The Great Cold Frame Experiment

[HunkieDorie23]

I love this experiment. I have also been thinking about a cold frame this year. I was going to use bales of hay and old windows but now you have given my food for thought.

I had read to add a couple inches of newspaper then to add soil and build up a raised type bed and was planning on doing this in Feb. but now I am not sure that it will be warm enough. I was going to grow lettuce and carrots, and I was thinking about adding cucumbers to it in March or April to get earlier cucumbers but I know my temps are no where near as warm as your. It has only been above freezing maybe 5 days in the last 5-6 weeks. It has been polar here this year.

I really appreciate the detail you have gone to.

Thanks

 

[chris09]

wifezilla,
If you can, change the angle of you glass to a greater angle it will "catch" more sun and in turn will heat up better.

For example my little green house is around 8' wide x 12' long x 8' high and has a Glass (roof) angle of 70 and it was around 18 outside temp two day ago and with a outside temp. of 18 and moderate sun it was 85 at about 2 foot off the ground with no artificial heat.

Chris

 

[wifezilla]

I am putting together a second cold frame with the other part of the glass door. It will be more angled to catch more light. It will give me a good comparison between the two design options.

One thing about the first one, boy does that glass collect dust!!! It's horrible! I have to wipe it off several times a week.

I do have green shoots sprouting in the first cold frame. Unfortunately it looks like I am growing crab grass! LOL

We have a wicked freeze coming up tomorrow night. Unusually low for this area. After we are back to more normal weather I will tinker some more.

 

[JimWWhite]

I went to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore today and bought a set of sliding glass doors that I'm going to use to build two cold frames with. Both are double-pane glass and are the large sliding doors people use for their patios or decks. I paid $25 for the set and they are in excellent condition. Hopefully by the end of January I'll be able to set up the cold frames with hay bales and the doors on top of each one.

Now for a couple of questions to all: Do I set my peat pots on the ground in their trays or should I set them up on something like a set of steps going from high to low or what? Should I put down the black fabric to keep weeds and grass from sprouting inside the frame?

And finally, you should always consider going to the HFH ReStore for things like this. I've always gotten great deals on a lot of great little things that are handy around the garden and barn. Last year I bought two sets of the old 1950's style louvered glass windows that you crank out and installed them on my chicken coop. We also got the linoleum tiles we put down in the chicken coop from there too.

 

[thistlebloom]

I think a stairstep of plants would have the advantage of making more light available to the back ones, and the black landscape fabric would help raise the temp as well as quelling weed growth.

 

[wifezilla]

I was ready to restart the planting in my cold frame since I only thought I had some crab grass growing in there...but guess what???

My bok choy has sprouted :watering

Apparently it was smart enough to not even try to sprout during our -10 nights and waited until things were more hospitable to planting

We should be done with the most ridiculous of our cold nights so I have great hope for my uber-early crop.

I also have that second cold frame just about ready to go. I am using a different configuration to get more light inside. Now the only issue is I need to convince my son's cat Zeus that it is for growing plants, not a warm nappy spot for sleepy kitties

 

[lesa]

How exciting! I don't have my bus stop/green house closed off yet, and I notice my cats spend a lot of time in there!

 

[wifezilla]

Managed to get Zeus out of the cold frame long enough to cover the holes in the sides. I used feed bags filled with leaves.

The water jugs are in the back. I just need a bag or two of organic potting soil to put in the planters. While I planted the bok choy in the ground, in this second cold frame I am going to try using nursery containers. I think I have enough lying around here....

 

[JimWWhite]

Well, I now have two hay bale cold frames out in the garden. Each one is about 8'x4'. I put down a couple of strips of black fabric for each one wide enough to sit 8 bales of straw on in a rectangle, then I topped both of them with the sliding glass doors. I've got small 2x4 blocks at the four corners so I can open up the frame in the day time so it doesn't get too hot inside. At night I just move them out and let the glass door rest on the hay bales. Next week we'll be moving about 64 peat pots of romaine, bibb, leeks, and Chinese cabbage to the cold frame once they get up in size.

I'll post pics next weekend and keep reporting on the results. Very excited about the prospects.

ps... We also planted 32' of green peas and snow peas in the garden this weekend too. When they come up they'll have a nice trellis made of 2x4 wire to climb up on. Once they're gone I'll reuse the trellises in place to grow cukes and possibly some tomatoes on. Come on Spring!!!

 

[wifezilla]

Please do!

My bok choy froze when we got a freak cold snap of about -20. Our usual night temp this time of year is 20. I reconfigured the first cold frame to have more angled glass and the second one is also up. I put some containers with seeds in the second one. I need to put up more pics.