Hot Beds are they way to Go!

Community Community No dig gardening Preparing the ground Hot Beds are they way to Go!

This topic contains 2 replies, has 2 voices, and was last updated by  Jayjay 10 years ago.

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  • #21959

    davidk
    Participant

    An update on my 8′ sq hot bed with lemon tree. opened up it up today to have a look, the leaves are a very happy healthy looking dark green, it’s got some flowers on it, it looks amazing. The hot bed has shrunk loads. I gave it 3 gallons of water in celebration. I think I winged it, as the hot bed has not really hat to work that hard & I should have needed to top it up, but with our ‘kind’ winter not so much heat has been necessary, so have been fortunate. The weeds have only just started growing & were pretty easy to pull up & compost insitu! The best bit is i have saved a small fortune this winter, in electricity bills & have a much healthier looking lemon tree.

    Definitely going to build more hot beds later this year, for next year, of different shapes & sizes.

    Putting a doubled layered plastic layer roof on has been a great help lately as the heat built up has been tremendous, there is ventilation on sides & chimney on top of pyramid so natural convection, which by all account the tree has enjoyed too.

    #25081

    Jayjay
    Participant

    I bought Jack First’s Book on Hotbeds this year and built an outdoor hotbed 6′ x 6′ x 2′ high and the growing frame was 4′ x 4′ with 6 inches of multipurpose compost with added vermiculite as the growing medium. I started building it with pallets lined with cardboard on the 11th February and I completed it on 23rd February. It peaked at 39 degrees Celcius and when it had started cooling, probably about a week later, I put modules sitting on top of the compost. I planted some seeds directly into the compost on the 6th March. I have been amazed at how it has grown stuff and will certainly be making more next year and probably earlier, say the second week of January. If you can get hold of some fresh manure early in the year, I would suggest you try it, it is fantastic. I will try to add a picture taken on the 10th April. (Didn’t seem to work). Jeanette

    #25082

    Jayjay
    Participant

    Update, photo did upload, it just didn’t show in the preview. Jeanette

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