New cloche for protecting garden plants

[Joel_BC]

Seems like most of us in the higher elevation or more northerly climatic zones do things to extend our gardening season. This is an interesting video about a new cloche that's on the market. It's a third-party vid, in the sense that the chief editor from Mother Earth News is the person demonstrating and commenting on the cloche.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDVub_khwoQ

The product takes into consideration the need to ventilate the cloche during the day and the need to be able to prevent the wind from tossing them around - and (I gather from the vid) also to resist breakdown from the UV light in sunlight.

The smaller ones are being sold by Lee Valley at roughly $4 apiece (but sold in sets of three), and the large ones are being sold at about $6 apiece. Lee Valley runs both stores and an online catalogue business. I have not tried these yet, but they look pretty good.

 

[~gd]

They have free shipping on orders of $40+ right now until 3/25 check http://www.leevalley.com/us/newsletters/WS/2/48/newsletter.htm
for details. I have bought glass [discontinued?] and the old style Plastics are now out in my garden,The new ones should do away with solar fried plants due to our huge temp, swings from 25F at night to 85F during the heat of the day on sunny days. I can live with the old ones now that I am retired.

 

[baymule]

Ya'll try to find ways to keep the cooler temps from frosting your veggies and we (the south) try to find ways to keep our veggies from frying on the vines! We had a frost last week and yesterday it was 89F.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

And that's the truth!

 

[Wannabefree]

Amen!

 

[Emerald]

Cloches are okay.. if you only have a few to cover but if you put in whole rows it is easier to use reemay(row cover/frost cover or frost cloth there are a few different names for it I'm sure) with wickets to keep it up. If it gets really cold at night in the spring I've even put in gallon water jugs with hot water in them under the reemay it has saved my bacon quite a few times. I've used black out cloches to blanch some garden veggies before like asparagus-some big juicy dandelion that i had in the garden and some escarole.
They are cool in that they store easy tho. But I am a cheapy when it comes to getting stuff for the gardens. for about $25 to $30 I can get about 100feet of reemay (maybe 5feet wide) I've had the same two rolls of it for about 5 years and only a couple small tears but it can be a PITA on a windy day if the rocks give loose! Oh and I've sewn it up and it is okay for hand stitching.
Funny thing is a green house grower used to visit with my old bosses and he lives down in Georgia and they hang reemay to shade some plants in the middle of the day too.
But if you are only growing a few maters or squashes etc here and there those would work rather well. like the wall o' water thingys.

 

[nelson castro]

The garden plant covers worked out really good. This was pleasantly a surprised. They did a great job at keeping plants warm during some really cold weather and surely they'll do a great job keeping insects and animals away from our vegetables.

 

[Joel_BC]

Cloches are okay.. if you only have a few to cover but if you put in whole rows it is easier to use reemay(row cover/frost cover or frost cloth there are a few different names for it I'm sure) with wickets to keep it up. If it gets really cold at night in the spring I've even put in gallon water jugs with hot water in them under the reemay it has saved my bacon quite a few times.

With this approach, how far apart do you set those hot-water jugs under the remay?

 

[baymule]

Joel, last week it was 90F degrees, last night it was 32F, tonight will be 30F and tomorrow night it will be 33F. I had already set out squash and tomatoes, so yesterday afternoon, DH and I were outside wrapping our tender plants in bedsheets and pillow cases. It ought to be Halloween--we have garden ghosties!!

 

[Emerald]

Cloches are okay.. if you only have a few to cover but if you put in whole rows it is easier to use reemay(row cover/frost cover or frost cloth there are a few different names for it I'm sure) with wickets to keep it up. If it gets really cold at night in the spring I've even put in gallon water jugs with hot water in them under the reemay it has saved my bacon quite a few times.

With this approach, how far apart do you set those hot-water jugs under the remay?

About every 4 to 5 feet. I have a lot of jugs as most times they do emergency water for my chickens when we lose power. and if it is really going cold for the night I also have quite a few of the big "plastic feed" bags from the corn and feed for my chickens and will put a layer of those over the reemay.
I did work for years in a big greenhouse near me that grew flowers and trees and veggies. I learned the reemay cloth from my boss. while violets and violas can tolerate cold temps covering them kept them pristine for sales so I spent quite a bit of my greenhouse time watching the weather channel(or listening to the weather via radio) and doing the reemay shuffle! cover them up and take the covers off when the sun shines!
And in the fall when cold frost is threatening we often put our old incandescent holiday light strings to use- we string them along our plants that need protecting(we often get one or two cold nights and then back to warm again in the fall) and then toss the tarps over the fancy holiday lights and while it looks rather weird in the back yard the plants are okay till the cold snap goes and we get a few more weeks of warm weather for harvesting.