Temperature tests on low cost staging set up…..

[Rhys]

About 18 months ago, I purchased a low-cost (< £50) small scale staging set up, with 4 levels of shelving around 1.5m * 0.5m in it. It is big enough to accept two 84 module trays and each shelving level can accept four sets of 15- module trays.

I was happily using it last spring from late March to the end of April for germination and early growth purposes. This year I decided to set things up earlier and do some tests as to how things developed earlier in March.

I reset the staging up under our carport on February 29th and did some tests of maximum and minimum temperature the past 24 hrs. The past few days here in NW London have seen sunny days with maxima of around 9C and minima or around 2- 3C.

Inside the staging, the maximum temperature around 4pm (just as the sun’s rays left the carport area) was around 17C and the minimum (around 8am long before the sun had got onto it again) was 10C. As a result, I have shifted all my germinated seedlings out of the house into the staging and have to date suffered no ill-effects.

Currently, onions, shallots and lettuce are living happily in there, with radish modules once germinated set to follow.

It does suggest that low-cost staging can be effective from near the beginning of March in southern Britain once you have germinated seedlings, although perhaps not so successful for germination of many types of vegetables.

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