

[digitS']

The frost is from top to bottom but without yesterday's wind, not likely too severe. The sun, in a blue, blue sky has begun to warm the neighborhood.

I had to go out again after the "check" because I realized that the new system had allowed the temperature to fall continuously after it was turned on. Changed setting from medium low to medium and the thermometer stopped falling and gained 2 degrees! Close as I came to the 1250watt maximum.

I just might have come to an end of tramping around in the outdoors during the small hours. The remote thermometer is my friend .

Steve

 

[Lavender2]

I sure hope you get to nap during the day, @digitS' ... and glad that somebody is getting to enjoy sunshine and warmth!

It sure is a gross week here! 34 and flurries this AM. Flooding rains since Saturday, and continuing ALL week! I'm trying to bite my tongue though, thinking of those in the dangerous weather south. I guess I am lucky it's just some minor flooding and not 3 more feet of SNOW!

Tomatoes are back in the house with their heads smashed against the lights, probably not any brighter in the porch than it is in the house, dangit! We might see some sun on Friday, or Saturday... A few of my Early Girls have blooms and have been moved to gallon pots. Come on sunshine!

 

[NwMtGardener]

Brrr, my thermometer reported a low of 30!!! In the greenhouse last night. Luckily everything was tucked up nice and warm in the house until just 5 minutes ago, when i noticed the sun warmed the greenhouse to 50!! Climbing fast, think i'll be able to get more up-potting done today, and maybe some weeding!

 

[digitS']

My protected growing would vanish in a tornado! Even daylong storms would be tuff because of loss of light.

I've gotta get to the gardens. It was crazy yesterday with so many daylight hours of big, dark clouds, then bright sunlight, still with air temperatures in the 30's & 40's. It would have been a 2 hour "work day" when I could get to the garden. Greenhouse commitments are gonna change!

I'm not much for naps but that doesn't mean I don't fall asleep at times, at unplanned moments. I remember an olde guy telling me when I was in my 20's that he could get by without much sleep at night. These overnight work hours aren't very difficult for me .. . if I was a little more in control of them.

Steve
plant slave

 

[digitS']

Another close-to-6 hours in the garden, yesterday afternoon! No worries coming home since the temperature was above 60° until after 6pm. A very pleasant afternoon and supposed to be above 70° today!

It was already below the predicted low of 40° at 3am so I've turned on the heating system(s). What would be too cold for those warm-season plants? I don't want them toughing their way thru a night in the 30's, really anytime. It won't do them any good.

It was a painful learning experience to move a whole raftload of tomato plants out of a heated greenhouse, several years ago. Those plants had never been colder than 60°. Under plastic that night, dozens were damaged and several died sitting right beside a thermometer that read 37°. And, there is a distance between thriving and dying.

It's 4am and I'm often up by this hour, winter and summer, need to be or not . . .

Steve

 

[digitS']

It's 36° at the nearest WS station but there is frost on the roofs here. Even the shed has frost on it!

Forecast was for 40.

Chance, the Gardener