Cold Greenhouses

Are there any of you growers out there who do not use any form of heating for their greenhouse please?

I am not putting in any heating for mine, due to the cost of the unit and a Thermostat.
The benefits of heating this house would in my mind be to costly against what I have used in the past. To me this is a big cold frame and thus would treat it as such. The only difference would be that the roof cannot come off and watering would be done by can not by cloud.

Is there any other things I need to think about, when starting other growth from seed or cutting?

With all my pots and trays clean and disinfected, compost and perlite on stand by too. I am ready for the new season ahead, but am unsure as to what could be done at this early stage.
Itchy, itchy fingers to get going. of waiting around.
Patience is not for my and will be my undoing.

 

I use a cold frame along with a heated greenhouse, the heated ones are only just frost free.
In the cold frame I tend to overwinter pots of plants, that if kept reasonably dry, will survive a few degrees of frost.
Even a cold greenhouse can benefit from some bubble insulation.

It depends a lot on what you intend growing, years ago I used to grow overwintering lettuce, next month you could start onion seed.

I dont use the greenhouse much for veg these days, it more for overwintering and starting off seed of half hardy plants.
Even with a bit of heating I dont start much seed sowing until March, nothing makes much of a move in Jan and Feb.

 

Unless you have a collection of some special plants, and that's your "thing", I don't see any point heating a greenhouse in winter. If you have Exotic plants that you bring in for the winter that you want to keep frost-free I think it is cheaper to put them in the garage, or somewhere else frost free, rather than heat a greenhouse. In the main they will tolerate the dark, and if not a few CFL bulbs will keep them on tick-over, along with putting them outside on mild days.

However, come Spring when starting seeds off then some heat does help. Plants like Tomatoes, Cucumbers etc. will stall [and take a while to get restarted] if the night temperature falls below 10C, and plants being raised for bedding do much better if grown on continuously, and not subjected to chilly nights.

Making a small area that is heated for those plants that need it, within the greenhouse, is one option. It may be sufficient to just light a few Tee-lights overnight [I think they have a different name, the ones that look like Tee-lights but burn for longer periods?]

I have a bottle gas heater, as the greenhouse is too far from the house for electricity, and in my conservatory (which does have electricity) I have a small, cheap, plastic tunnel that I put inside the conservatory, and I put a small heater inside that. It hardly comes on at all so is very cheap to run (i.e. in the early Spring)

 

yep pretty much the same as me

 

I too have a cold greenhouse. My seeds are started off indoors in an electric propagator late February/March and after germination moved to a windowsill. I move them out to the greenhouse when I think they are mature enough to cope with the temperature difference, usually around the end of March. This is with the exception of tomatoes and cucumbers, which will be moved much later.

Whether inside or out Landimad, you must consider the light levels for growth too, which is why most growing is started early March.

 

Last year I over wintered some plants in my greenhouse that wasn't heated. I moved my coldframe into the greenhouse and insulated that with bubble wrap, a bit like a Russian doll really. It worked quite well.

 

It is all very new to me and over wintering my Fuchsia's will be a challenge, as well as the Jade tree. I just hope they all get through the cold period expected in the new year.

 

This will be the first year I will be over wintering my fuchsias too. I've just stuck them in the greenhouse away from the door. Perhaps I'm being naive, but I assume as long as they are out of the harsh elements they should be fine.

 

Mines poly carbonate gh bubble wrapped but there seems to be that much condensation just lately parts are falling down so i thinking about taking it down now,ive left the door open for a few days hoping with the temps being up at the moment that it might help and im getting mould issues but im over wintering callistermon,echium,trachy,fatsia,trex,various trays of poppies, cordylines, passiflora,fan palm, young salvia&agapanthus and ive got some trays of cuttings..lavatera and sage as experiments(ist time) landimad
I have half of my fuchsias in there also jane..fingers crossed
A nice top of the range glass green house would be lovely

 

Do you have a fan heater for the greenhouse? If so putting it on fan-only (or turning the thermostat right down) will help with the moulds. I have mine on a 15-minute 24-hour timer set to 15 minutes on and 45 minutes off. Don't forget to bypass the timer, and turn the thermostat up!! on cold nights.

 

After the last statement off british gas saying our electrics going up £25prm i have no chance of a heater kristen..daz is not happy!
I have found thou that the potting shed feels warmer (than the gh temps say) when i go in there? im wondering whether to move some plants in there
It feels like a balancing act to me being unexperienced but not sure to go with gut feeling i do know thou that mould is a killer

 

My greenhouse fan heater on "fan only" is around 40 watts.

Assuming you put it on a timer 15 minutes on / 45 minutes off that would be 6 hours run-time per day. Lets say Dec-through-Feb are the months that need air circulation to keep the plants healthy whilst there is risk of condensation. I make that 21 kWh in total ... electricity is what? about 18p a unit? If so that would be a bit less than £4

Of course if you have to put the heater part on, for a cold night, then that would be a lot more as it will go from 40 watts for fan only to 2,000 watts for heater ... but the fan on its own won't cost you a lot, and will solve the humidity / mould problem. That's assuming you have electricity in the greenhouse though ... it would cost a lot to install an armoured cable to the greenhouse.

 

I'm overwintering cuttings in my cold greenhouse for the first time and they seem to be okay. I try to air the greenhouse everyday leaving the door and window open to let the condensation dry off, but not in high winds or during frost.

 

Thanks kristen,that doesnt seem much maybe i can talk darran round ive got electric down there kristen,well in the potting shed next to the gh but i could hook it up
i went down earlier,half the floor was soaked,the rain must of been aiming directly at the open door me being a bright spark leaving it open all night