Le Potager du Sloth: Gardening without fatigue more than Bio

[Did67]

Antifreeze cord in chassis

The sudden drop in temperatures allowed me to test my "anti-freeze electrical cord".

These are the electric cables used mainly to maintain the freezing of external pipes.

I acquired a model with thermostat, set to + 3 ° [below, it snaps; above 6 °, this is triggered], of length 12 m, with characteristic power of 10 W / m. So 120 W in everything. Value: about 55 euros (still!).

This is very easy to ask: it is a loop, very flexible. I used the sardines that I use to fix my drip, and I made a kind of mesh with constant spacing of approximately 20 cm, on the bottom of my chassis. Above the hay. Below the plates.

I plugged yesterday to 16 h. The temperature in the chassis, covered with 25 or 30 cm of snow, was very close to 0 °.

In the hour that followed, she moved to + 3 °.

And since then, it has stayed ...

Of course, it "bothers" me, in my "more than organic" garden, to have a predominantly nuclear electricity consumption.

Nothing is ever perfect in this world! Not even the weather, which forces me to resort to such contortions!

[Moindreffor]

Of course, it "bothers" me, in my "more than organic" garden, to have a predominantly nuclear electricity consumption.

Nothing is ever perfect in this world! Not even the weather, which forces me to resort to such contortions!

in this reasoning the question to be asked would it not be
why have to heat
you had transplanted dandelions outside, what about ?, could you have done the same with an "indoors" production
for more than BIO, should not you turn to endive? while waiting for the first winter salads without heating?
we are talking about the return of seasonal vegetables, where is the place of the primeurs?

[sicetaitsimple]

The hay market is growing ...

Soon, monsters and horse breeders in Rosheim will protest the increase in the price of hay!

You must ask your publisher to increase the circulation so that they can not deprive themselves of an autodafé in public place!

[Did67]

in this reasoning the question to be asked would it not be
why have to heat
you had transplanted dandelions outside, what about ?, could you have done the same with an "indoors" production
for more than BIO, should not you turn to endive? while waiting for the first winter salads without heating?
we are talking about the return of seasonal vegetables, where is the place of the primeurs?

1) It is only "an anti-freeze device"; no heating. And only the seed plates in one of the two frames.

[The greenhouse has no "anti-freeze" device. The second frame, currently occupied by winter lettuce forcing, either]

2) The dandelions were going to come out soon (at the last "scratching" I had done).

There is, under the hay, roots of red Verona.

And this year, there will be chicons, which will produce next spring.

3) The "anti-freeze" system is just linked to "the unpredictability" of the sowing date. And of course, laziness to "return" the plates to the garage, to take them out ...

4) It's a bit like sodomizing Drosophila: the thermostat regulates; the resistance is about 120 W. That is 1 kWh every 8 hours if it worked non-stop. In short, if the episode lasts 4 nights, I will consume something like 10 or 15 kWh (our annual electricity consumption being 2!). So, in principle, that bothers me. But in the energy balance of the house, it is not even a "droplet of fog" [roughly, our household is, in direct consumption, 500 kWh of electricity, 2 tons of pellets = approximately 500 kWh biomass, a little over 4 l of mainly LPG fuel, or another 20 kWh; I'm not talking about the embodied energy of building materials, food, etc ...).

[sicetaitsimple]

Antifreeze cord in chassis
...........
Of course, it "bothers" me, in my "more than organic" garden, to have a predominantly nuclear electricity consumption.

I am not sure that I "exonerate you" by saying this, but when temperatures are negative in France, any additional electrical consumer, in this case your cable, is supplied (all other things being equal) by a corresponding increase in the temperature. fossil-based production (gas or coal). You did not increase nuclear production ....

Good, must be positive!

The plants you saved from freezing will soon be transplanted, grow and absorb CO2.

Let's say that you consume on a cold period of 5 days 5kWh (your cable heats about 1h on 2 for 5 days)? Let's also say that it is coal (the worst) that feeds it, with 1kg / kWh about CO2 emissions. So 5kg issued more on the cold period because of Didier ..

Will your plants produce more than 5kg of dry matter? Not sure anyway .... but it's relativized.

Overall, your garden still remains, despite this cable, a storer of CO2.

Edit: sent without having seen the previous post Didier, but it does not change the reasoning even if we can discuss the consumption values.

[Ahmed]

There are heating cables specially dedicated to these horticultural applications and it is easy to do without a thermostat taking into account, on the one hand, the length of wire just sufficient for temperature maintenance (knowing that it is disconnected outside critical period ), on the other hand from the inertia of the substrate (depending on the arrangement of the device which can be arranged in this direction). For small quantities of energy, electricity appears to be a fairly satisfactory solution, even if we should not consider only the "end of the line" efficiency.

[Did67]

I had no idea how much power was needed ... so I chose the length at random ...

The advantage of the thermostat is that I can make a fairly dense mesh, be "overpowered", while starting for safety when I "fear" a "small jelly", but being armed for the big jelly like that of the 21 April last year ...

We'll see this night, since we are told - 6 ° C.

And even if you forget to unplug, it automatically "relieves" when the temperature rises during the day ...

[Did67]

... on the other hand the inertia of the substrate (depending on the arrangement of the device that can be arranged in this direction).

There, in this case with frames having a nice layer of hay, therefore "insulating", and the plates just placed on them, we have almost no inertia (the little soil in the plates!) ...

I would have put a thermostat anyway ... The existing option was quickly seen.

[guibnd]

Antifreeze cord in chassis

The sudden drop in temperatures allowed me to test my "anti-freeze electrical cord".

Of course, it "bothers" me, in my "more than organic" garden, to have a predominantly nuclear electricity consumption.

Nothing is ever perfect in this world! Not even the weather, which forces me to resort to such contortions!

yes Didier, you exaggerate! you could still make a warm diaper with horse manure (I tease you because I also have a horticultural heating cable for my seedling from the end of March especially for the temperature drops at night)

with my father, we made a warm diaper when I was a child; my father had planted a long thermometer very deep inside and every day I had to come up and note the temperature ... boudiou, it heated inside !! at least 50 ° C at the height of the shot in the middle of February.
then, we sowed lots of seeds in this frame when the temperature had dropped.
the most delicate is to manage the temperature well because manure does what he wants, he does not obey a thermostat
it was a beautiful lesson of things ...

[Adrien (ex-nico239)]

I think waiting for my seedlings peas reach 10cm before putting them in the ground.
What technique do you recommend to protect them from possible rabbits ...?

Protect each foot with a bottle with the cut ass?

against rabbits it is the whole garden that must be protected, they attack your peas regardless of their size and the rest of aileurs

Ah rabbits is the galley.

For the outdoor garden I built a fence with chicken wire to go quickly when arriving ...

That was enough.

As they swarmed in the valley, the locals cracked and there are many less.

But we are better behind the fences it's on.

The cats have brought back a beautiful no later than today ...

On the other hand level fence fighter friends had told me that it would not be enough and that they would pass below.
Well, my faith not at all.
No one has gone below, either in the pleasure garden or in the kitchen garden.