Greenhouse Heat advice

[Marie99]

Hi im just in my first year of growing, to start myself off I bought one of those walk in plastic greenhouses. I was very surprised to see that the temperature reached 85 degrees in the afternoon yesterday, especially as I live in the North east.

Iv been out tonight at 11.30 and the temp was at 10.

I have been putting my chillis, pepers, cape gooseberry, courgettes and other seedlings in through the day, then bringing them in the house at night. I have tomato plants from seedlings starting to grow too.

Would it be safe to keep these in over night, covering with fleece if its a cold night? or am I just getting carried away as we have had some lovely sunny days up here for a change!

also

It has been getting condensation so I have been opening the bottom of the doors a little to let the air circulate. I am thinking if its reaching that temperature now what will happen in the summer? Do you think it will get too hot for the plants in summer or be ok? Im planning on keeping my chillis, peppers, some tomatoes, aubergine and poss cucumbers in it.

Im not sure if im tired or getting confused, but do some plant need some atmosphere in the greenhouse?

Thanks Marie

[Kristen]

Chillies, Peppers, Courgettes and the like need a minimum of 10C at night. They will love the better light conditions outside in your blowaway - compared to a windowsill.

Watch out they don't "cook" during the day - open the zip/door in good time.

If night temperature looks like being below 10C then best to bring the plants in for the night. Garage or utility corridor etc. will do - they don't need light at night

A Max/Min thermometer would help - so you know what sort of temperatures you are getting inside the blowaway.

[Marie99]

Hi Thanks for the advice, Iv just ordered a max/min temp , I have more growth on them so deff loving the light.

Iv spoke too soon about the sun as its gone into hiding this morning and today is such a glum cloudy day, no need for me to worry about the heat today M

[Bill HH]

It is amazing how quickly a closed GH or blow away heats up, I open the doors on mine every morning and close them late afternoon. it is also amazing how cold it goes at night I am still recording figures between 4deg C and 8deg C at night. When its that cold things need to come inside for the night really. I leave my tomatoes in the GH though because its too hard to move them all.

[Marie99]

I agree Bill, I see you are in Torquay, I live down there for a while, long time ago loved it, especially miss the warmer weather. I have brought the plants in overnight and will do for some time as I don't want to undo the work I have put into them so far, I would be gutted to loose any now to the cold and as its my first season growing I think the plants look ok for a newbie, oh and my max/min thermometer will be here soon too

[andy_j]

I have lots growing in my greenhouse at home....toms, chillis, courgettes, cucumbers and lots of flowers too.

We've been getting frosts for the past 2 weeks and the temp is often down to 4 C in the morning. On the other hand, if i forget to open up in the morning, it can often get as high as 35C.

With these extremes, i've not had any problems with the plants in there, in fact, the tomatoes are romping away !!!!

However, it would be foolish not to advise a newbie not to give a bit of protection if frost is forecast so a bit of fleece or bubble wrap would certainly help.