Making a Hotbed from Start to Finish
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 26 авг 2024
- One of my passions is growing food all year round, I especially like to grow and eat a huge salad of leafy greens every day of the year. Using hotbeds makes this much easier and it just makes February and March on the allotment more fun.
There are lots of different ways to make a hot bed, but I've chosen a method that suits the design of my plot. It's fairly expensive though and the payback on materials is about 18 months, the rest of the plot has paid back in a few months. I don't mind that extra investment though because it turns February to May :-).
I made my first hotbed last year and it worked very well, so this year I've squeezed in this second one and filmed the whole process. This video ends with an empty box, which I will fill with horse manure and wood chip bedding, a few leaves, seaweed, rock dust and a few handfuls of chicken manure. On top of that I put 3 to 6 inches of garden compost, which I plant into. All that starts decomposing and generating heat and it's ready to plant in early February.
I add the leaves, seaweed and rock dust because when I empty the hot bed in late Autumn, I have lovely rich compost all ready to use as a mulch on some of my other beds.
If you are considering growing more veg all year round I recommend starting with just a cold frame, then a hoop tunnel and finally a hotbed, ie in order of cost effectiveness. I'd only start with a hot bed like this one if you have a cheap source of wood and really need extra composting space. You can achieve quite a few benefits of a hotbed, just by over-wintering young salads in a hoop tunnel.
Thank you for this information! It’s been the most helpful as we’re soon to build hotbeds.
The fruits of your labour are a true testament of your hard 👍
Hi Steve, clear and succinct, got the old grey matter working. Take care Mike B
+Michael Brotherton great stuff Mike, I’d love to see you apply your talents to a hot bed : all the best - Steve
Amazing video. Thank you!
Awesome project to do in the autumn or winter !!
Thank you for sharing that Steve. I have been considering creating some hot beds but when you said at the beginning about having a lot of time its made me think lol.
+The veg Grower podcast the time issue is caused by the need to vent them as often as possible during mild days and close st night
my ultimate goal is to be able to grow anything I want at anytime of the year without huge electric bills like in an indoor hydroponics setup. There is a company called fridheimer in Iceland growing toms 365 days a year in a greenhouse that's -20 outside the greenhouse. They use geothermal heat and lots of powerful lights. I am trying to create this in a health Robinson fashion on the cheap without huge expense. I know it's a big task but I think k I can get there.
+TheJunkyardgenius you could try heating a small poly tunnel with a cubic meter of compost and led in the roof, but I don’t think it would be warm enough
Your cold frame/hotbed designs are great and they gave me an idea. I love my allotment but I get so frustrated just growing brassicas and overwintering onions and garlic I want to solve the problem. now we can heat a cold frame, using manure or a small paraffin heater and create the heat plants need in the winter but we cannot do much about the daylight hours. or can we! my preference would be to insulate the inside with either polystyrene or a kingspan/celotex product to keep the heat in. next the daylight hours. It occurred to me me that if we make the angle of the lid the prefered angle for a solar panel, (around 34°) then have a solar panel or 2 around 100 watts each and Inside on the underside of the lid run daylight led bulbs around 4 watts each. I think a dozen should do and the difference in power created/used could be stored in a car battery or leisure battery so that you get more daylight hours from the same amount of daylight. This way you can grow most things all throughout the year and not shut down your plot for the winter like most people do.
+TheJunkyardgenius a few thoughts, I think the light from the sun, even in winter is much greater than can be generated by solar and LED. LEDs are usually mains powered in commercial greenhouses and only used to supplement sunlight. I’ve tried insulating my hotbeds with bubble wrap, but in the end found that just using soil and bark chips was fine. Finally although I’m unable to grow new veg in late December and January, I have a huge range sitting in my beds that has been growing up to mid December and from Feb onwards so I’m self sufficient all year round in veg excerpt cucumbers and tomatoes. See my next video to see what I have growing. The key is to have everything grown by mid December, it goes dormant, but can still be harvested for the 6 weeks until Feb, when there’s enough light for everything to start growing again.
I know this is a high tech way of doing it but solar panels from amazon are around 80 quid for 100 watts, you can get an old car battery anywhere, bulbs and holders are cheap and a small 100watt inverter you can pick up in lidl sometimes really cheap. you could build this whole set up for about 250 quid but it's a one off payment and it would last you years and Def be worth it.
+TheJunkyardgenius a hot bed like mine only heats for 2.5 months from Early Feb to late April - by Mid Feb light levels are starting to build up just fine in a south facing bed. The LED trick might work for a December to Jan hot bed, but I just eat the stuff that has already grown in Sept to November in those months.
you were losing me on the build, but then you mentioned you could make the frame from straw bales; that's right in my wheelhouse, i want to build a house from them. i like your wooden frame, but know i'd never build one; straw bales it is, thanks.
I don’t bother with hotbeds anymore though, found that I could get much better results by using growlights for a few weeks, much less effort. If you have the space though and access to all the materials it’s worth a try
Fantastic project and so neat and tidy. Quick question - when you say the lids are double skinned you mean a layer of polythene or plastic on the inside and outside? And how to do attach the plastic without it tearing? Glue? Tape? Pins? It looks really taut and firm. Awesome job. Thanks for sharing.
+London Worms & Garden yes, polythene on both sides of the wooden frame. I pull it tight and put lots of staples in, but crucially I then cover the staples and other weak spots with polytunnel repair tape. It has to be really taut otherwise water pools in it and that would rip the staples. I fit it on a very hot day, so when it gets colder it pulls tighter
Steve's Seaside Allotment Brilliant technique. Thanks for the quick reply. You've inspired me to get something similar going in the garden although on a smaller scale. Have to say you allotment gas to be one of the cleanest, tidiest, most ergonomically designed in the country 😊👍
+London Worms & Garden thanks, it was out of necessity, when I started it I had arthritis in all of my joints, 18 months later, all that organic veg and good living and I'm in remission
So be this won’t work if I have a high water table?
Digging down, probably not but there’s plenty of ways to make a hotbed without digging down
Hello how did you make the lid and what is it constructed from? Where did you get the timber from? A pdf of dimensions and construction instructions would be very useful as this is the best constructed one I have seen on youtube.I would certainly buy you a coffee if you produce one.
I think I have this covered in the chapter of my book on growing under cover, the hot bed construction is just a cold-frame with extra layers steverichards.notion.site/Growing-under-cover-a48de72c83064d07a945eeb111cf7027 if not let me know and I will do you a written description and let you buy me a coffee : All the best - Steve
@@SteveRichards I have sent you an email Steve.
What kind of wood are you using here Steve? Some treated wood obviously can’t be used in conjunction with growing food. Thanks.
Ground contact grade pressure treated timber. As I understand it about 10 years ago the formulation of the preservative was changed and is now considered safe : All the best - Steve
Hi Steve, great video. Question? When do you fill with manure if your planting in Feb to maximize the heat?
Also you mentioned that the produce grown from sept-nov is what you eat dec-jan - is that produce just grown in a cold frame or so you do the manure trick twice i.e starting one in sept and again in Feb?
Cheers, Rob
Hi Rob, it depends a little on the mix, but I would say about 2 weeks after filling it will be ready for planting, so filling late January is normally best. You can monitor the temperature to get a better idea. You don’t need manure for autumn beds, at least not here in England, it’s plenty warm enough in September and October, things slow down in November and Stop for the 6 weeks from mid Dec to Feb. : all the best - Steve
Thanks for the reply Steve, very helpful information to get me started 😊
Can I make frame like yours to compost weeds and grass clippings that would kill seeds in them
Hi Ricky, no, to kill weeds you need at least 1m3 but ideally bigger, that way you get the center of the heap to 60c which will kills seeds. You also need to regularly turn the heap so that every part of it spends some time at the center. I've given up on this, it's too hard, instead I just don't put weed seeds in if I can help it!! : All the best - Steve
That could be a good idea in my polytunnel, but may be to much work for me at the moment.
they are a lot of hard work and a small greenhouse heater is a lot cheaper. One of the potential issues with a hotbed is the amount of condensation they create in a greenhouse, although some people use them successfully : All the best - Steve