[angelavdavis]

I have an unheated greenhouse at the allotment with no access to heat, other than using a paraffin heater which I am not keen to do to be honest.

I have been thinking of building a raised bed and filling it with fairly fresh manure, topping with compost and using it to plunge in pots of (for example) aubergine, chilli and peppers earlier in the season and then using it to directly plant into for the plants including tomatoes - emptying the manure at the end of the season onto the beds.  I was still going to keep my staging on one side but use this for veg that are particularly keen on the heat. 

The alternative for me is using my slightly more sheltered conservatory which is great when the sun shines and for convenience but a bit limited on space.

Does anyone do a similar thing in their greenhouse/polytunnel?

[compostqueen]

I have no heat either so but find that chillies and tomatoes are fine in the unheated greenhouse.  Aubergines are a bit more tricky I find and they probably would do better in your conservatory. Mine are down in the unheated greenhouse but they're not growing much.  I do choose the more hardy ones but I've not got high expectations from this year as the weather is so awful. 

[angelavdavis]

Hi CQ, Thanks for the quick reply. 

I'm with you - my peppers and aubergines seem really slow this year - hence my trying to think out of the box on this one.  I wondered if I could almost create a greenhouse within my greenhouse by filling a tonne bag with fresh manure, then compost then planting and putting a flexi greenhouse on top to see how things progress. 

My peppers did nothing in the greenhouse last year either, the year before that I grew them in the conservatory and they were great but my family whinged about the amount of greenery in the conservatory!

Aubergines were better last year in the greenhouse than anticipated - although I had issues with woodlice infesting them which was a pain!

I might give it a try to see if it makes any difference and then grow the rest in the usual way. 

[sunshineband]

The hot bed in the greenhouse idea is a good one and will certianly boost growth a bit in this less than warm weather.

One of my plot neighbours did something similar last year and found that it still wasn't warm enough for aubergines though, and they sulked badly. Tomatoes loved it!

Covering the plants with another layer inside the greenhouse would help too, although light levels would be reduced a bit.

[compostqueen]

I grow stuff in the conservatory and my husband doesn't like it but as an electrician he can lump it!  If he provided power to my greenhouses there wouldn't be a conservatory full of plants   

I asked him to rig up a heat mat or enable me to run a propagator from a solar panel or something fangled but he can't be bothered, so he has to suffer the consequences

I like the hot bed idea. I do grow toms on bales of straw but no manure involved