Greenhouse costs

Silvertabby

Ganga said:

Silvertabby said:

Strangely enough, although I don't have a problem with growing chillies from seed, I struggle with tomatoes.  So, I start my chillies off at the end of February in heated seed propagators in the conservatory.  Once pricked out, the little pots go on the window sills of the hobby room and study (remembering to keep the doors closed at all times - cat owners will know why).

I then buy my tomatoes as young plants from our local garden centre.  Both chillies and tomatoes are potted on into their final 10" pots and migrate to the greenhouse in mid May, weather permitting (we are well north of Watford Gap).

Hardy and half hardy annual flower seeds are planted in seed pots in the greenhouse (extra narrow shelf above the 2' staging comes in very handy here) from early April.

I buy well known seeds rather than the supermarket cheapies - one because 'the names' have larger selections and new varieties, and two because you don't know how long the supermarket seeds have been hanging about in a possibly damp off-season store room.

The 'names' are starting to send out their 2025 seed catalogues now - received my Thompson and Morgan issue last week.  One of the little joys of gardening is curling up in a comfy chair with a brew and a seed catalogue - you can't do that in Lidl!

I googled T & M and joined their gardening club ,£10 but that only works out at about 20p a week so not a fortune ,do you have to request a current catalogue or do they send you one automatically? 

I'm not a member of their gardening club, but I get the catalogues because I've bought from them and so I'm on their mailing list.  

You can request copies of their current catalogues via their website.

Ganga

Sorry to keep asking questions but are other members heating their greenhouses this early in the year? i went out to the wheely bin this morning at about 7am and popped into the greenhouse to check the temperature as it felt really cold outside, it was reading 5 degrees on the thermometer , now i do not have many young plants in there at the moment but if i did have tomatoes ,chillies etc would they need back up heating ,i live in the NE of England so cold weather is not unusual 

Silvertabby

Ganga said:

Sorry to keep asking questions but are other members heating their greenhouses this early in the year? i went out to the wheely bin this morning at about 7am and popped into the greenhouse to check the temperature as it felt really cold outside, it was reading 5 degrees on the thermometer , now i do not have many young plants in there at the moment but if i did have tomatoes ,chillies etc would they need back up heating ,i live in the NE of England so cold weather is not unusual 

I'm also north of Watford Gap and, yes, it was chilly last night!

I've never heated my greenhouses.  I remember my dad using a paraffin one, and I don't know what went wrong but he woke up one morning to find the inside of his greenhouse covered in soot!  Took all day to clean it, and he never did get all the soot out of the nooks and crannies (glass was fitted with W clips, not like our easy to clean Rhinos).

My toms and chillies are fine, but doubt that many more of the green toms will ripen without help.  Will give them another week then the full sized greenies will be picked and given a last chance saloon to ripen on the conservatory windowsill.  Neither of us like green tomato chutney.

Will then give the chillies until the end of September before picking and freezing the decent sized ones (the green ones are nearly as hot as the red ones).

After that, I will give the greenhouse a good clean and then move in my potted agapanthus ( they can cope with the cold but not cold AND wet).

FreeBear

Silvertabby said: I've never heated my greenhouses.  I remember my dad using a paraffin one, and I don't know what went wrong but he woke up one morning to find the inside of his greenhouse covered in soot!

Possibly, the paraffin heater had used up much of the oxygen and was spewing out soot and carbon monoxide as a result. Neither are particularly good for your health.