[samnorfolk]

My chilli seedlings are about 2 inches tall now and i was wondering when it would be ok to tranfer them into the tunnel??

[mumofstig]

nope - nowhere near warm enough yet.
Tunnels or greenhouses don't really give much protection against freezing cold nights 

[samnorfolk]

guess they will have to wait on the window sill for a while then!

[Lardman]

Like what MoS says it's way too cold at the moment, you want a night temperature around 10C before thinking about leaving them in the greenhouse.

If you're of a mind nothing stopping you taking them out there during the day and bringing them back in at night - the extra light really helps this time of year.

[Headgardener22]

My peppers are out in the polytunnel at the moment. I've made a bubblewrapped inner tent inside the bubble wrapped polytunnel. Over the last few days the nighttime temperature has been around 4.5-5 and they're looking OK.

What will happen to them mumofstig?

[mumofstig]

If cold enough they'll obviously die outright, but they can sulk when they're cold - they don't die but they can take ages to recover - and given the length of time some varieties take to flower and fruit, it may mean you don't get a decent harvest.

As an aside - you can tell when this happens to tomatoes as they get a blueish/purple tinge to the foliage...

[Headgardener22]

Thanks, looks like I need to add a bit more heat.

[GrannieAnnie]

When Brian says to me its time to put my toms and chillies outside, I ask if he wants to go with them!  My new min/max theremometer is still giving me lows of 0.9 overnight, even in the bubble wrapped greenhouse, with up to 2-3 degrees higher in the little mini bubble wrapped greenhouse inside that.

So toms and chillies are staying right where they are at the moment.

[seaside]

As an aside - you can tell when this happens to tomatoes as they get a blueish/purple tinge to the foliage...

Ahh ... thanks for that... interesting.
I would imagine something similar applies to chillies. I transferred several heat propagated chilli seedlings to my cold greenhouse three weeks ago for light reasons, and double insulated them in further plastic mini domes due to the minus temperatures. All was fine for two weeks , perfect, very pleased, until the very last frost night last week down here in Devon when I stupidly forgot to put the secondary domes on top. They were all in that first small REAL leaf stage, and worryingly all the primary seed leaves turned a speckled blue overnight... and still are, but not dying off. The small real leaves continue to sprout somewhat, and look normal as they grow, so I hope I have gotten away with chillies on the frost cusp that night with no more than a slight limp.

[Amilo]

I am trying an experiment this year, I have a large plastic water bottle, (the kind that go into office water dispensers) that has the bottom cut off and I have some toms about 2 inches high, I am going to but the toms in the green house with the water bottle over the top of them, like a green house in a green house and see what happens.

[Headgardener22]

I am trying an experiment this year, I have a large plastic water bottle, (the kind that go into office water dispensers) that has the bottom cut off and I have some toms about 2 inches high, I am going to but the toms in the green house with the water bottle over the top of them, like a green house in a green house and see what happens.

I have gone a slight step futher and put 2 litre milk bottles full of water under the "greenhouse in a greenhouse". They heat up in the day when the sun shines and give out heat for a time in the evening.

As they say, every little helps.