Posted on 10/14/2023 7:13:45 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Cold frames: A useful resource for cool and cold-weather gardening
Have you ever tried to start seeds indoors and ended up with anemic, gravity challenged sprigs? Bright, direct light is vital to emerging seeds and most windowsills are not sunny enough.
This leaves you with two options:
Indoor grow lights (like the DIY grow light system we recommend), or real sunlight with cold protection.
Artificial lighting (grow lights) is an ideal choice if you have the indoor space. If your indoor space is at a premium but you want to start garden seedlings to get a jump start on the growing season, cold frames are your best bet.
Thankfully, cold frames are also easy and inexpensive to build!
What is a cold frame?
A cold frame is exactly what it sounds like: a transparent outdoor frame that protects plants from cold weather while still letting sunlight in.
This means your plants get natural sunlight and extra warmth. In most regions, a cold frame can be used effectively to grow winter seedlings and crops, though if you live in a climate zone below USDA Zone 6, you may need a more fortified version than the one I use in my garden.
Also, if you don’t feel like making your own cold frame, you can order a really good Austrian/German-designed cold frame via Amazon. It’s double sided (more space), made of durable materials, lets in light from all angles, and you probably couldn’t make it more affordably if you were to buy all the pieces/parts yourself.
*SNIP*
Ideal plants for cold frames
Since the plants inside will only be a little bit warmer than the outside air, cold frames are mostly used for frost-tolerant crops during the winter. Check out our article Easiest plants to grow in the fall and winter, for a complete list of frost-hardy plants. Spring transplants under cold frames
You can also use your cold frame to grow out your spring transplants. If you do, you’ll want to pay careful attention to the weather and bring the more tender seedlings inside on nights when it drops below freezing.
Too cold – Although most winter crops are at least a little bit frost tolerant, they don’t grow when it is under 40 F outside. They’ll appreciate the cover of your cold frame staying on any time the weather is below 50 F.
Too hot – Likewise, cool weather crops don’t like it hot. If the thermostat says 50 F or warmer, crack the cover or take it off completely.
You’ll start to get a feel for how warm or cool your cold frame stays as time goes on!
More info/cold frame construction ideas at link: https://www.growjourney.com/use-cold-frames-garden/
The two takeaways from my online research .... contain & process in open air ... so you are definitely confirming that for me - thanks!
No one around here where I shop (3 places) has horseradish root. I did not go to Whole Foods - that’s the one place that most likely would have it, but I only set foot in there if it’s life or death. So I bought prepared horseradish - course grated, vinegar, water, salt - kosher, no preservatives. If I’d gotten closer to it when I divvied it up between my jars, it would have cleared my sinuses just fine. That’s my “cheat” ingredient on the Fire Cider. I’m down to my last two ingredients - grated ginger & adding ACV. The smell of the fresh thyme combined with the garlic is just wonderful!
You’ll be able to get Horseradish through Jung’s in the Spring if you don’t find it locally between now and then.
https://www.jungseed.com/category/600
How about your Asian neighbors that sometimes give you eggs? They might have some growing?
Good ideas. I am in touch with the Asian’s DIL periodically.
Praying mantis are fascinating. We see them not infrequently around here. I had one hanging out on the hummingbird feeder, but it was too small to actually catch a bird - I removed it to the bushes.
Sounds good.
TY Diana, great topic idea!!
I’ll be incorporating that
Grasshoppers freak me out, so I would probably just run away screaming, anyway!
Funny, have not seen a katydid but we have seen the mantis and walking sticks too , big ones, over the years.
We often hear the term, "including golf ball sized hail" in our thunderstorm warnings.
I also need to get some powered, motion activated lights for that side of the house.
This product has been independently tested at 15 psi by the center for Irrigation Technology, California State University, Fresno
That reminds me. I need to install the little pressure gauge I bought into the drip system. The little tank sprayer pump says 40 psi max but doesn't list the cut on pressure and I'm supposed to put air in the accumulator tank to 3 psi less than the cut on pressure. The accumulator tank prevents/reduces rapid pump cycling at low volumes of water output.
The sprinklers and rigid riser have to be purchased in qty of 5 so I'm also getting 5 of the riser stakes. One end of the riser inserts into the main drip line tubing and the other is threaded for the screw on sprinkler head.
Yeah. Hail ruins a lot of great ideas!
Paul Stamets on Maitake mushroom
A resource....here is a used copy of a field guide listed online for about $10. Author Alexander Smith was professor of botony and director of the University Herbarium at the University of Michigan. He was editor of Mycologia. This book is one of the best books for mushroom identification in Michigan!
The Mushroom Hunter's Field Guide (Mushroom Field Guides) Hardcover – Unabridged, September 30, 1980
MomwithHope; SW Michigan is a good place for mushroom foraging!
Maybe Polypilus frondosus? Maitake, AKA Hen of the woods? An edible type. Without actually viewing would not recommend edibility. (And if an edible type, it has so much insect damage on its past prime edibility.) Winter project! Learn mushroom taxonomy and identification and remember the spot and check it regularly next year.
Yes we plan on leaving it. We have morels, oyster, puffball and a few boletas. Quite a few poisonous and inedible. We have two mushroom books, Mushrooms of North America by Orson Miller Jr. Very complete and good color photos but not photos of everything. We also have the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms but Lincoff. Between those two and google images it has worked out well. Would have likes to seen these fresh but leaves were covering the spot. It is right next to the barn about 80 feet from a window. It should be even bigger next year.
Katydids & cicadas are different, but many people use the terms interchangeably ... locusts get thrown in the mix, too.
So I am bringing this up because cicadas are “copperhead candy”. I have heard they will hunt & congregate under trees with cicadas & the link I am posting confirms that. Since I don’t know what is ‘singing’(one of the 3!) I ALWAYS carry a flashlight at night to make sure I don’t step on a copperhead ... we have them around here & every year it seems a couple of people get bit at night in their yards. One fact I did not know was that copperheads could climb trees like that - I have only run into them on the ground. Nature is SO fascinating!
Cicada Killer, But Not The Kind You Think
https://roadsendnaturalist.com/2015/07/11/cicada-killer-but-not-the-kind-you-think/
The REAL Difference Between a Katydid, Locusts, and Cicada (Prepare to be Mind-blown)
https://1061evansville.com/the-real-difference-between-a-katydid-locusts-and-cicada-prepare-to-be-mind-blown/
Gorgeous herb combo. Useful and beautiful! :)
Obligatory every other Fri morning long post.
Mailman just brought me some seeds(all Bok Choy). Shangai Green Choy, Suzhou Baby Bok Choy, Chinese Yellow Heart Winter Choy and the free seed packet is .... Koral Carrot.(next year) Now I can do that second Fall crop bed. Going to bring home some plastic film from work tomorrow to put over the beds. It’s been windy and things want to dry out quick. I’ll throw the shade cloth over the plastic too until things sprout. By then, those little drip system sprinkler/mister heads should be here and I can set a watering schedule for them. I’ll run both the sprinklers/misters and the drip lines in pulse fashion for a while and then just use the drip
A neighbor up the road stopped by and introduced himself and said he had some lumber to get rid of. Went and looked at it and he offered me a bunch of corrugated roofing tin. It’s about half junk and half decent but gift horse, mouth etc. Along with some posts to stick in the ground, it will be enough to build a 10’ deep equipment shed on the NW end of the tunnel and be the full 22’ width.
My little tractor has never had a permanent spot under a roof. Likewise with push mower and even garden tools. Wood splitter too. With the NW end being open, equipment shed style, I’ll still be able to have doors on the NW tunnel wall for end to end cross flow ventilation. They’ll just have to slide or be bi-fold like the sides but in this case, fold up and in.
After playing around with used automation stuff enough to learn and know what will work, I just hit the Buy it Now button on a new X-400 IO controller. IO = Input Output. It also has the capability to read up to 16 - 1-wire sensors which in my case will be temperature/humidity sensors for both indoor and outdoor.
Also grabbed three new high power Quad Relays that are SPDT(single pole - double throw) which is what I need to run the DC motors as reversible to open/close the drop down sides and gable vents. The X-400 will control the relays. Each Quad will run two DC motors as reversible. Two quads for the two sides(done in two halves - 4 motors) and one quad for the two gable vents( 2 motors)
The relays can work as stand-alone but then I’d have four different control pages. By having the X-400 run them, everything’s on one page and can be controlled one by one or in pairs or all at once. ie I can open all four drop down sides and both gable vents based on a single condition(>80 degrees) even though they’re run by separate relays.
Once I get a wind speed/direction sensor, I could have just the windward side close when it gets over 25mph from that direction. If it’s 95 degrees, only close it most of the way so I still get cross flow.
The X-400 will run up to 32 plugged in expansion modules and another 32 stand-alone modules that are on the same Ethernet network. It could run several high tunnels.
$510 this morning and I think I’m at about $1,000 as of now.
Add $5-600 for plastic and the hardware for it, $3-500 for misc stuff(wind sensor, hinges, hardware, dripline, DC motors etc)
I’m going to end up with a 22x35, fully automated high tunnel for about $2,500 - $3,000 max. That’s about the price of a tunnel kit, non automated.
The Unitronics unit will be used for irrigation. I’ve already figured out how to do a countdown timer and just found a tutorial/example in the help section for date/day/time based schedules. I’ll be able to create several irrigation schedules(Spring/Fall, Summer, FrigginHeatWave, Winter, EverythingFroze) that I can chose from using the built in keypad and display. I’ll keep the countdown timer for when I want to manually run the drip.
It’s capable of running up to 8 pumps so I can do multiple irrigation zones. I’ll be starting with one, the whole tunnel. Multiple zones could be handy if I run drip in outdoor rows. Doesn’t rain in a tunnel so indoor/outdoor irrigation are two different things.
The Unitronics will live in the tunnel so I’ll have to go out there to change the drip schedule which actually makes sense because I have to see the plants and dig in the dirt to know how much watering is needed. I doubt I’m going to do the soil moisture sensors. They’re expensive. Might get one tensiometer that you stick in the ground and read the gauge that’s on it.
Got all my tech goodies figured out and purchased. Plastic is the only other big ticket item and I’m apt to find some on sale this time of year.
Now I need to spend a couple of days finishing up the tunnel frames. Then get them primed, painted and planted in the ground. That’s the first milesone.(by Thanksgiving) Plastic over the top will go quick. Building sides and end walls will take a little time. Getting it closed in from the wind before the winds get frigid will be the second milestone.(by Christmas) The gable vents won’t be needed and sides won’t need to have the ability to open until next Spring. Just need some sort of way to get in at least one end. LOL
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