It's going to get cold.

[habanerocat]

How cold we don't know yet.

https://www.bbc.com/weather/outlook

It's time to take out the bubble wrap. I just lay it over the plants. Far too big a job to hang it inside the walls and roof.

it's not the cold I'm afraid of as such, but the resulting condensation. I read there that some greenhouses have condensation channels to take drips safely to the floor, avoiding the plants. But not my old refurbished one. My old greenhouse has glass and straight sides, and the condensation generally just runs down the roof to the eaves and drips down the vertical sides. The refurbished one has polycarbonate and sloping sides which means when the drips reach the eaves they fall straight down on top of the plants. The side facing the morning sun seems to be particularly bad.

So if anybody is thinking of buying a new greenhouse, don't get one with sloping sides if you want to keep your plants bone dry over winter.

Time to go up to the attic for the bubble wrap....

[Mike P]

And about time too. We have Cameilas in flower, snowdrops almost out and Eucomis which haven’t finished dying down yet. If my mother was still alive she’d be saying ‘it all needs putting back in its place’.

[Herts Mike]

Well it is January....

[Rockspeny]

Yes, I was out this afternoon to lay newpaper over the collection ready for a week of colder weather. Newspaper is good because it lets some air flow through and it absorbs moisture.
Noticed I have lost my e. subdenudata due to mildew. It wasn't looking healthy most of the year anyway, so fingers crossed that will be the only loss of the winter.

[Aiko]

Yes, I was out this afternoon to lay newpaper over the collection ready for a week of colder weather. Newspaper is good because it lets some air flow through and it absorbs moisture.

To be honest, I still don't really understand the newspaper thing quite a few people seem to advice. That it absorbs some of the moisture, that I can understand. Although newspaper paper is actually quite bad at taking up moist, as when freshly printed the ink hardly dries compared to other types of paper (I have a graphic background). So if you use other types of paper you would get a better result. Or just open the window, even when it is cold... Fresh air from outside is the best way to reduce excessive moisture.

If paper is used to insulate, it would make sense if you insulate the heating source. But plants don't heath themselves like warmth blooded animals such as us. For us clothes are useful to keep the warmth inside. But there is no warmth to keep inside between the plants and the newspaper you use. What probably is more useful is to trap the warmth inside the entire greenhouse during the day, generated by the always shining sun on excessive cold days, with bubble wrap on the panes of the greenhouse. But even that might only buy you an hour of less freezing cold as the heath dissipates during the night no matter what if you don't have a human made heating source.

This paper thing always sounds more like a myth than actually well investigated truth. A bit like "don't water your plants during the day as the sun and water drops will scorch the epidermis".

I have only used newspaper for my plants to shield some of my smaller plants from the excessive sun intensity during the few days of around 40C we had in the last few summers (and future summers, I am sure). I know that at least helps!

[Tina]

I have heard of some of a friends Eriosyce getting a fleece body wrap.

[Darren S]

Lowest forecast for this coming week here at the moment is -2C. Unlikely I will even bother closing the greenhouse door and vents to be honest - I'd rather have the air flow.
With the sun it reached 12C this lunchtime even though fully open. It was very pleasant.

[el48tel]

My GH got to about 7C with door open. Tomorrow will be cold. It will be unlikely to be opened.

[habanerocat]

I asked the same question on here before @Aiko as I don't really understand how fleece, paper and bubble-wrap work. And I've searched extensively on the internet.
Outside in the garden they surely prevent wind-chill but inside that wouldn't be the case.

It's probably got something to do with the way the frost penetrates. In Florida they spray the oranges with water before frost so that the ice covering will save the fruit.
Outdoor plants covered with snow helping to protect the plant from frost.
.
.

tenor-3008910101.gif (1.13 MiB) Viewed 970 times

[Mike P]

It gets worse…..I noticed today I have Primroses in flower.
Oddly this morning it was a couple of degrees above freezing when I got up at 6:30 but when I went into the garden at 9:30 there was a light frost and it was down to zero in both greenhouses. I have switched on the heating for tonight.