When to put plants in unheated greenhouse?

freebo_2

This will be my first year with a greenhouse and I can't wait to get going :j

I've got some tomato seedlings on the go indoors and some peppers and soon some courgettes, but my question is when is it safe to put them in the greenhouse? Do I need to wait for them to grow to a certain size or is it more of a temparature thing.

Thanks!

bha.fatboy

We have loads of seedlings in our unheated greenhouse and they have all started growing so I think it would be safe to do them now. We have Radish, Broccolli, Peppers cane cabbage etc alresdy groing. Our greenhouse was at over 70 yesterday so again it should be fine. I am a fairly newbie at this lark as well so some more experienced growers may say differently. Good luck

Lord_Gardener

I'm afraid it's all down to being frost free. There's no guarantee of keeing an unheated green house frost free - even with insulation (such as bubble wrap) and you may lose a lot of plants. It's worth investing in a small greenhouse heater, just in case we get one of those snap cold spells!

kethry

yup i'd go with what Lord Gardener said. a lot depends on where your greenhouse is: in the middle of the garden, or in a dip (which can form a frost "pocket") will be way more at risk than against the house, in shelter from the wind. Do keep an eye on the weather forecast - the BBC has a good gardener's weather page that gets updated twice a week, and it gives more local forecasts. if you think its going to frost over, and you're not 100% sure they'll be ok, bring them inside overnight, and pop em back out the following day. only you can really assess how likely the frost is. (where you are in the uk will also affect this: obviously the north is going to be more at risk of frost than the south.)

HTH

keth
xx

Penelope_Penguin

freebo wrote:

This will be my first year with a greenhouse and I can't wait to get going :j

I've got some tomato seedlings on the go indoors and some peppers and soon some courgettes, but my question is when is it safe to put them in the greenhouse? Do I need to wait for them to grow to a certain size or is it more of a temparature thing.

Thanks!

Hi! I'll be starting my seeds off in my polytunnel over the next few days. They'll be fine, but they'll have known no different. I cover them, and they germinate fine. You might like to try that next year, or start aclimatising yours gradually to being outside.

Agree with what the others say - it's a temperature thing. Each year and region are different.

HTH, Penny. x

Queen.Bess

Thanks for this thread as DH and I have been talking about getting a mini-greenhouse and have found at our local garden centre a small walk in greenhouse with a plastic cover, so we're really keen to try and grow some vegetables and herbs. I'm not too greenfingered, but am keen to try, so will get cracking on growing the seeds in our new greenhouse!