Coldframe for Lettuce

 I'm new to using Newsgroups. I'm a vegetable and flower gardener in
Massachusetts (near New Hampshire border). I would like to get a
jumpstart on growing some lettuce. I've read that I can make a simple
cold frame from an old window frame supported over the ground with hay
bails. I would like to know if anyone has tried this and might anyone
have some growing suggestions?

 You could try it, but I would put some plastic gallon jugs in with the
seedlings.  When the sun shines on the jugs, it will warm them up and keep
the seedlings warm during the night.  You could paint them balck or dark
green to get more heat out of them.  How warm, I have no idea.  That will
depend on the size of the bed and area to be kept above freezing.

Dwayne

 Dwayne wrote:


Or you can add a few ounces of manure to the water in the plastic jugs.
The manure dyes the water brown to absorb heat better and you will have
well aged manure tea in the spring for fertilizer. I grown lettuce and
cabbage all winter in temperatures down to 10F with no other protection
other then being surrounded by milk jugs. Inside a cold frame, you could
go much lower.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
    Cicero

 il Sat, 06 Mar 2004 03:43:11 GMT, "Lorenzo L. Love" ha scritto:


How big are those milk jugs?

--
Cheers,
Loki               [ Brevity is the soul of wit.  W.Shakespeare ]

 Loki wrote:


One gallon. A square of eight around each plant. In the spring after the
lettuce dosen't need any help I move them around tomato and pepper
transplants to protect them from late cold snaps, like a Wal-o-water.
Later, just dump the manure tea out as a plant food.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
    Cicero