Mid December Cold Frame Update

It’s now closing in on the middle of December 2008. The weather here in southwest Missouri has been on the cool side. Already this fall season (it’s still fall until Dec 21st), we have seen quite a few nights where the thermometer has dipped down into the twenties. Over the last couple of night, it has been cold enough (the high today was only 32F) that I left the covers and warming light bulbs on. When I looked out this morning there was even a light dusting of snow, the first of the season, on elevated surfaces.

In spite of everything, the crops look pretty darn good as evidenced by the picture taken this date. OK, so they are a little on the small side. The ambient range of temperatures over the last few weeks has been in the range of 40 to about 55 Fahrenheit, so growth has been slow. I am thinking about increasing the light wattage to 60 in CF#1 to see if that might help. What I really need to think about for next winter (yes, I’m going to try this again) will be an underground heating cable. In any case, I will do a year end update on December 31st and will take some impromptu measurements at that time.