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Deep freeze has hit

pepperfever

pepperfever

I woke up this morning to a cold house, so checked the radio for temps and oh yeah it hit us big time. -24 actual temp with a -40 wind chill. Our high today is supposed to hit a -3....heat wave! Good day for making soup, baking and hibernating. Believe me that soup will have plenty of peppers in it to warm up the insides too. This extreme cold is predicted to last a week. Sometimes I really have to wonder why I live in Minnesota.

BTW the furnace is working, just can't keep ahead of the cold.
 
lolol its cooooold here in TN too about 15F and i live way down close to alabama thats very low for us but as soon as march comes temp will go up to 50s, move down here long summer very green state you peppers will like it
 
We only got down to 12 last night, but tonight is suppose to be a few degrees colder. So far, knock on wood, keeping the gh warm has not been that hard. Running 1650 watts in heaters during the day (turn them off if it is sunny and above 20 outside) and from about 10 pm until 11 am run a kerosene heater as low as it will go. A gallon of fuel seems to last about three nights but I don't need it if the temps stay above 26-28.

Mike
 
wordwiz said:
We only got down to 12 last night, but tonight is suppose to be a few degrees colder. So far, knock on wood, keeping the gh warm has not been that hard. Running 1650 watts in heaters during the day (turn them off if it is sunny and above 20 outside) and from about 10 pm until 11 am run a kerosene heater as low as it will go. A gallon of fuel seems to last about three nights but I don't need it if the temps stay above 26-28.

Mike
Click to expand...

Sorry to derail the thread but.... Mike how has regulating the temperature been? How drastic have the swings from cold to hot been?
 
Normal cold/snowy winter for me so far. About 3 months now until I dig out my greenhouse, actually I have to partially dig it out today to relieve some of the snow/ice load.
It is nice to start seeing more hours of sun daily. Its actually super bright today and the trees are still loaded with ice from the crazy ice storm we had at christmas
 
Josh,

It was much harder a month ago - it could go from 55-95 in a couple of hours once the sun started hitting it completely. Over the last month-six weeks, lots easier. For sure, it the overnight lows are 28 or above, I don't have to worry about lighting the kerosene. If they are not predicted to go below 25, I keep an eye on the indoor temp and as long as it is such that if I lose one degree indoors for every degree the outside temps drop and it will stay above 52, I don't worry.

Usually by about 11 am I can turn the kero off and turn a fan on. Humidity is a problem (I installed the AC plastic backwards) and it's easy to get a white mold on the leaves. I also trim off any bottom leaves that are turning yellow - they make good compost. If the outside temps get above 35, I turn off the heaters, above 40 and sunny I open the door a crack. Usually by 4 pm I have to close it but most days I'm home by then or shortly after. Leave the heaters off until the temps get in the high 50s, then depending on the forecast I can run 450 watts, 600 watts, 1050 watts or 1250 watts. I'll usually turn the fan off when I turn the heaters on or when the sun goes down.

Because of the low light this and last month, I'm trying to keep the gh cooler and not watering the plants as much. They still get a bit leggy (at least some of them) but I can top the ones that get too tall. I'm resigned to not having many ripe toms until February, though I should have more than enough to eat in another week or two.

Next year, I'll close it down toward the middle of December and leave it empty until the middle of February.

Mike
 
it's pretty damn cold today. Nice to see the sun though. Surprisingly this winter I've been spared the usual snow I get. I'm really just hoping that June and July doesn't turn out like last year. I'm thinking of getting some kind of umbrella or tarp to cover my containers just in case we get those week long rain storms again.
 
wordwiz said:
Josh,

It was much harder a month ago - it could go from 55-95 in a couple of hours once the sun started hitting it completely. Over the last month-six weeks, lots easier. For sure, it the overnight lows are 28 or above, I don't have to worry about lighting the kerosene. If they are not predicted to go below 25, I keep an eye on the indoor temp and as long as it is such that if I lose one degree indoors for every degree the outside temps drop and it will stay above 52, I don't worry.

Usually by about 11 am I can turn the kero off and turn a fan on. Humidity is a problem (I installed the AC plastic backwards) and it's easy to get a white mold on the leaves. I also trim off any bottom leaves that are turning yellow - they make good compost. If the outside temps get above 35, I turn off the heaters, above 40 and sunny I open the door a crack. Usually by 4 pm I have to close it but most days I'm home by then or shortly after. Leave the heaters off until the temps get in the high 50s, then depending on the forecast I can run 450 watts, 600 watts, 1050 watts or 1250 watts. I'll usually turn the fan off when I turn the heaters on or when the sun goes down.

Because of the low light this and last month, I'm trying to keep the gh cooler and not watering the plants as much. They still get a bit leggy (at least some of them) but I can top the ones that get too tall. I'm resigned to not having many ripe toms until February, though I should have more than enough to eat in another week or two.

Next year, I'll close it down toward the middle of December and leave it empty until the middle of February.

Mike
Click to expand...

Sounds like you are doing a good job for your first season trying this. I probably would have either cooked or froze the plants by this point.
 
Pure luck! A couple of times was not paying attention and the temps got as high as 115, at least where the thermometer was sitting at. But the plants were younger and I kept them well watered. I also learned to bury the pots. It was a PITA to dig out that much dirt - the pots are 14" x 11" and in places the ground was almost as hard as concrete, but I think that has really helped. The containers retain moisture much better and the dirt around the roots does not dry out like they can on very sunny days if left unburied. Another trick is I use a gallon pump-up sprayer to water them with. I can wet the dirt a bit and while it is soaking in, go on to the next three. Repeat that three times and I can apply an inch of water without any runoff. Yeah, I'm so AR that I searched how much water it takes to cover an acre of ground with an inch of rain, then converted that into 14" pots. In really cool, overcast weather, I can give them 3/4" every two weeks; during sunny, warm (inside the GH) days, an inch a week. That's about what we get in July and August.

I'm really looking forward to growing plants upstairs, a few this year, a couple dozen (at least) next winter. In addition to controlling the heat and "rainfall" I can also control the "sunlight." At the least, I should make enough to pay my property taxes for half the year and buy all the seeds I need.

I really do want to get to the point where I can sell tomatoes, and maybe a few other veggies, herbs and seedlings as my full-time job. Can you imagine what it would be like to have 2,000 tomato plants growing at the same time, with 1300 producing fruit!

Mike
Who gets carried away dreaming of what if!
 
the cold temps right now are ok, not saying I like'em! but I deal with it, I'd rather have the very cold temps on a sunny day than slightly warmer temps on a cloudy day - believe me the sun does do wonders!
living here I know it could be colder or it could be worse if lived in another colder location. also the way I look at it I'll deal with a couple months of cold weather instead of dealing with a bunch of other hazards in warmer locations ;)
 
Ballzworth said:
it's pretty damn cold today. Nice to see the sun though. Surprisingly this winter I've been spared the usual snow I get. I'm really just hoping that June and July doesn't turn out like last year. I'm thinking of getting some kind of umbrella or tarp to cover my containers just in case we get those week long rain storms again.
Click to expand...

you could make some kind of frame over the plants to attach a tarp to cover your plants during storms or long periods of rain.
or build some kind of wagon(s) to pull your plants ( in containers) into the garage/shed/basement during wet times & its a plus for extending your growing pre/late season since you live in canada.
 
Good luck with your greenhouses everyone. We have seriously been wanting one. Last week our greenhouse in town, commercial, lost their roof to 20 plus inches of snow. They have another one for growing, the roofless one was mainly for selling and display but still quite a loss as the couple that owns it just bought the greenhouse last year and remodeled to keep it open year round.
 
chilehunter said:
you could make some kind of frame over the plants to attach a tarp to cover your plants during storms or long periods of rain.
or build some kind of wagon(s) to pull your plants ( in containers) into the garage/shed/basement during wet times & its a plus for extending your growing pre/late season since you live in canada.
Click to expand...

I'm liking that framing and tarp idea. It could have been very useful last year. Moving a lot of 7 gallon containers around can be a pain so I'd like to have a quick cover to throw over top as needed. Shouldn't be too hard to make a quick makeshift structure to get the job done.
 
Thankfully, I have not had to deal with more than maybe an inch of snow but I suspect that the heat loss through the plastic would melt most of the snow. My top is also frames with 2x4s, every two feet, so I should be able to handle quite a bit even if it doesn't melt.

It was 4 last night and my GH stayed at about 57, though I did use about a half-gallon of kerosene running it for 12 hours.

Mike
 
I've been in -40 wind chill before and it's a god awful thing (I think -40 is the same in C and F). Like Nova said, It's about 25C here today and that is cold for this time of year!!!

Hope all your green houses and other strutures make it through ok!!
 
The coldest I have been through was two nights of 25 below ambient temps, 54 below with the wind chill. It was cold, but not all that bad. I was on the roof of a house that just managed to be on the top of a hill trying to hook up an antenna wire when it was 54 below. It was cold, but not unbearable. That was one brutal year. I had to work in a tobacco warehouse (unheated, except for the office and restaurant) and the high for the day was minus 10. It took about 30 minutes to unload a truck and get the tobacco ready to sell and by the time we were finished, I would have 2" icicles hanging from my mustache!

On a side note, the new USDA cold hardiness zones are suppose to be redrawn and Cincy will become Zone 6, instead of 5B. In the last 10 years, it has not gone below minus 10. I can just see idiots rushing out to buy flowers and plants that are hardy to Zone 6 only to see us have a minus 15 night in a year or two. Then again, I have a darjeeling banana plant that I plan to keep outside next winter but it is suppose to be safe to minus 20.

Mike
 
jeez! & i thought we had it bad at around 12 below!
no feckin' chance of growing anything right now & i'm bored-just as well i've a good stash of fresh & frozen pods to heat up my grub/chow...
 
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