A strong structural base, a prime location with optimal sun exposure and direction, and glazing materials with excellent insulating and light-transmitting capabilities are essential for a northern greenhouse to function effectively throughout the year.
In addition to these factors, there are a few easy yet thorough ways to create a habitable environment for your plants, even when the temperature outside is very low. We'll examine some winter greenhouse gardening tips for making the most of your greenhouse throughout the cold season.
Planting All Throughout The Year
In all likelihood, you spent the better part of the spring looking at the needs of your garden's tinier plants. Finally, it's summertime, so you're tending to your gardens, watering the plants, and admiring the fruits of your labor. Seed saving, division, pruning, and planting new plants for the next growing seasons are all duties that need to be completed in the fall.
Growing plants in winter
When the weather outside is frightful, you'll have more time to tend to your garden indoors. This is the time of year when you'll need to put your greenhouse and planning skills to the test to keep up with your gardening passion or satisfy your craving for delicious, homegrown vegetables even when it's freezing outside.
Growing fresh vegetables in a greenhouse throughout the winter months is a lot of fun, and the harvest can be used in cooking, for special occasions, or just because you like fresh vegetables. If you want to know whether or not you wish to cultivate a particular vegetable in your gardens, now is the time to try it out during the winter.
Winter Gardening Tips:
Whether growing your winter crops in a greenhouse or a shade structure, they're always at risk when the temperature drops. Daytime venting is unsafe for your plants. Therefore it makes sense not to do it when you know an arctic chill is on the way.
That would cause a significant drop in greenhouse temperature, leading to increased relative humidity and the likelihood of fungus and mold destroying your crops. These precautions will help prevent frost damage to your winter greenhouse plants:
- Greenhouses benefit from the added thermal mass when water containers are placed inside. Use 55-gallon barrels or large trash cans for this. Milk jars are fine for a little greenhouse. The water will absorb heat from the sun throughout the day and release that heat into the air at night.
- Use dark mulch since it will retain more of the heat it absorbs from the sun during the day. The mulch won't chill down as quickly as the air at night. In order to keep your winter plants warm, you can apply black mulch on your crops and on exposed paths.
- Protect Plants From Freezing Temperatures By Covering Them With Horticultural Cloth At Night The barrier acts like a blanket, trapping your body heat and preventing you from being cold.
- Greenhouse insulation is as simple as attaching horticultural bubble wrap to the inside of the greenhouse's walls and roof to prevent heat from escaping too quickly during the night. Different from bubble wrap used for packaging, horticultural bubble wrap is more see-through and resistant to degradation from ultraviolet light.
- Keep the Greenhouse Warm at Night with an Electric Heater. Electric heaters are recommended over gas ones because they emit no carbon monoxide, which is harmful to both people and plants. It is recommended that electric heaters be used only between the hours of nightfall and dawn.
Winter-to-spring Gardening Transition
Winter gardening includes preparing for your spring gardens in addition to growing fresh veggies in a greenhouse over the winter months. To prepare for spring planting, you should go through your greenhouse, sort out the seeds you've been collecting throughout the fall months, make a list of these seeds, and then make a list of the seeds you need to acquire for spring planting.
You can get the seeds you need to start collecting for spring planting by ordering from your preferred supplier or trading with local gardeners. Some seeds can be started in the greenhouse in the middle of winter, during the months of January and February, for early spring planting in your gardens, yielding vegetables by May.
Garden arrangement is another aspect to consider during the winter months. You can plan out your ideal spring garden by drawing and labeling the space where you intend to grow edible and ornamental plants. In addition to ensuring that you plant your spring gardens in a way that allows for crop rotation from year to year, this design will also eliminate any confusion about what you should be doing next.
Plant Care In Winter
Watering
During this cold spell from December through February, how often do I need to water? A mere trifle! Sometimes we get an unexpected freeze-up, so I have to stop watering by the end of November. In other years, late December temperatures remain moderate enough to warrant a few late-fall irrigations.
Organic Fertilizers
Garden beds, fences, and other constructions are only as good as their soil. Between plantings, it's important to amend the soil by mixing in materials like compost, treated manures, chopped leaves, and other organic matter. Use granular and liquid organic fertilizers to encourage robust plant growth and a plentiful harvest in time for the winter months.
Granular fertilizers with a slow release rate are used upon planting, whereas liquid fertilizers such as fish and kelp mixture are often applied once a month. No matter what kind of fertilizer you purchase, you must always use it as directed.
Proper ventilation
When the temperature outside is particularly warm, one of the essential things to do in a greenhouse is to ensure adequate ventilation. Provide ventilation via the roll-up sides, windows, and door.
To Wrap Up
Even though the days will be shorter and the nights will be colder, you can still maintain your gardening interest for the winter season. You may continue to enjoy it indoors. Through the practice of winter gardening, you may turn your interest in agriculture into a year-round activity and satisfy your cravings for fresh produce. Gardening in winter may be simpler in parts of the United States, where the winter weather is more temperate.
