Cold Frames by Byron Chitwood
Several weeks ago, my wife’s cousin, Phil Lunt and wife visited us for a late celebration of Aunt Aldene’s 102 birthday. Aldene contributes her longevity to eating plenty of fresh vegetables, especially out of Byron’s garden. Phil and Rose Ann have restored and live in the home on a farm where Aldene was born. Phil and I got to talking about our hobbies and it turns out he is a Kansas Master Gardener. Believe it or not, they have all the same problems in the Pratt, Kansas area that we have here including bugs, high temperatures, plant diseases, and late spring and early fall frosts. Another problem that they have is on a growing season that is approximately two months shorter than ours. They are in Zone 6b verses our zone being 8b.
One of Phil’s concerns is the short growing season for tomatoes, especially since it gets hot in the middle of the growing season just like it does here. We put our heads together and came up with a plan that will give us several weeks or more additional growing and producing time for tomatoes. I have written several articles about cold frames before and how they are in great use in northern countries such as Russia, Scandinavia, Canada and the northern U.S. If you want to construct a cold frame or small greenhouse for the project of jump starting tomatoes, that will work. However, if you want a more simple way to do it, following is my suggestion: go to a store that specializes in containers or a store that has a stock of them and purchase a clear plastic container that has a length by width of approximately 26X15 inches and is about 6 inches deep. This will serve as your cold frame.
Either purchase some small pots or Styrofoam cups for planting containers. However, I found the neatest tool for making planting pots from newspaper and I will assume that you will go the route of making your own planting pots from old newspapers. There are several brands available that you can find at Amazon on the internet under “Paper Potters”. They might be available at your favorite nursery supply. If you are real handy, you can make one out of plastic pipe or even a large diameter dowel rod. You will need some potting soil. Either purchase some or make your own using equal parts peat moss, well composted organic material and pearlite. Also, purchase several varieties of tomato seeds.
About Christmas time, fill all the paper planting pots with potting soil. Plant several tomato seeds about ¼ of an inch deep in each pot. Place the pots in the clear plastic container and moisten them. Do not overwater but keep the soil slightly damp. Keep the container with the plants in the house until daytime temperatures are above freezing. Carry the container out after the temperature has risen above 35 degrees in the morning and return it back into the house before it freezes at night. After the last freezing frost, transplant the individual containers into the garden soil. No need to remove the plants from the paper pots since the paper will eventually decompose.
All plants such as peppers and others that are frost sensitive can be started in the paper potting plants and will give them a jump start on their way to maturity and fruit bearing.