Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Temperature and blooming time

Most of my plants are growing in my basement, where it remains cool even in the summer.  This makes it easy to grow violets in the summer as I don't have to worry about them roasting.  In the fall, it takes a while before it gets cold down there and in the winter, I have a heat vent blowing right on them.

The spring presents the problem.  The heater is no longer running, but on days like today, the AC is on because the house got to about 85F.

What to do?  Well, for starters, duct tape the vent so the AC does not chill the violets down.  Move slow bloomers to higher shelves (5F difference in temperature between the very top and bottom shelves).  I also got a couple of seed-started heat mats to warm up the slow bloomers.  They are up at the very top level--almost at the ceiling.  Will they bloom in time?  One can only hope.

A couple of the natural light plants are blooming too fast, so I had to move them down a floor or out of the window entirely.

All this juggling is driving me crazy.  Will be happy in three weeks for entries to begin.

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