Tomatoes and Peppers

[jmsieglaff]

All my tomatoes and peppers have been in the cold frame since Saturday. Despite the very cloudy and cool weather they're doing well--although smaller than normal. The tomatoes are growing a little and peppers barely. I still have probably close to 3 weeks for tomato planting and 4 weeks for planting peppers.

[noinwi]

They look happy! They're a little bigger than mine, which are in the south window of a mudroom. I'll be potting them up from their cell packs soon. My raised bed is nowhere near ready...the spot is cleared, that's all. Good luck with your babies!

[swardson]

jmsieglaff, what are your nighttime temperatures like?

It's been sunny this week and my tomatoes have been out while I started hardening off peppers. It's going to be a lot cooler and cloudy the next couple weeks (low 40, high 60). I'm wondering if I should bring them in or would they be ok in a cold frame.

[jmsieglaff]

My highs for the past 5 days have been around 50F and lows have been in the around 40. I have a polystyrene cover I built for my cold frame (wrapped in a tarp b/c UV will degrade the polystyrene) that I put on at night. I also have water filled black spray painted milk jugs in it to act as thermal mass. With the cover on at night the temps remained in the mid/upper 40s this past week at night. If we had sun this week it would stay in the 50s in there at night with the cover--even if it was 30F outside.

Since you have a cold frame, I would think your plants would be OK in a cold frame/unheated greenhouse--our cloud cover was very thick this week so there wasn't much warming of my milk jugs for night heat. The cold frame did keep them protected from the howling damp east winds, which I think is why they are doing fine with the cool temperatures.

[jmsieglaff]

Much warmer weather has resulted in a lot faster growth. Too bad the weather forecast is looking unseasonably cool again this coming week. The absolute earliest these the tomatoes and tomatillos will be moving to the garden is next weekend--but that will depend on soil temperatures. My raised beds do warm up pretty quickly though. Peppers are probably still 2 weeks out. The lastest planting out I'll have had since I began gardening at my own house.

[luigiwu]

What does your whole cold frame setup look like? Do you have a heating element in there?

[jmsieglaff]

I have no heating element. I spray paint milk jugs black and fill with water (with a bit of bleach added). This works great at keeping night temps up provided there is sunshine the previous day and I put my cover on. The cover is critical for night warmth--combined with the milk jugs. I build the cover out of polystyrene insulation. The cold frame was purchased a few years ago, during the winter it is stored in the basement until early/mid March when it goes on the deck against the house. The inside back and sides are lined with milk jugs. I put stuff like broccoli, lettuce, onions, etc. in there. After those are planted out in mid April, the tomatoes and peppers go out as long as the weather looks not really bad and only milk jugs on the sides (to fit full length flats). Those plants will go through some cool nights into the low 40s--especially when the day or two days before are cloudy and the water doesn't warm up. But it doesn't seem to really bother them, even the peppers. I think keeping them out of the wind and getting natural light is enough good to outweigh the bad. And even cloudy days where the clouds aren't thick, it still warms up considerably in there. And it is auto-venting, I have it auto-vent at ~60F with cool season thing and mid/upper 70s with tomatoes and peppers.