How to heat the greenhouse?

[tommyh]

My Greenhouse is on my allotment, its one of those 6x6 Poly Greenhouses, it had six concrete slabs in the bottom, but this autumn i took out the centre channel ofthree slabs, and dug down around 8-10 inches, then put membrane and pea shingle in the bottom, i did this to increase the height but also to increase the amount of air volume in the green house and also the shingle will retain their heat. I bought one of these parasene heaters:

https://www.parasene.com/vshop/details.asp?prodID=204

Just outside of the town i live is a very old fashioned garage that sells paraffin lose at 90pence per litre, initially i was reusing 2L milk bottles to transport the fuel but not i switched to a small jerry can for safety.

Ive had mine a couple of months, it runs all the of the time, which means im only checking it every 3 or 4 days, and im surprised how long 4.5litres is lasting, it seems to be about 10-16 days. You dont need very large flames, they are what cause the smoking,i have only trimmed the wick once due to my own stupid mistake of letting it burn and smoke.

The other thing i have done it put two old roll mats, the foam mats you take hiking/camping, theyre only about a foot wide, so i put them on the north facing side and one of the east side (i have my seedlings on the south side).

So far so good, even when it was 3 degrees C last week, the green house was around 8 degrees C, on a cold sunny day with the heater it gets up to 30 degrees in there.

I am raising Roma tomatoes, Aubergines, Peas, Oregon sugar snap all from seed, as well as lettuce and rhubarb. So far so good, no major problems.

[Gardenwitch]

Just got a thermometer and some greenhouse bubble wrap today how does it hook into place on the inside of my greenhouse walls? Once its insulated a bit better can i grow anything during winter for eating? thanks for any info

[kitchengardner]

hot bedding

gettinggrowin - Your friend is partially right. A big pile of manure does generate a bit of heat but you wouldn't notice a difference in the air temp. However if you put it in a raised bed in your greenhouse and cover with a couple of inches of soil/compostyou create a hot bed, after a few days the soil temperature will be several degrees higher and will stay like this for a few weeks. The Victorians used these all the time to grow salads, radishes etc over winter.

Hot beds also work well outside under a cloche. They are particularly useful for getting an earlier start with your seeds

i have used this technique with great success for the past 3 years and would recommend trying it

Regards

kitchen gardener

[kitchengardner]

Hi, before I go shopping I'd like some advice!

How shall I heat my 6 by 8 greenhouse? It's at the bottom of the garden, no electric nearby.

I currently have peppers and chillis in there.

Any ideas?

Thanks

I use a small paraffin heater from Norfolk Greenhouses, it cost £10 and runs for over 100h on £4 paraffin. I only use it when the temperature is predicted to go below 6oC. I don't heat the whole greenhouse only 1 section which is insulated with bubblewrap. On average this keeps the temp in that area at about 7oC above ambient. This enables me to grow Pixie tomatoes & chillis until late December. I am still harvesting aubergines this year

If your chillis are in pots make sure your insulate them from ground, either by raising on bricks/staging (the higher the better as heat rises) or by standing on a hot bed

Regards

Kitchen gardener

[gettingrowin]

Thanks for the clarification / tips kitchengardner - think I might try the hot-bed system with a cloche on the plot one of these days.