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Cold Frames

826 Views 6 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  harrylee
I am not having much luck trying to grow seedlings indoors. Just not the right light etc I guess. I have a couple of cold frames set up outside that get quite warm during the day. I have planted some radish and carrot seeds in them> Will see how they do this month.

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Looking good and look forward to how your seeds grow.
I have a light box that I put in my conservatory. I use a cardboard box and cut the front away and line the inside with aluminium foil, shiny side out. But I still turn the seedlings around every day.
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Planted some seeds last week, nothing sprouting yet. It's been cool and with the sun was getting to about 15C in the box. I just checked now, its a nice strong sun today at about 10C. It's over 35C in the box......Propped it open some, I don't think I want it that hot in there....lol

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Want an early start this spring? Build a cold frame. I have a couple of small ones to try out this year, will see how it goes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRxF4ejeg1g
Those frames look good! Here in Texas, my soil temp is already about 70F so I started my carrots a couple of weeks ago. I do know that some species of carrots need warm 70F soil to germinate. I planted Bolero carrots from Johnny's Seed and I installed drip tape to keep the seed bed very moist. After about 10 days of constant moistening of the soil I started seeing signs of germination finally. I ended up running the drip tape for 30 minutes every 8 hours and it seemed to put out just enough moisture for good germination of the pelleted seeds. I have very sandy soil, so keeping it consistently moist is a challenge.

I've always wanted to try out a cold frame and I may do that nest year. It is surprising how much they heat up on a sunny day.
When I plant carrots, I cover the bed with a piece of cardboard or plywood. That helps keep the soil moist until they germinate, I saw that trick on a YouTube video.
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Another cold frame article I found.....

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