My cold frame

[applestar]

Oh, no.
I hope they recover.

[hendi_alex]

Not much help this time, but when night time temperatures stay above low to mid 40's, I keep the lid open a couple of inches both day and night. That will make the plants a little more hardy, and will prevent possible disaster from over heating as well.

Sorry to see your lovely plants in such distress. Sometimes they will perk right back up with little or no damage. Yours are looking pretty sad though. Add the water and keep the fingers crossed.

[hendi_alex]

Most years, including this year, I pick up some inexpensive plants in a mixed flat from the nursery, about $13 per flat. The plants are immediately up potted to one gallon nursery pots. The plants will quadruple in size in about two weeks, and will just about catch up with the seedlings that were started much earlier. I use these as insurance plants, replacement plants, and to increase the number of varieties that are being planted. Rather than totally relying on your plants to fully recover, a trip to the nursery for some 'insurance' plants might be a much safer bet for having some healthy plants to go into the garden.

[Daniel_NY]

@ Dillbert
>water them modestly; keep at cool temp (50-60'F)
got it!

>and while waiting for them to maybe recover, a double for yourself.
yeah, well.

>what a bummer. my symps.
Tx. hopefully everything will be fine.

@ applestar
>I hope they recover.
Mee too.

@ hendi_alex
>… when night time temperatures stay above low to mid 40's, I keep the lid open a couple of inches both day and night. That will make the plants a little more hardy…

Alex, right now in the cold frame is 56’F, and it can stay like that during the night tx to the bulbs which warm the air inside. Do you think that 56’ F is too high tonight ? Right now – 9 pm – outside is 54’ F, and the lowest tonight will be 44’ F. Should I open an inch or two the lid? From 137’ F at midday to 50 at midnight… isn’t that a too big difference?

[hendi_alex]

My routine:

Temperatures in the 50's and sunny. Plants are moved into the closed cold frame, but with a heat lamp.

Temperatures in the 60's and sunny. Plants are moved into the closed cold frame with no heat lamp.

Temperatures in the upper sixties or higher, the cold frame is opened during the day.

Plants stay in the cold frame overnight as long as inside cold frame temperatures will stay above 40 degrees. Plants are moved inside the house, if closed cold frame temperature may drop below 40 degrees.

Cold frame is left open both day and night, any time night temperatures stay above 45 or so.

The temperature sensitive automatic lid opener is nice, but why rely on that when the temperatures stay above 45 degrees? The opener is just another mechanical device that can fail to work properly and lead to plant loss. My inclination would be to disable the opener/closer after danger of cold damage is past.

I have an automatic lift for the cold frame lid, but have chosen not to use it, as there is only a brief period of 2-4 weeks when it would be useful anyway.

[joed2323]

daniel- Holy wow... I'm very sorry for your troubles...

The pictures from before seeing how healthy the plants are doing then seeing the recent picture is very shocking I almost wanted to cry and they arent even my plants

What happened, did the lid blow shut or did someone purposely close the lid on you knowing, (haha) these plants will cook to death...?

The good thing, usually tomatoes can bounce back from near death

I hope they make a full recovery fast, otherwise id stick a fork in those and call them done

[Fourspot]

Sorry about your seedlings. I've cooked my plants before. It gets dangerous during Spring time when we get random warm days. Even with auto vents, you really have to be on top of it sometimes with venting properly. It's so easy to forget when you leave for work in the morning when it's chilly out and come home later in 70 degree weather. Probably best at this point to buy seedlings at your local HD or nursery.

[jal_ut]

Few hours later, when I came home the lid was closed and 137’ F inside.

What do you think I could do?

I would have a fan that mounts in the wall, an exhaust fan if you will, on a thermostat to run when the temp hits a point. You also need a self closing louver on the other side for intake air. I had a set up like that in a mini greenhouse at one place I lived. The fan always kept the temp within safe bounds.

Nowadays, I am too lazy, and just buy the few nursery plants I need.

[Daniel_NY]

Back to square one:

[Dillbert]

well, on the bright side, it's a good looking square . . . (g)

I'm gathering up old blankets and sheets - we're having a late frost this year . . . as in _tonight_!

[Daniel_NY]

Dillbert, how was the late frost in your area?

Here in Long Island we had like 45’ F.

Pretty cold compared to almost 70’ F during the day.

[Dillbert]

depending on which weather service . . . prediction was 32 or 29'F -

the min/max on the porch registered 34 - didn't hear much local chatter about it so I think we dodged a late bullet here (g)

set out tom/pepper yesterday - it's time!

[hendi_alex]

This is such a nice cold frame, I'm posting mostly to take the thread back to the top of the recent posts. After all, now is the time to be planning for a seed growing area, a cold frame, or perhaps a new greenhouse. If interested, go back to page one and look at the detailed photos of this excellent cold frame.

[evtubbergh]

Hi Daniel_NY

Your cold frame is very cool. No pun intended.

I really like the look of your pots though, what are they? They look like they are recycled paper and you could plant them in he ground as is.