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Old 13-12-2004, 04:24 PM
Amber Ormerod
 
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"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
...

Mould doesn't flourish in moving air. Can you run your electric heater
on a 'fan only' setting? If so, keep it running all the time to
generate some air movement. Floor-level vents are also a help, but
many greenhouses don't have them. You mention a vent opposite the
door. Is this in the part separated off with bubble-wrap, and if so,
does it mean that through-ventilation is restricted?

Many plants will cope with the minimum of water over winter. The less
you water them, the less damp is the greenhouse. Provided your cacti
are bone dry at the roots (I don't water mine between the end of
October and the beginning April) they will take some cold. It can get
quite frosty in desert areas at night, but it's a dry cold. Do your
cacti really need the bubble wrap, if it's inhibiting air circulation?
IME a closed greenhouse will give a 2 or 3 degree advantage over the
outside temperature on a cold night, and I wouldn't have thought you'd
get many frosts in Hampshire so low as to be a real problem. On those
few occasions, run the heater, and because those occasions are few,
the cost won't be excessive.



The buble wrapped area does not cover over the vents that are oposite the
door. I open them and the door when its dry enough to do anything, but as
its seems to drop a few degrees just as it goes dark its hard to know if its
worth that extra bit of time to stop water gathering or not let that cold
in.

I am trying to sort out moving all I can out of the greenhouse and into a
covered area outside, which will also allow me to clean the greenhouse and
have covered areas to work in potting up over winter. I have things in the
greenhouse atm cos I found damp was a big killer for me over winter that
sitting wet day after day - mist again here today seems the norm!

It is my first year with the cacti and so I am just going by the books with
a dry setup and min temp of about 5degrees. I am not sure what will make it
through the winter but I have no places in the house for them (plus too many
now) so we will have to see. I have a couple that I am already a little
nervous of, but we will see. I have a max min thermometer setup, but its
hard to tell when the heaters kicked in, I just know when I didn't have it
last week the mins were lower.