Green Growers Maxim #4 -- There are two rules for watering: 1. For inside plants, when in doubt, don't. 2. For outside plants, when in doubt, do.
This winter I'm taking some risks and testing the limits of my GH365 greenhouse. I shut off the breaker for the electric back-up in my water heater back in mid-November. So I'm essentially heating my greenhouse by passive solar and solar thermal means only. We've had some cold periods reaching a low of minus 31.29 degrees celsius on December 14th. But what is of greater concern is the fact that we've had an unusually high number of overcast (cloudy and part sun) days since November. And yet the coldest temperature I've recorded in the greenhouse was +4.49 degrees celsius, not surprisingly, on December 14th. Otherwise, it never went below +5 C.
Now that's still pretty cold for a greenhouse but as you can see from my photographs taken earlier today (January 6, 2011) the vegetables, for the most part, are performing well. Admittedly, the cold sensitive plants like tomatoes are taking an unusually long time to germinate and to ripen. But the ripening has more to do with the lack of sunshine than the lack of warm temperatures. Even one day with good clear sun has noticeably shown a significant reddening of those reaching maturity.
I've included some photos showing the ripening tomatoes as well as the one with the smallish red one and two green ones with broccoli in the background. These are on a tomato plant that I seeded on November 11, 2009 --over a year old and still producing. Pretty amazing!
Notice as well that the other more cold-resistant veggies like the broccoli and spinach behind the parsley are doing great. Not a bad way to spend the winter!
