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The Modern HomesteadThe Modern Homestead
  • Home
  • Overview
    • The Integrated Homestead
    • Life on the Homestead
  • Grow It!
    • Composting
    • Garden and Orchard
    • Greenhouse
    • Homestead Tools
    • Soil Care
  • Poultry
    • Poultry Overview
    • Feeding The Flock
    • Housing the Flock
    • Dealing With Predators
    • Breeding Our Own Stock
    • Producing for Small Markets
    • Butchering Poultry
    • Poultry Miscellaneous
    • Livestock
  • Resources
    • Downloads
    • Harvey’s Book
    • The Homesteader’s Resources
    • In The Kitchen
  • Back Porch
  • Contact Us

A Hotbox for Super-Early Spring Transplants

Greenhouse, Grow It

The following appeared as a sidebar in my article “Expert Advice for Greenhouse Growing”, published in the October/November 2007 issue of Mother Earth News.

Vermicomposting bin dug into earth, with cinderblock sides

Empty Bin

The hotbox: buckets of water below, plants in pots, and wood frame for an insulating cover

Hotbox Setup

One of the great advantages of a greenhouse, of course, is the opportunity to make an early start on warm-weather transplants. Remember, however, that nighttime air temperatures can be intimidating even for cold hardy plants—a sunlover like tomato cannot take them on. Thus a further advantage of my multi-functional greenhouse is use of one of the worm bins in late winter/early spring to make a “hotbox” for tender transplants.

I place gallon jugs and 5-gallon buckets filled with water into an emptied bin, and lay scrap plywood over the tops of the buckets. A huge heat sink is created during the day, and the air temperature over the buckets at night remains many degrees above ambient. An addition of a light wood frame allows draping scrap blankets over the hotbox, cozying them even further. Over that heat sink, dug 16 inches into the earth inside a greenhouse, and with the blanket cover—Jack Frost is never going to touch my babies!

The hotbox with an old blanket added for insulation

Cozy!

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