Building a Cold Frame Part 3 of 3

It's early to mid February and my two small experimental cold frames are showing some signs of life. It's amazing that the lettuce and spinach are now over three months old yet look (and taste) great.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Cold
• Frames
• Winter
• vegetables
• romaine
• spinach
• Danomanno
• Forsythkid

[obastan]

I like what you have done with the cold frame construction. I wonder if I using a reflective mylar lining the inside of the frame will make a difference by giving an extra boost of light. I am going check on the internet for good prices on sheets of styrofome. I plan on eating greens from my backyard garden all winter. It can get cold in Chicago around mid December and I am betting that this will work.

[DanOManno]

Please keep me up to date on your progress. I appreciate your comments.

[onesojourner]

I just put a cold frame together this spring. It has been awesome for getting my seedlings out earlier. I hope to be able to grow stuff in the winter too. I am in 417 land too. What crops have you had the best l growth with during the winter? I used an old door for mine so it is pretty good sized but I doubt I will be able to get much out of it just bc of how slow things grow in the winter.

[DanOManno]

My best crop by far was romaine lettuce which proved itself to be very cold hardy. I plan to construct a much larger frame this coming fall that will be heated and that will hold a number of different crops. I hope to do a video of this process also. Thanks for your comments!

[xcaluber]

I think that it might be a good idea to paint part of the inside black. This way it would gather more heat from the sun. Keeping some of the inside white, would also reflect some of the sunlight back on the plants.

[DanOManno]

That's not a bad Idea. I may try doing that with one of the frames while leaving the other just as it is. Both have romaine lettuce growing in them at this time. It will be interesting to see how doing that will affect the internal tempoeratures readings later this fall and on into winter.

[DanOManno]

No problem. Let me know if you get one built. Also try garage sales. I have seen stuff that would work great at a few that I have gone to in years past.

[ndktube]

Nice job. Maybe no two cold frames are the same, depending on what building materials are kickin' around. Bigger will be better. Also have to keep an eye on cost effectiveness. They're fun to build but unless you're careful you might not recoup the investment.

[dburke84]

cool dude im a young guy 24 interested in winter gardening cause not a lot of people do it. thanks for the info just got to find the glass for my gold frame.....