Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Interesting solutions, esp the bubblewrap. I plan to try hoops over some beds 
using cut hula hoops stuck on short rebar around the bed frames, with plastic 
over it held down with old boards just outside the frames. It'll have to be 
pulled back every morning for air. Basically the cheapest and most convenient 
way I can come up with. Everything that is transplantable will start in 
hotboxes in the sunroom.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 1/30/2010 at 11:03 AM yarrow@sfo.com wrote:

>At 6:50 AM -0700 1/30/10, Tradingpost wrote:
>How did that cold frame work out with tomatoes and peppers?
>>
>
>The cold frame was a tomato cage placed horizontally on the ground,
>on top of some screening to keep out snails and slugs (ha!), wrapped
>in bubblewrap and surrounded by gallon water bottles (mostly for wind
>protection). I started them in mid-March, when the big rains were
>mostly over, and the temperatures didn't go below freezing iirc, or
>at least didn't stay below freezing for more than a few hours
>overnight. I opened the bubblewrap for ventilation on sunnier days,
>and closed it down for rainstorms. When I potted them up, I protected
>them with walls-o-water as well as additional cold frames
>(translucent plastic bins). I planted them out at the end of April in
>walls-o-water (removed at the end of May) and harvested the first
>ones in mid-July. (I also bought a couple seedlings in early March
>and had a few tomatoes beginning the end of May.)
>
>I had pretty good germination of tomatoes, though they grew slowly.
>The peppers were even slower. The main problem was the slugs that got
>through and ate a few new seedlings before I noticed them. I
>sprinkled some cinnamon on some flats as a preventive antifungal.
>
>It was a lot of work to grow from seed, but I had over a  hundred
>plants to give away and about 40 different varieties that I'd never
>find locally.
>_______________________________________________
>Livingontheland mailing list
>Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland