I have been reading about hot beds and grow-holes. Has anyone tried them?
I fancy digging a hole and trying a grow hole filled with manure. I have had some success with courgette grown below ground level. But want to try putting fresh manure into a hole in the ground and using it to keep plants warm. I really fancy trying for some early strawberries and veg.
Any thoughts or experiences would be welcome.
What are you calling a grow hole and what would you grow in same?
Digmore.
It is like a hot bed except you dig a big hole and put unrotted manure in it, then you put soil on top and plant things in it, and finally cover with glass. The manure heats up and keeps the crops warm.
We do a hot bed each year, heavy layer of fresh manure, covered with soil and then a plastic cover, then planted into, we usually do early salads, radish and spring onions, think we did some beetroot once, followed by dwarf beans . The only holes we do are melon and squash pits, hole dug and filled with rotted manure and covered with soil. Then we plant into the soil and cover with a cloche. Seems to keep them warm :happy7:
Digeroo, why don't you place hay bales together in the form of a square, dig a deep hole in the centre, back fill with fresh manure and replace soil on top. Plant in soil and cover with glass or similar. You could even surround the bales with more manure to help keep the heat in.
Digmore. :wave:
What time of year do you plant in them?
And how long does it stay warm?
While looking into what grow holes might be I came across this interesting progression of the idea.
Earth-sheltered Greenhouse http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/earth-sheltered-greenhouse.aspx
However this I doubt would work anywhere other than on a hillside because of the water table in a flat location.
Quote from: GrannieAnnie on November 10, 2013, 22:15:26
What time of year do you plant in them?
And how long does it stay warm?
We plant in them about end of jan/early feb, Grannie. They seem to outlast the cold and frost. Ray has made a big, plastic box type cover for the bed we use that I can prop open if it gets too steamy for the salads :happy7:
The idea of buying straw bales sounds like a good idea. I have tried growing on top of them but this exposed the courgettes to very windy conditions and they need a lot of watering, those beside the bales did a lot better. So burying might be a better option.
I am on a slightly sloped site and my plot is very well drained, so I like the earth sheltered greenhouse plan as well. I can build up the top end to increase the slope. The water table is not an issue for me.
My ground it reclaimed so I am not sure what is underneath if I dig below the topsoil. Though I think it was basically all subsoil. Rumour has it that the gravel went to build the M4 and that the fill came back the other way.
From what I have read you start the end of march and it stays warm for several weeks, I like the thought of starting even earlier. The idea is simply to extend the growing period. Presume after the equinox the brightness of the sun begins to pick up. After that frost here becomes intermittent. But we had a particularly annoying one last year on 16th May. But my courgettes under bottle cloches sunk into the ground protected by straw bales were not affected. (Basically the plants were below ground level, with their own private skylight windows, the potatoes next to them were completely flattened.) I like the thought of protecting some strawberries as well.
I put compost accelerator on my compost bin a couple of weeks ago and it is now warm to the touch.
The other thing you can speed up is lettuce but I do not like that very much. And Franchi have some which grow well under bottle cloches all winter and it is easy enough to have a tub on the windowsill at home. But speeding up some calabrese also appeals as the sills are too warm.