Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: Adopt a Greyhound on November 30, 2020, 13:37
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Hi,
I'm getting a greenhouse for my Christmas (yay) and have been asked if I will need a heater. I have no idea. I'm planning to use it for tomatoes, sweet peppers, chilli peppers and maybe aubergines. I'm not planning to use it over winter (other than to maybe keep chilli plants alive?).
I have a heated propagator and a cold frame, and thought I could start cauliflowers early on the greenhouse - I started them in the cold frame this year then moved them to the raised beds but didn't w much luck with them.
All advice gratefully received 😀
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Your choice of summer crops is pretty much the same as mine, and probably many others, and I manage fine without a greenhouse heater, and you probably would too, even being considerably further north than I am.
Unless you're aiming for very early crops I wouldn't bother (even with a heater I doubt you'd be able to keep chilli plants alive over winter, and it would be an expensive failure if it didn't work anyway.)
(Expect a rush of replies telling me they successfully overwinter their chillies in a greenhouse without any heating at all! ;))
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I usually reckon to have a small blower heater on a thermostat, which kicks in just above freezing point.
At this time of year, we just have over-wintering geraniums, fuscias, cuttings etc, so they'll usually survive, but as for sowing in the late winter, it takes a little more care to ensure the trays are kept warm/covered a night, or more often than not, germinated in the house first.
Chillis tend to give up around now, so we tend to start new ones each year from seed!
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Cheers. I suppose I should start off small anyway, so I'll maybe try a heater and really early p!ants next year. Rain is more of an issue than snow and ice here, so maybe I'll get away with it.
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If you want to grow things that won't tolerate cold then going by your location, I would say yes. For starting brassicas, I don't think you will need heat. I've started brassicas in a cloche in my back garden around this time of year, the seedlings got frost on them but they weren't harmed.