Greenhouse news.

Well yesterday I was going to post how great my Greenhouse was doing and ask how to clear up white flies, but I got busy and couldn't post. Last night I went to check on things and found that 2 heaters couldn't keep up with single digit temperatures. Everything had frozen including 2" of Ice on my water barrel. I've taken my bell peppers, chives and my one Roma in the house hopping I can salvage them. I guess the weather took care of the white flies for me.

Oh that's terrible Hoggar! I hope you were able to save your plants! Good thing you checked on your greenhouse when you did! You may want to keep an eye out to see if any white fly puppa (or whatever they are called) have hitched a ride inside. I did that one year and brought in gnats and they set up house inside my house. I like looking at your avatar, it makes me feel like it is growing season!

Well you know how to start again Hoggar if Jack Frost has decimated your crops .
White flies :-
we have a product over hee 6 x4 inch squars of gummy bright yellow card , simply hanfg a card in the green house and the little beggars and other flying creepies think it's a nice flower to get a fre feed from .. they get stuck & die in droves.

My pack contained six cards and cost me £1.00 UK , I only neded to use one card throughout all last year.
The card is a much brighter yellow than postit sticky note sheets infact as yellow as the emoticons on the right of the reply pages.

It's best thouhg if you disninfect the green house with a greenhouse disinfectant /cleaner when empty so you kill off any eggs and any pupae hidden away in crqacks , crevices or joints The cleaning will also remove any film of dirt on the glass etc. which can easily give you an increase of 10 to 12 % more beneficial light .
You ought to also disinfect /wash all pots and containers that normally reside in the glasshouse so you don't bring viable creepies back inside after you've cleaned it out.

Thanks for the thoughts Tricia & Plantoid.
Its looking like everything but the chives are frosty pops and will end up in the compost bin. I plan on treating them like there going to survive until the last leaf falls off.

I have unplugged the heaters and will fire them back up when things start warming up again. Next summer Ill be installing a Rocket Mass heater and wont need to worry about freezing again.

Plantoid I have seen those cards here in the states I will have to do some hunting but I'm guessing Ill find them at a tack store or a feed store. I have already put some Bell pepper seeds in the pots with the freeze damaged Peppers so one way or another I will have plants for the spring.

It looks like that heater will also heat up all of the surrounding area around your greenhouse, lol! Is it thermostatically controlled? It sure looks interesting!

Hoggar - thought I would share this you-tube video on how to make your own white-fly traps!






p.s. check out his video's! He's got alot of them and I really enjoy them.

I like that way of making them Carol , I happen to have two large cans of spray on carpet tack glue that never quite dries .
I think I 'll be using some thick card and glue on two corn fed ,bright egg yoke coloured yellow cards then cover them in cling film wrapinstead of wasting perspex sheeting or needing to clean it of dead flu=ies every now and again.

I just hope they don't fall on me or touch my baldingn head as I have fairly hairy arms and little on the top but it could be very very funny if they got a dog stuck ( our inquisitive pooch ) to them and they went for a dash round the gardens collecting flies as well.

Sorry for the long delay in replying. I've been down with a sinus infection for the last 4 days.

Tricia, The Rocket mass heater is a high efficiency wood stove you can build your self. Here is a Link that explains it better.
Rocket Mass Heaters in a nutshell

Thanks Wncsohn. I have the paper and lexan Ill just have to track down some Tangle foot and get to killing bugs.

Loved the video! That guy must be a local here in KY . I've been researching some on making homemade and effective critter traps as well so I can organically take care of my pesky cucumber beatles this summer. I heard that you can also hang yellow plastic cups and cover them w/ petroleum jelly. Then you can just wash them in some dishsoap and reuse or toss as you please. Anyone have experience of petroleum jelly vs. tangle foot?

Hoggar
I have a small greenhouse as well and live in the cold as well.
I kept 10 tomatoes growing until a few weeks ago, just not wanting to heat the greenhouse for that. I have several plants in the greenhouse that do not need to be warm, but just cannot freeze (artichoke roots and dahlia bulbs etc)
We found this very simple little plug in thing that only comes on when the temp drops to 3 celcius, which I guess would be 37 Farenheit. I keep a small heater in the greenhouse. So it only comes on then, and goes off once the temp is 3 degrees.
Not sure if this would be of some help

GWN, I have a pair of these thermostats from KKontrols I had them set at 50° but when the outside temps dropped below freezing several nights in a row the heaters just couldn't keep up.

I was playing in my " Man Cupboard " earlier this afternoon , messing around with my seed raiser that is shown in my current avatar.

I've used some " freecycle " insulation board that is foiled on both sides to make the top , back and a side wall a bit reflective till I can afford some Mylar reflector film .
At the end of the play session I covered it in a few lengths of lightweight white garden fleece to keep any bugs out and the heat in .

It's just struck me that if you make a internal tent inside your greenhouses using cord for the bars and drape this light weight fleece over the cords you could have an insulated greenhouse that will only need a few watts of electrical heat energy to ward off even very hard frosts for you wil have a dead air barrier to help with the insulation .

but when the outside temps dropped below freezing several nights in a row the heaters just couldn't keep up.

that is more or less why I let the tomatoes go, just too cold. This little gadget is extremely cheap and cool to use anywhere that you just do not want to freeze.

what is the name of them 6 x4 inch squars of gummy bright yellow card ,
for catching flies and where can i get some Regards Dave

All I've been able to find them called is sticky whitefly traps

Sticky Whitefly Traps, 5 Pack

Dave, I like your Avatar! I would love to see it full size. Is that possible? Also, welcome to the forum!

Triciasgarden wrote:Dave, I like your Avatar! I would love to see it full size. Is that possible? Also, welcome to the forum!

There is a place for full size avatars.
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/gallery/index.htm

davetherave wrote:what is the name of them 6 x4 inch squars of gummy bright yellow card ,
for catching flies and where can i get some Regards Dave

They are available in most of big national garden set up concerns .
Also in Suttons , Fothergils , Marshals online seeds etc etc
Usually found in pest control , white fly


If you do use them a gentle shake during the heat of the day of the plants on a tends to really catch quite a few of the disturbed flies as they see the yellow and try to get a nectar feed from it .