Greenhouse/Seed starting questions

[MountainGirl]

I'm a total beginner here, will welcome baby-step advice!
With the big build projects done, I finally get to try my hand at it this year.

We have an unheated greenhouse;
9935
currently buried in snow, lol
9936

I bought seed trays & potting soil (for seeds) on sale last fall.
I've watched youtubes on how to do this... I just dont know when to start.

Do I wait until last frost? It gets cold in there at night -
I cant start anything inside the cabin; the cats destroy everything.

ALL thoughts/advice most appreciated.

Thanks!

[Broncosfan]

I'm a total beginner here, will welcome baby-step advice!
With the big build projects done, I finally get to try my hand at it this year.

We have an unheated greenhouse;
9935
currently buried in snow, lol
9936

I bought seed trays & potting soil (for seeds) on sale last fall.
I've watched youtubes on how to do this... I just dont know when to start.

Do I wait until last frost? It gets cold in there at night -
I cant start anything inside the cabin; the cats destroy everything.

ALL thoughts/advice most appreciated.

Thanks!

I start all of my seeds 6-8 weeks before the last frost. Peppers take longer than Tomatoes. With your altitude and cold nights you will need some kind of heater since you cannot start them in the house. If you wait until the last frost you will miss your growing season. I start mine in the house and move to the greenhouse when the plants are a few inches tall. You will have to watch them closely day time temperatures in the greenhouse will kill tender seedlings with out ventilation and or shade cloth within a few hours. I have covered my plants with a tarp in the greenhouse on cold nights and put a heater on a thermostat under the table and it worked well.

[Broncosfan]

I'm a total beginner here, will welcome baby-step advice!
With the big build projects done, I finally get to try my hand at it this year.

We have an unheated greenhouse;
9935
currently buried in snow, lol
9936

I bought seed trays & potting soil (for seeds) on sale last fall.
I've watched youtubes on how to do this... I just dont know when to start.

Do I wait until last frost? It gets cold in there at night -
I cant start anything inside the cabin; the cats destroy everything.

ALL thoughts/advice most appreciated.

Thanks!

You can also get clear plastic covers for your trays that you can tape down to keep the cats out allowing you to start your seeds in the cabin.

[Deebo]

Looks like the green house I have invisioned, I have gathered 6- 3 foot by 4 foot windows that are good, and about 4 that are broken, but may be able to make two by combining and piecing them back together.
Gonna basically just wall the windows in, and have two vents.
I will also put her a heater in there for the cold nights, if i can get it done in the next few weeks.

[Sparkyprep]

I'm not much help with this. Our growing season is all year long.

[MountainGirl]

I start all of my seeds 6-8 weeks before the last frost. Peppers take longer than Tomatoes. With your altitude and cold nights you will need some kind of heater since you cannot start them in the house. If you wait until the last frost you will miss your growing season. I start mine in the house and move to the greenhouse when the plants are a few inches tall. You will have to watch them closely day time temperatures in the greenhouse will kill tender seedlings with out ventilation and or shade cloth within a few hours. I have covered my plants with a tarp in the greenhouse on cold nights and put a heater on a thermostat under the table and it worked well.
Good info, especially about it getting too hot, thanks! I might have to do things different than most; there's no reasonable way to put heat out there. Maybe I'll start the seeds out there just a few weeks before last frost? It shouldn't get below freezing in the greenhouse overnight so the little seedlings should be okay hopefully.


You can also get clear plastic covers for your trays that you can tape down to keep the cats out allowing you to start your seeds in the cabin.
They would push the trays onto the floor, pry open the lids, scratch out all the dirt, dance in the dirt, then run their muddy paw prints across the top of my counters and stove...you have no idea, and I'm gonna make a new rant/thread pretty quick on the hells of cats. LOL Thanks for the idea though!

[MountainGirl]

Looks like the green house I have invisioned, I have gathered 6- 3 foot by 4 foot windows that are good, and about 4 that are broken, but may be able to make two by combining and piecing them back together.
Gonna basically just wall the windows in, and have two vents.
I will also put her a heater in there for the cold nights, if i can get it done in the next few weeks.

Cant really tell from the pic - but there are high 8x12" vents, and slide open screened windows (one on the door) on each end, plus last year Tom mounted a little solar-direct fan under the peak that blows air down and across. He does his crop :hippie: from starts from friends & transplants when they're too big. (Mine will be out of there before then.)

I might think about putting some heat-sink thermal in there, maybe buckets of water or blocks? to slow release heat overnight..dunno, that's just a thought right now. If I was building one from scratch - the whole north wall would be like that, but I'll figure out how to make this work. Trial & error. Fun stuff! Thanks for your reply :)

[MountainGirl]

I'm not much help with this. Our growing season is all year long.

Oh pfffft. LOL
((hugs))

[Inor]

I do not know if your mountain sun is like ours. But here, even if it is cold outside (below freezing), the sun is still very warm. I would try raking the snow off the roof and see if the sun warms it above freezing inside. It might just work and with all the snow piled up around the greenhouse, it will certainly be insulated at night.

[Broncosfan]

If you cannot maintain a minimum of 70 degree soil temperature even at night your germination rate will be severally reduced. From by experience you will have a lot of trouble starting peppers for sure as most take 10 days plus for germination. Tomatoes are a little more forgiving and most will sprout within about 7 days. Bottom heat from grow mats make a huge difference in how fast and how many seeds actually sprout.

[MountainGirl]

I do not know if your mountain sun is like ours. But here, even if it is cold outside (below freezing), the sun is still very warm. I would try raking the snow off the roof and see if the sun warms it above freezing inside. It might just work and with all the snow piled up around the greenhouse, it will certainly be insulated at night.

It would, yes, if not for all the heat going up through the polycarb roof... but you gave me an idea. Next time I'm in town I'll pick up one of those remote temperature thingys - and put the sensor in there at shelf level where the flats would be, and the reader device here in the cabin so I can watch what the temp does. One of us is usually up at 3 to P and that hour should give a good overnight read. Thanks!

[MountainGirl]

If you cannot maintain a minimum of 70 degree soil temperature even at night your germination rate will be severally reduced. From by experience you will have a lot of trouble starting peppers for sure as most take 10 days plus for germination. Tomatoes are a little more forgiving and most will sprout within about 7 days. Bottom heat from grow mats make a huge difference in how fast and how many seeds actually sprout.

70 degrees. It gets colder than that in the cabin overnight; usually winter mornings are upper 50s in here if we sleep through & dont feed the fire LOL
Grow mats might be too much draw on the batteries, and I'd have to run a cord out there...but it's something for me to look into. Thanks!

I'm starting to get the idea there'll be difficulty with starting seeds early.

[Broncosfan]

70 degrees. It gets colder than that in the cabin overnight; usually winter mornings are upper 50s in here if we sleep through & dont feed the fire LOL
Grow mats might be too much draw on the batteries, and I'd have to run a cord out there...but it's something for me to look into. Thanks!

I'm starting to get the idea there'll be difficulty with starting seeds early.

Sorry I totally forgot you used batteries so the heat mats won't work. Anyways you said you already have to stuff bought so give it a try. You won't know until you try it.

[Broncosfan]

It would, yes, if not for all the heat going up through the polycarb roof... but you gave me an idea. Next time I'm in town I'll pick up one of those remote temperature thingys - and put the sensor in there at shelf level where the flats would be, and the reader device here in the cabin so I can watch what the temp does. One of us is usually up at 3 to P and that hour should give a good overnight read. Thanks!

Knowing the temperature is a great idea. I actually invested in a weather station just becasue we couldn't rely on our local weather forecasts. I have a sensor in the greenhouse now so I know exactly what the temperature is with a glance on the monitor from inside a warm house. It beats waking up to find the temperature dropped lower than expected and scrambling to try to get some heat on to limited the damage at 3 am.

[BucketBack]

I'm going to germinate and start my garden indoors again, just a month earlier.

After I figure that out again, I can copy what MG is doing.

[Baglady]

Why not start some cold weather plants, lettuce, cabbage, carrots..to get a hang of, and a jump start on your growing season? Not right now, but sometime in March?
Would one solar panel, like from Harbor Freight, be enough to run a heat bulb?

[BucketBack]

I used to have a green thumb, it's just the power hours at work that complicate things.

Turning on the grow light as I type.

Cold weather plants do well here.

Thinking brussel sprouts also.