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Little-TON - Colorado

Supposed to be a bit nippy- 39° Sat night, I was thinking of using a 60 watt light or two with a 5 gallone water bottle inside the cloche- adequate? First time with heating my cloche, usually I wait two more weeks......Help?

5/3/2007 11:54:15 AM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

A blanket at sunset...or an old beer cooler over the plant. I have learned twice if the say 40 plan for 30...

5/3/2007 11:56:41 AM

Ontario, Canada.

Wiz, I use 500 or 250 watt halogen trouble lights in the hoop houses. Angled down and away from the plant they produce a lot of heat.

Russ

5/3/2007 3:48:57 PM

Little-TON - Colorado

Are you worried about too much heat?

5/3/2007 3:52:03 PM

Wilmington.Ma.

1oo watts will do it.

5/3/2007 4:12:22 PM

Denver, CO

Wiz,
I use the small size crock-pots you can get from Wal-Mart, for $8.00 each. They keep the temp about 15 degrees above the outside temp, and they provide warm moist air for the plant to suck in. You can even put a few drops of Seaweed fert in the pots and the warm mist becomes a slow released mist of fert as well. Keep the pot about 10 to 12 incehs away from the plant. ( And the cook up a mean dish of Jambalaya in the winter.)

5/3/2007 7:14:43 PM

Santa Rosa, CA.

I think he size of your hoop house will play a big part in what is needed to heat it. The soil is nice and warm in my 12' X 20' hoop houses so the temps stay up at night.

5/3/2007 8:28:34 PM

Eugene,OR

My 13'x30 hoop houses stay even warmer!

5/3/2007 9:23:32 PM

Santa Rosa, CA.

yeah yeah.........what ever

5/3/2007 10:05:40 PM

Oswego, New York

too,funny

5/3/2007 10:12:29 PM

Wiz,,with all the smack you been talkin here I would think a real "Wiz" would bundle up in all of his Wiz garb and sleep in that cloche,,do a little bonding with that plant,,,"be the plant".

Please post some pics if this happens, perhaps Longbeard would offer to do the shoot!

5/3/2007 11:12:57 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Good point about hoop house size...makes all the differance in heat/temperature control. Come on Wiz , just get a small thermostat controlled heater and set it with a good remote sensor and adjust the heat as need for overnight.

Finally the Wiz posts a somewhat usefull posting and I'd like to ask further, what overnight temperature do most of you desire? I've got mine set at 51 degress F or 10.5 Celcius which keeps my smaller hoophouse/cloche at that temp. overnight despite the outside temp.

5/4/2007 2:18:22 AM

Colo.Spgs.CO. Pikes Peak Chapter @ [email protected]

Hot steaming compost piled around the edges of the house is natural heat that keeps on giving. once the cold snap goes the compost gets moved to an area away from the patch to continue it's breakdown into good stuff. This is natures way of heating the hoops and it also keeps the stuff stirred as well to keep it active....If you do not want it to touch the patch soil, put a tarp down and pile it on for instant heat and removal when done heating. Just a tip when growing in a cold climate, use all you can.

5/4/2007 3:23:34 AM