Greenhouse watering and heating?

[Containergardener]

Does anyone use a heater (not electric) in winter?
I sow seeds and keep them indoors usually and then subsequently have leggy plants . So thinking would I need a heater or would bubble wrapping GH help?
I do have mini blowaways I could use also.

Watering .
Has anyone used the plastic water bottles with small drill holes , popped into tomato and cucumber pots in GH to water when you are away?

[burnie]

I don't use a heater, to heat a whole greenhouse is very expensive, you really need a fan heater to maintain a decent temperature, bubble wrap seems to just cause problems with damp and mould. Heating a smaller space would be easier, I have heated a blow away in the past with a paraffin heater, just be careful it doesn't melt the plastic.
There are many ways to "drip" water plants, I'm not sure how long a bottle would last though, standing pots in a tray of water might be better.

[ESBkevin]

We've had a blow away inside the glasshouse and tried heating that. A parafin heater, the candles and flowerpot scam, etc.

In the end it's just easier and more reliable to start them indoors and move them out a ssoon as you feel they are safe. A careful eye on the weather and bring in anything sensative if there is to be a sharp frost. This seems to be our most succesful method to date. With anything burning we ended up with the blowaway sheeting turning black with a film of soot deposits.

[nickdub]

As has already been stated the problem with heating is not that it can't be done, but simply that it usually costs more than the plants are worth.

In Victorian times they heated walls etc in orangeries and pineries by dint of hot water pipes and a furnace often kept going all night by a gardener's boy who was expected to keep the fire in, and not go to sleep. I suppose if you could get an old wood stove for free, had cheap or free wood and paid an 8-year old tuppence a night to keep the fire in, free heating could make a come back :-)

Watering should in theory be an easier problem to solve, as obviously plants want to suck water up by using their roots. This year, having had a problem with my tomatoes last year in the hot weather, I have put a gutter based watering system in place in my poly-tunnel with wicks made out of old capillary matting. So far this has been a success both for tomatoes and cucumbers in pots, but we haven't had any really scorching hot weeks yet in my neck of the woods - fingers crossed and a promise of a more detailed report at the end of the season.

[bramble]

As everyone else has said for the most part it's too expensive to run a heater.
However, you also need to consider the light levels.
Short days, grey skies and lack of sunshine also contributes to leggy seedlings.
What seeds were you thinking of starting off.

[Containergardener]

Bramble.id start everythjng inside . It's just with our late frosts it can be may before warm enough in gh.
Maybe just short blowaways would help move things from house faster.

[burnie]

Bramble.id start everythjng inside . It's just with our late frosts it can be may before warm enough in gh.
Maybe just short blowaways would help move things from house faster.

That's what I do, start in conservatory, move to blowaway in greenhouse, frost predicted, then back in conservatory overnight, some plants were set back when we had that warm spell, I moved stuff out and then it turned cold again, fleece saved the day for the plants that were in the ground.

[Containergardener]

No conservatory

[Stan79]

The one time i tried to heat the potting shed, the paraffin heater i used covered everything inside with a substantial layer of black, greasy soot... never again!

[Containergardener]

Looks like il stick with blow always in there after being in the house.

[goosander]

Got a cheap fan heater [£18. Dobie's] a few years back that I use from the start of March mainly for the bedding plants. Set to keep temperature a bit above freezing and no complaints about any increase in the elect bill.
Bob.

[rary]

From your comments I take it you don't have any electricity in the greenhouse, you could always try painting large water containers black to give off localised heat along with thicker layers of fleece overnight as for the watering it really depends on how long you are away, is there any way you could rig up a drip sustem from a large water container, or if you have time, test the bottle system, this would let you know how long it will last