cold frames are used as in-between growing areas for transplants. your house or the greenhouse is nice and warm and humid and young seedlings are pretty tender and need exposure to the outdoors before being planted in the ground or set into larger containers outside. the cold frame provides a place to harden-off the little seedlings. below is one of 2 cold frames I am building. too much direct sun can burn the seedlings and putting shade cloth over the top can reduce the strength of the sun rays. gradually expose them to more sunlight, don't leave the shade cloth on for too long or the plants will get leggy. what's wrong with legginess?
I still have some painting to complete and then add some plastic to the sides. I bought windows from habitat's restore on sale for about $1.00 each. I also picked up 12 hinges $2.50. all the lumber was scrap I had on hand. I bought new paint and I think that was the biggest expense. I have scrap plastic to cover the areas on the side. this cold frame cost me less than $20.00 to make and will provide a safe place for my young seedling to grow outside.
the length is 6' and 4' wide and about 2' tall. I will be able to fit about 21-22 seedling trays into this.
for the second cold frame, I found an old glass door panel (~36"x72"), behind my work shed that I will use. the wood next to the cold frame pictured at the top is a floor joist scrap from a friend's house build. I am going to use it and other pieces as the frame and lay the glass panel over the top. I believe this will be a simpler and better design. sometimes the caulk on the windows disintegrates and the glass falls out, rendering the cold frame useless until you can fix the glazing.
covered with remay for the cold nights. the remay keeps the temp inside the cold frame about 20 degrees warmer that the air temp.
april 9 2013
the temps have finally warmed up. our spring was slow in emerging this year. we've had a lot of rain and overcast days so my little seedlings haven't grown a whole lot. at night I close the windows and put the remay cover over top. I will stop putting the layer of remay on at night at the end of this month. the temps haven't gone to freezing at night for a little while, but you never know what april will bring.
still very tiny plants. I hope with warmer nights and sunny days, they will start to jump.
watering is done by soaking in a kiddie pool I picked up at ReStore for a few bucks. the water is brown from Neptune's Organic Seaweed fertilizer. a little stinky, but good.
the length is 6' and 4' wide and about 2' tall. I will be able to fit about 21-22 seedling trays into this.
for the second cold frame, I found an old glass door panel (~36"x72"), behind my work shed that I will use. the wood next to the cold frame pictured at the top is a floor joist scrap from a friend's house build. I am going to use it and other pieces as the frame and lay the glass panel over the top. I believe this will be a simpler and better design. sometimes the caulk on the windows disintegrates and the glass falls out, rendering the cold frame useless until you can fix the glazing.
I finished painting it and set down landscape fabric to keep the weeds from taking over. fearless thought this was a purfect cat napping house.
Seed trays set inside with windows propped open for some ventilation. bart is trying to get inside where it is nice and cozy.
covered with remay for the cold nights. the remay keeps the temp inside the cold frame about 20 degrees warmer that the air temp.
april 9 2013
the temps have finally warmed up. our spring was slow in emerging this year. we've had a lot of rain and overcast days so my little seedlings haven't grown a whole lot. at night I close the windows and put the remay cover over top. I will stop putting the layer of remay on at night at the end of this month. the temps haven't gone to freezing at night for a little while, but you never know what april will bring.
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watering is done by soaking in a kiddie pool I picked up at ReStore for a few bucks. the water is brown from Neptune's Organic Seaweed fertilizer. a little stinky, but good.
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not the clearest pic, but the tray is set in the water so that it just comes in contact with the soil blocks. they soak up the water and fertilizer and turn a darker brown when they are saturated. this is st. john wort (hypericum perforatum). the seed is almost microscopic and so each block ended up with more than a few seeds each.
I added a strip of wood along the window edges so that I can prop all 3 windows on one side open at a time. I like the looks of this cold frame but one large glass door and one-sided would be easier to deal with.
you can see the length of wood on the outside of the window frames in this picture.
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