Are you a beginner homesteader and wonder what a cold frame greenhouse is and how you can use it to optimize your gardening efforts?
Learn with us everything you need to know about these sturdy and functional structures.
In this article:
- What Is a Cold Frame Greenhouse
- Where Do I Build Cold Frame Greenhouses
- How Do I Keep a Cold Frame Warm at Night
- How Do Cold Frames Work
- How to Build Miniature Greenhouses
- Why Is It Important to Use Cold Frame Greenhouses
- How Do I Use Cold Frame Greenhouses in My Garden
- When Is the Best Time to Put Cold Frame Greenhouses in Place
Everything You Need to Know About a Cold Frame Greenhouse | FAQs
What Is a Cold Frame Greenhouse
Unlike the conventional gas or electricity heated greenhouses, a cold frame greenhouse is a structure that solely relies on insulation and solar energy to create a warm climate and shelter your plants.
By relying on solar energy instead of artificial energy, cold frame greenhouses provide a relatively warmer and balanced internal temperature for your plants during harsh weather.
Where Do I Build Cold Frame Greenhouses
Since these greenhouses entirely depend on solar energy for efficiency, positioning them in a south-facing position will maximize light exposure, warmth, and play to its weather protection attributes for your plants.
Also, keep drainage in mind when making site considerations. A forward-sloping positioning will improve drainage in the structure. Though not mandatory, having a higher back allows maximum sunlight absorption while ensuring that water or snow drains off the top.
Tip: Adding a layer of gravel under the topsoil will also improve drainage in the cold frame.
How Do I Keep a Cold Frame Warm at Night
The efficiency of a cold frame lies in its light reflection and heat retention qualities. Painting the inside of the cold frame will increase the amount of light reflected on plants.
Alternatively, line the inside with aluminum foil or any other reflective material to trap as much sunlight as possible during the day.
On the other hand, to trap more heat and maintain warm temperatures at night, set several black water-filled containers in the greenhouse. These will slowly release the heat absorbed by the water during the day, keeping the greenhouse warm.
Remember: It is paramount to ventilate the greenhouse by opening the structure to allow airflow. This ensures you do not suffocate your plants.
Tip: You can also place a blanket over the cold frame to help conserve the temperature.
How Do Cold Frames Work
The transparent cold frame top allows sunlight during the day and blocks heat escape through convection, especially during the night. As a result, the miniature greenhouse’s internal temperature is roughly five to ten degrees warmer than the outside, hence conducive to warm-season plants.
This makes them ideal for extending the growing season.
How to Build Miniature Greenhouses
Cold frames come in an array of sizes and shapes. Therefore, the type of farming you do will dictate whether you go for the smaller units with a hinged transparent top lid or the tunneled high structure types.
However, the ideal size of a small unit cold frame is 3 feet by 6 feet with an 18-inch back sloping onto a 12-inch front.
Why Is It Important to Use Cold Frame Greenhouses
Besides providing a warm microclimate for your warm-season plants, cold frame greenhouses are a great way to provide shelter and protect your tender plants against battering weather conditions.
Moreover, with cold frame greenhouses, plant temperatures are stabilized for sufficient growth during spring and fall.
How Do I Use Cold Frame Greenhouses in My Garden
There are numerous ways to utilize these structures, but cold frame greenhouses can come in handy when you need to extend the cool-crops growing season or facilitate dormancy in plants during winter.
In addition, you can use your cold frame to give your warm-season seedlings a head-start before transplanting them outdoors. This is usually a great time to harden the seedlings to adapt and adjust to the outdoor weather slowly.
When Is the Best Time to Put Cold Frame Greenhouses in Place
There is no right or wrong time to put a cold frame in place as you can use it differently throughout the seasons. Root vegetables like carrots will happily extend their stay in the ground during winter in a cold frame.
Warm-season vegetables like peas, spinach, and tomatoes, on the other hand, will appreciate a warmed up environment in the greenhouse throughout spring. Later, remove the lid in summer and make a raised bed garden for your red onions.
And afterward, grow your root vegetables whose season you can extend into winter in the same structure.
Watch this video from Toronto Star as gardening expert Mark Cullen gives tips on using cold frames:
There you go, homesteaders. With these detailed answers to your question regarding cold frame greenhouses, you are now equipped with the necessary knowledge you need to enlist these functional structures in your gardening henceforth.
Do you have some experience with cold frame greenhouses? Let us know how you use them in the comment section below.
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