A Fluke Which Turned Into a Beneficial

greyfurball

I mentioned the other week I had purchased a medium size walk-in greenhouse since I always have so many problems finding organic seedlings around my area. So since I am considered one of the non-essentials at my job, I've been off work for the last five weeks now.

The greenhouse purchase was just an impromptu move since I would be home. I Just figured - if I can't find them to purchase (and our area was asked to stay at home anyway) I will grow my own.

So this is just a hint I have found which has worked tremendously, especially if you live in a four seasons climate where the temps go up one or two days and then are back below freezing again consistently.

On every shelf in the greenhouse, I removed all of my planting trays and then cut and placed fabric shelf liner on each shelf. Add your trays back again and the difference is amazing. That fabric acts almost like a heat mat because it keeps the bottom of the trays warmer, thus the soil and pots stay warmer.

If you don't want to go buy anything, use some old T-shirts. Or I had a bunch of pieces of old chamois material. Or this roll-up shelf liner you find at the dollar stores, I had some leftovers of that so I used that. I had only got about half of the unit done one day and the next day I noticed the difference in that side of the greenhouse but it never really sank into my brain. It was 3 days later when I was going out to finish the other side and it really hit me the difference between the two sides.

It's an easy fix which really has turned out to be an awfully big help for the growth rate of my seedlings.

Melissa Swartz

@greyfurball  I would have never thought of that. Thanks for sharing!

JodieDownUnder

Good on you @greyfurball it's sometimes the simple things that turn out to be ingenious. I'm keen to turn an area of my garden space into a hot house for winter, so will keep your idea in mind.

Karin

@greyfurball ingenious!! I wouldn't have thought of that, thanks for sharing. We are hoping to be able to get a glasshouse at some point to raise seedlings and frost tender plants so I will remember your pointer :)