Small semi heated cold frame, think it will work?

[harleysilo]

Hi all!
The kids convinced me to make a tiny test green house for this winter/early start next year. So with no research i built this for one of our raised beds. It's 3' tall in the back, 2' tall in the front with 2 tops that open.
I still need to make a small vent that opens with one of those temperature actuated openers.
It's only one layer of 6mil plastic, i could add a second layer but I’d cover up my screws preventing easy removal. I could get some large bubble wrap and staple that to the outside however.
I have a basement waterproofing system that consists of a sump, and gutters that run inside my foundation, but under the slab. They collect rainwater which is gravity feed out of the house. The sump and gutters have a blower fan that suck air through which keeps humidly down and vacates Radon gas if there was any there. I redirected this 24/7 airflow to the green house via a corrugated pipe. The air blowing out is consistently about 60 degrees. Half the air comes through the gutters, the other half is air pulled from the unfinished basement which comes through the walls (older house) or from the upstairs area.
This morning it was 23 degrees, inside the greenhouse it was 33 degrees. Perhaps adding a light bulb would be enough to keep it warmer, or doubling up on the plastic creating a dead air space, or the bubble wrap would help. I don't have enough room for some sort of solar heat sink.

Think we'll have much luck this winter?

So far we've planted Radishes, carrots, broccoli, various lettuces and spinage. We bought some already sprouted Kale and stuck that in too. I also rounded up all the strawberry plants and replanted them in there. I guess next year we'll try and turn this bed into only strawberries.

[Father'sDaughter]

Whether you have any luck or not, you've found a fantastic way to spend time with your kids and to teach them about the joy and satisfaction that comes from growing their own food. Best of luck!

[joseph]

Looks great to me... Ten degrees warmer aughta favor the cold weather crops.

[drew51]

My cheap plastic cold frame works like a charm. They are very cool! Now I want to build one too! It's 20 degrees right now and my lettuce looks great in the cold frame!
I covered my strawberries today. I don't see any benefit to putting them in the cold frame. I use pine straw, it got to -14F last winter 13 days below zero. I didn't lose one plant.

[PhilaGardener]

Great fun! I had a climb-in cold frame when I was a kid and look where I am now :>)

[rwsacto]

When I was a kid, we had some type of "climb in" cold frame every winter. It was a fun adventure at night when it was snowy and cold.

A light bulb on at night should make a noticeable difference.

The bigger issue will be high temperature on a mild sunny day. Automatic vents work most of the time and your forced ventilation may also take care of it.

A row cover on the plants at nite can also provide additional frost protection if needed.

Above all, experiment and have fun.

Rick

[Labradors2]

I think it looks fantastic, but I wonder if you should have used Styrofoam on the sides to insulate it. I dunno. I love the idea of the exhaust air form your house keeping it warm!

Good luck!
Linda

[JamesL]

Great idea and nice build out!

[harleysilo]

Thanks for all the comments. Again this is just a test for this winter/spring. I had intended to build more raised beds this winter. I may design them differently to better accommodate turning one into a cold frame next year. We really need to grow strawberries which is why I moved them into this bed. I realize they need their own bed and they only last so many season before disease sets in. What we really need to do is fence it an area that is perfect for a garden and have a real garden plot but that is another story.

The forced air aspect of the cold frame is working I’m just not sure how well. I think the fan moves around 120 cubic feet per min of air and I think the cold frame is less than 100 cubic feet. I just got my thermometer set up so it will record max and min in the cold frame, but it will be a few days before it’s warmer and sunny. I’m concerned that it will overheat. Tonight and tomorrow night will be a real test as to if it will stay above freezing with just the forced air. If not, I may be adding a 100 watt light bulb tonight. I also may need a vent to allow the air to escape the cold frame vs. just letting it leak out around the cracks of the roof doors to allow for full movement of air.

I need to paint the PT wood the vent is mounted to on the side of the house. When we moved in this side of the house had bushes along it, and they didn’t paint behind them. So when I tore them all out it looked and still does look terrible. The original vent needed to be replaced, but the ones the sell now are slightly smaller, so the wood is behind the vent to hide the damage to the siding.

The kids are having a blast so regardless it’s already worth it. Yesterday we pulled up the 100’s of tomato seeds that had sprouted and planted seeds for carrots, broccoli and radishes in the half of the cold frame we hadn’t planted the previous weekend. Carrots and radishes have sprouted so they were excited to see that. The seeds we planted in the other raised bed that is not covered have not sprouted yet.

[drew51]

As a kid I enjoyed picking brambles. Raspberries and blackberries. Easy to grow. I myself now have 21 raspberry plants and 15 blackberry plants. I get pounds and pounds of fruit. Much easier to grow than strawberries. I do grow them too. I constantly replace older plants with new runner plants. So disease issues are not really there. Some grey mold problems, but not bad. Also as a kid I loved the peaches, but peach trees are difficult to grow. I currently have 3 trees.
You know now you can grow red, yellow, pink, purple, and black raspberries


Have you tried growing pineberries? Fairly easy strawberries to grow.
Here is a photo of a daily harvest of strawberries, pineberries, yellow alpine and musk strawberries


Just some options, Some good thornless blackberries are Triple Crown, and Columbia Star.

[harleysilo]

I have no idea what brambles or pineberries are but will google them.

I picked up some raspberries and black berries last year and planted them. One produced 7 or 8 berries by the end of this growing season. I understand they don't produce their first year. They were supposed to be thorn-less, but one has thorns on it. My parents also brought one and we planted it.

One raspberry plant grew a shoot literally at least 10' long, i draped it up into the apple tree and it grew back down to the ground. Several of them rooted themselves as well.

So it would appear that I’ve planted more of a batch of berries vs. an easily contained plant. I need to cut them back soon i guess but the leaves are still green. I'll take pictures and maybe you can give me some suggestions.

We have 3 blue berry bushes that really produced well this year. And we were pleasantly surprised at the cantaloupes’ we grew (i think we had 8 really good ones). Cucumbers did well as did tomatoes. The peppers were off the chain in production and quality. I just got rid of them after are first good freeze. Had i put a cold frame around them i think they would have grown all year. If fact i think i could grow them all year and may try that next year. My soil must be perfect for them.

[harleysilo]

Last pick before frost

[harleysilo]

Pulled up peppers in the firepit

[drew51]

Great pictures, and an excellent garden, impressive! Brambles are cane fruits, raspberries, blackberries etc. You have your hands full with fruit and vegetables and kids, Very cool!
Yeah a few raspberry plants are best. But they are wild, you can just let them root, or blackberries and increase them yourself. Yes you seem to have excellent soil. Blueberries are not always easy to grow, yours look fantastic!

On blackberries they fruit on 2nd year canes. After fruiting you can remove canes. They will grow new ones every year. New canes are primocanes. Primocanes overwinter and then fruit, now called floricanes. Once floricanes fruit remove them.

Raspberries can also do this, we call those summerbearing. Prune same as above. The primocane/floricane names are used for raspberries too.

Everbearing raspberries can fruit on the upper 1/3 the first year, and the lower 2/3's the 2nd year. Some just take the upper 1/3 crop and cut them down. Some just prune the upper 1/3 off after fruiting and take a 2nd crop the next summer. Once the lower 2/3 fruits you remove canes. Some newer blackberries are everbearing too. Another name is primocane fruiting.

What I do is trellis floricanes, and not the primocanes, so i always know which canes to remove. Works well with trailing blackberries, but some are erect, and don't even need a trellis.

So you remove canes after fruiting right to the ground, take them out. Except for ones that only fruit on the upper 1/3, although to make it easy you can remove them too, but they can fruit a 2nd time. Hope that hekps, I know it is confusing.

Pineberries are white strawberry hybrids. They have a pineapple taste sort of. Thus the name. Seeds are red, flesh is white to red tinted. Grow like June bearing.

[harleysilo]

So from what you've written, i gather it's a good thing i haven't pruned any of my brambles yet. In fact, I shouldn't prune them this year (except for perhaps the one stalk that did produce a few berries). So some sort of trellis to support what's grown is what's in order. Then next year, after i harvested all the berries that are produced, it's those stalks i prune, leaving the ones that grow this summer but produce nothing to overwinter to produce the following year. (with any exceptions for Everbearing as you noted above).

So the one stalk that grew over 10 feet, i could just wind it around whatever i decide to use as a trellis.

Will berries be produce all over the second year canes, or is that specific to each plant and/or plant type?