Propagation and plant rearing

[Stedic]

Hi everyone,

I don't have a permanent greenhouse and I'm wondering what the best way is to raise seedlings.  Last year I used a small heated propagator then a 4 tier cheapo-plastic thing.  I've been given one of the Wilko's walk in greenhouses, which will be ok when it warms up a bit.  I wondered, is it possible/practical/affordable to heat these greenhouses to get things off to a flying start?

The things that will cause me problems are the ones like chilli's, which need a bit of heat but can't stay in the propagator as I'll need that for other seedlings.

Steve

[Stedic]

[plainleaf]

the answer is simple start chiles earlier since they  grow slowly.

[goodlife]

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is it possible/practical/affordable to heat these greenhouses to get things off to a flying start?
It is possible..as for being practical or affordable that is another story.. :-\
Although I have GH..but they are all unheated..but other year I had desperate situation as spring was cold and all windowsills in house were bursting with plants, I had to  result some desperate measures that worked fine although it was little hassle.
I had some of those 4 tier 'cheapos' placed inside GH. I made couple of small holes on top of plastic cover for little ventilation and placed inside the cover on floor candle inside terracotta plant pot and and other one loosely on top of that.
The candle was slowly burning and keeping the air inside the 'cheapo' just warm enough for tomatoes and chillies going on.
During sunny day it was warm enough so that candle wasn't always necessary but at dusk I lighted it up again.
The up turned plant pot on top was needed for catching the 'sut' from candle..first I burned it without it and the plastic cover went black.. ::)
You could also achieve same with small oil lamp or paraffin heater..but you do not need much flame in small space.
You also have to resist potting your chillies into much larger pots..the smaller pot you can keep on them while weather is till cold, the better as too much damp & cold compost will just make roots sulk. Once the proper growth start and the root balls are well developed, then pot them on and let the plants make lots of new growth.
Without decent heating and GH it is difficult to provide proper growing conditions until warmer weather comes to rescue, so aim to keep plants just going on over the 'worst' time the season.

[Stedic]

Having posted I had a search on eBay and stumbled across a few second hand greenhouses, currently going for the price of a new cheapo.  Awkward dismantling/reassembly aside, they might be a good investment.  I'd been put off before because of worries about having time to water....but if the price is right I can sort out a watering system to go with them!

I also got excited and started my chillies in the propagator....probably too early, but they'll find a windowsill if needs be!

[Robert_Brenchley]

I start anything which needs warmth on the windowsill. Chilies need quite a lot of warmth to germinate, so I put them on top of the hot water tank. They come up in a couple of days, then they go on the windowsill till it's warm enough to put them in a mini-greenhouse. I'm hoping to build a polytunnel during the year, which should make life easier!

[Digeroo]

I have one radiator which is near to the heat  source which gets quite hot and I put lots of things which like a bit of heat on damp kitchen roll and put them on top of the radiator covered in plastic.  My hot water tank is well lagged with a thick layer of foam and looses very little heat so a bit useless on the germination front.

[chriscross1966]

Having posted I had a search on eBay and stumbled across a few second hand greenhouses, currently going for the price of a new cheapo.  Awkward dismantling/reassembly aside, they might be a good investment.  I'd been put off before because of worries about having time to water....but if the price is right I can sort out a watering system to go with them!

I also got excited and started my chillies in the propagator....probably too early, but they'll find a windowsill if needs be!

I managed to disassemble a 20x10 pretty much by myself (about ten minutes of help from the owner as I took the big frames down and laid them on the floor) in two days and in roughly the same it took three of us to put back up... actually it took three of us one day and then me another day and four evenings and most of another day or so.... you generally need two or three to get the main framing done then it's a one-person possible job to do the rest.... If you do do it though, take loads of pictures of joints etc before you start disassembling..... BTW, there's no such thing as a GH that's too big, as long as you can walk round all the sides of it to clean it....

chrisc