Grow Your Own Magazine

Yes folks..........it's that time of year again, temp is starting to plummet and we need to think about heating greenhouse.
I personally can't use electric because mine are at the allotments. I have various paraffin heaters and am toying with aquiring a propane heater.

So come on, whats the best and cheapest form of heating and any tips to save money?
The only thing I do at present is move all stuff that requires a bit of heat to one end of greenhouse, section this off, and only heat this area!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Brill idea for a thread Snadger. I can't wait to read everyone's ideas as it is my first winter with a greenhouse.

As my 'house is only 6 x 8, I am hoping to line it with bubblewrap insulation and heat with an oil-filled radiator thingy with thermostatic cut off. My cucumbers are still flowering and fruiting and it would be a shame to kill them.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

I want a greenhouse!

KK

The bubblewrap is a good one Shirley.
In the winter my greenhouse is full of container plants and slightly sensitive plants I am trying to overwinter, but I am too 'tight' to put any proper heating in. However, on the coldest nights I put a nightlight in there and put a terracotta pot over it - this ensures it burns slowly, but also the pot stores the heat and releases it slowly and this helps to just keep the edge off the cold. Only a 6' x 6' greenhouse though.

Bubblewrap, silocne seal all joints, Mini greenhouse inside main one.
Despite all that, geraniums get frosted.. cos I don't heat and we see -10C on cold nights.

Me too! It's not fair!

I have metal staging in my greenhouse which holds the cold. I line it with sheets of polystyrene. I also cover my plants with the same material You can buy it on a roll from a furniture/carpet shop. Its used to go under wooden flooring. I find its better than newspaper.

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And when you're back stops aching,
And you're hands begin to harden.
You will find yourself a partner,
In the glory of the garden.

Rudyard Kipling.

Heating any greenhouse any way is expensive. I don't heat mine, and I find insulation (bubblewrap and polystyrene sheets) keep out the frost. Depends really on what you want to grow. I would certainly not consider heating a greenhouse on the lottie. No power, so no leccy heating possible, and with gas and paraffin you have the potential fire risk (that's without the vandals getting in and causing further problems). I use my greenhouse to overwinter perennials (just frost free), to grow on seedlings in the spring, and to grow tomatoes, peppers and chillies in the summer.

I've got 2

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Hiya Snadger,

Bubblewrap but the Big stuff not the little bubbles not so efficient an insulator & cuts light transmission down if you want to grow owt in there ( winter lettuces for instance - Kellys is a good one)

If you are on a lottie site I guess you are limited to either Parafin, solid fuel or bottle gas.

Parafin - not so cheap to run these days but reasonably cheap to buy. Main draw back is you have to go every day to make sure the wicks are trimmed also you need some ventilation but a bit of hose pipe from outside to near the burner will be enough ( or don't silicon the frame there will be loads of small gaps to supply the air then.

Solid Fuel - see parafin although if you use a gravity hot water system it may be better.

Bottle Gas - Expensive to buy the kit initially ( unless you can get good 2nd hand equip) 1 suggestion get an auto dovert valve & two bottles cos sods law says the one night you can't get up is the night you have the worsed frost & the gas runs out

Other ideaa :-
1. get a black plastic dustbin and stand inside the greenhouse full of water. It will work a bit like a storage heater and will help a bit.

2. if you don't grow in the borders in winter line below the staging with builders polystyrene it will help stop some of the heat loss

3.or grow some endive or chicory under the staging in the dark and it will be nice & blanched ready to nibble along with a crown of Rhubarb for forcing

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Show off

would you like to see a foto of what your missing

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

G'wan then

__________________
Imagination is everything, it is a preview of what is to become.

I'll dig one out

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Can it be our guilty secret?

KK

How about getting right back to the old ways, heat your greenhouse with fresh horse muck. Fill up your empty compost bags with it and you've got ready made storeage heaters. Come summer, you've got ready made equicompost.

Couldn't put up with the condensation problems and getting brayed over the head with a rolling pin each night because I smell like a cowbyre/stable!

__________________
My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

I've used polystyrene boxes (you can get them from fishmongers, some butchers) and stood some of the small plants in there as extra insultation for the winter. A couple of layers of fleece on top provides a cosy home.

Also saved any polystyrene packing sheets from parcels and lined the shelves of the metal staging.

I find it helps to move plants as high up as possible, to get lots of light and get them away from the coldest part of the house. Whole house gets bubble wrapped (it's only small).

For the coldest nights, using a small paraffin heater - although it seems to be getting harder to find places that sell paraffin, garden centres seem to charge a lot for it.

Here you go what your missing

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/