Garden – Page 24 – savemaple.org

Post #G21-018: Radiant barrier for keeping a raised bed warm at night, final post.

I’ve been looking into simple ways to keep to keep a raised garden bed warm at night. So far, I’ve figured out the following:

What doesn’t work: Floating row cover (Post #G21-012)
What does work: Space blanket plus “passive solar” (Post #G21-014)
Why that works: The math behind the space blanket (Post #G21-015)
You need the extra heat input from passive solar: (Post#G21-017).

I have now learned one two more things.

First, space blankets are too fragile to be used on a windy day. That’s unfortunate, because they are cheap and easy to store. But the windy conditions two days ago showed me that they just aren’t strong enough. I had to cover the space blankets with a tarp to keep them from being shredded.

Second, actual radiant barrier, made for use in construction, works better than space blankets. This is material sold for use in home construction. This isn’t the the bubble-wrap-type Reflectix (r) insulation. This is more-or-less a piece of aluminum-coated Tyvek (r), and so it’s a heavy, stiff, strong fabric. I had a roll left over from a prior project and tried it last night, as the weather report called for near-freezing temperatures. Continue reading Post #G21-018: Radiant barrier for keeping a raised bed warm at night, final post.

Post #G21-017: Warming a raised bed at night 3: passive solar helps.

This is a continuation of a series of posts on how to keep the surface of raised beds warm during cool spring nights. So far I have shown:

What doesn’t work: Floating row cover (Post #G21-012)
What does work: Space blanket plus “passive solar” (Post #G21-014)
Why that works: The math behind the space blanket (Post #G21-015)

Here, I answer two more questions. Yes, you need the passive solar input (jugs of water than have warmed in the sun). Or, at least, that clearly helps quite a bit. And no, you won’t kill your plants if you forget to remove the space blanket the next day. Continue reading Post #G21-017: Warming a raised bed at night 3: passive solar helps.

Post G21-015: The math behind the space blanket

Background.

Fair warning: This is a technical post. It wanders off into a discussion of heat content, conduction, radiation, and so on. Calculations will be openly displayed, without apology.

If that’s not your thing, then skip it. Sometimes the juice is not worth the squeeze. Continue reading Post G21-015: The math behind the space blanket

Post #G21-014: Warming a raised bed at night, part 2: Success!

In a raised garden bed, radiative losses exceed conductive losses!

I know, I know. I’m as shocked to hear that as you are. I mean, who knew?

The upshot? Last night, I managed to keep my raised bed about 10 degrees F warmer than the surroundings by using some water jugs and a space blanket. And I’m not sure the water jugs were even necessary.

This post shows what I did and how well it worked. I’ve decided to split off all the math that explains why I did this into a separate post. This outlines the method, the results ,and four more things I need to test. Continue reading Post #G21-014: Warming a raised bed at night, part 2: Success!

Post #G21-013: Ball canning lids are back in stock.

The Canning Lid Shortage of 2021 may be over. For now, at least.

I heard a rumor, via my wife, that canning supplies were back in stock in the southern Maryland town where a friend of hers lives. The local hardware store there hung a big banner in the window to advertise that they had canning jars in stock again.

Today, I decided to check my local grocery store. And sure enough, what was a moth-eaten display of 2020 leftovers a week ago is now perfectly and fully stocked. Continue reading Post #G21-013: Ball canning lids are back in stock.

Post #G21-012: Warming a raised bed at night, part 1: Floating row cover does nothing

In prior posts, I showed the creation of a core bed (Post #G21-008), and I explained why I planted my summer squash far earlier than is typically prudent (Post #G21-011).

Now I want a simple way to keep that garden bed warmer at night, with a working goal being to keep the air temperature at or above 50 degrees Farenheit. (Because that’s the temperature where many garden plants cease to grow.) Continue reading Post #G21-012: Warming a raised bed at night, part 1: Floating row cover does nothing

Post #G21-011: Last frost date, degree-days, and why I’m planting summer squash now.

I planted my summer squash yesterday. That’s more than a bit too early, by almost any reckoning. In this post I explain why I did that.

Briefly, planting later is not unambiguously better, in this case. On the one hand, I want to avoid the last frost at the start of the growing season. That part, everybody gets. On the other hand, I want to avoid certain pests at the end of my growing season. Based on my experience last year, I’m going to pull up my summer squash when the squash vine borer appears, rather than expend a lot of effort trying to fight it.

The key fact is that the warmer the spring, the earlier various pests will appear. So the clock is ticking. A warm spring gives me the opportunity to get these plants into the ground sooner, but it also brings on the mid-summer pests sooner.

It’s not so much that I have a potential start date for the season, and I can start growing any time after that. It’s more that I have a defined window for the season. And if it is going to be a warm spring, the longer I wait past the true last frost date this year, the closer I get to the other end of the window.

Tomatoes and peppers and such, they can still inside for a while yet. But for varieties where mid-summer emergence of pests limits my season, I’m going to take a gamble.

Continue reading Post #G21-011: Last frost date, degree-days, and why I’m planting summer squash now.

Post #G21-010: Ball lid shortage and Tattler lids

Edit on 4/16/2021: There’s now a little addendum on yet other non-Ball lids, and other re-usable lids, available as alternatives to Ball disposable lids.

This is my third and probably last post on the 2021 canning lid shortage. I’m going to use it to talk about Tattler lids. I bought some back in 2011, and I’ve used them off and on since.

I want to make two simple points.

1: The increase in the price of Ball disposable lids makes the Tattler lids more attractive from a cost-benefit standpoint.

2: The Tattler lids are a little “fussier” because the seal is a separate rubber ring. But they aren’t hard to use. Continue reading Post #G21-010: Ball lid shortage and Tattler lids

Post #G21-009: Canning lid shortage revisited.

See post #G21-013. Looks like seasonal shipments of canning supplies have begun. In Vienna, VA, lids are back in stock. (Or, at least, were as of 4/18/2021).

See Post #G21-003 for the background. In a nutshell, it’s hard to get lids for home canning right now. If you can find them, your choice is between expensive (name-brand) and potentially inferior (foreign-made). (If you doubt that inferior part, read some of the reviews on Amazon.) And, of course, the predators are out in full force, so you will see people offering to sell you lids for more than the cost of a “set” (jar+ring+lid).

I’ve now done a little shopping locally, and tracked the trends for on-line sources, and it’s time to update that prior post.

It’s clear that the situation is getting worse, but I stand by what I said in my prior post. To me, it looks like the U.S. manufacturer hasn’t yet started shipping to major retailers for the 2021 canning season. And so, I think that most of what we’re seeing right now is still the aftereffect of the 2020 canning season.

If that’s true, then things are going to continue to get worst, right on up to the point where the seasonal shipments start for the 2021 canning season. And that that point, I expect to see lids available again.

That’s a guess. But that’s still my best guess.

Details follow. This turned out to be a long post. I cover the topics listed below. I’ve put the headings in red so you can just scroll down and find them.

My local stores.
Canning lid arbitrage, or why the local shelves should be empty.
Recent changes in on-line sources.
A brief note on re-using lids.
Only Newell, Inc. knows what’s actually in store for us later this year.
Afterword, or why a shortage of canning lids isn’t just some quaint little oddity.

Continue reading Post #G21-009: Canning lid shortage revisited.

Post #G21-008: Building a plumbed core bed.

Today it took me about an hour to convert a 4′ x 16′ raised bed into a “core bed”. That’s a bed with a considerable amount of straw buried in a trench running down the middle of the bed. In theory, the straw core will retain water and reduce or eliminate the need for watering. I’ve set it up so that I can pipe water directly into the core, so that if I do need to water it, I can do that in next-to-no-time.

If you just want to see the construction, go to the next section. Continue reading Post #G21-008: Building a plumbed core bed.