Last frost where you live? Safe to plant out yet?

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Last frost where you live? Safe to plant out yet?
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Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6540
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Tue May 03, 16 12:53 pm Post subject:
If you need to run an extension make sure it's a heavy gauge. GFCI outlet is a must. (or whatever equivalent you have there)

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Tue May 03, 16 2:45 pm Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

dpack wrote:

OtleyLad wrote:

Midlandsman wrote:

I'm new to veg gardening having just created large raised beds. I wondered the same thing. The last frost date is said to be 12th May by all the old boys. I don't have a greenhouse but have large heavy gauge plastic covers over hoops made of mdpe pipe for a couple of the beds, and heavy duty cloches as well. How do these differ from an unheated greenhouse in terms of crop protection? I assume that the volume has some effect?

MM

Do you have a nearby power supply? You can get thermostatically controlled electric fan heaters (most with a 'frost guard' setting) for £10.99 from argos and the like. They only come on when its cold enough of course and provide that safety net should nighttime temp drop too low.
Think what it would cost if you lost all your early sowings and had to buy them in (or lose the crop) and it seems like a sensible precaution.

be careful electric, water,conductive floor etc etc .all the usual safety rules should apply (at the least make sure there is a rcd in the supply, that will prevent owt worse than a nasty surprise but any outside electrics really do deserve observation of the wiring regs for such things)

for low tech warming under glass or plastic a roll of bin bags over the soil with slits to plant through gives an extra 5 to 10 degrees c to the soil temp and plastic bottles full of water(painted black is best) on top to act as a heat store to keep the air a bit warmer overnight.both rely on sun during the day but as clear sky at night often means clears sky during the day they do work best when there is most risk of frost damage to young plants.

A very long extension lead won't do, then? Bother. (I'm joking, I promise) I was supposed to have a supply put in the garage when the solar went in, but it doesn't seem to have happened

You have to use your common sense here. I have a waterproof socket in the greenhouse and the circuit is RCD protected.
Most modern consumer units/distribution boards/fuse boxes include RCD protection (but not necessarily on all circuits). Check first as you would before using any outside tools, etc.
You don't need an armoured cable running out to your electric lawn mower or hedge trimmer but you would be daft not to have RCD protection.
You can in fact have two many RCDs on a circuit (multiple RCDs can cause tripping conflicts) one is sufficent.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Tue May 03, 16 8:53 pm Post subject:

This is probably a daft question, but can armoured cable carry power in both directions at the same time? I have armoured cable coming from the solar panel inverter in the garage into to the (spanking new) consumer unit in the house cellar. How hard would it be to put a socket in the garage, or run power out to the greenhouse? I happened to fall over a length of armoured cable recently, and if it's not a huge job, power would be very useful out there.

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Tue May 03, 16 9:08 pm Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

Yes the voltage appears the same at almost any place along the cable - albeit there will be a small drop the further from the source (your solar panels in this case).
However the solar panel output is dc so if you want to power ac appliances you need to take the output from the ac side of the inverter.
Does that help?

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Tue May 03, 16 9:55 pm Post subject:

Yes, thank you. The greenhouse (and solar panels) are about 60m from the house, with garage with the inverter etc in about half way between. I have armoured cable going from the cellar to the garage, and trenched DC to the solar panels. So it should be a fairly simple matter to fit a couple of sockets in the garage, and run a bit more cable down to the green house with a couple of waterproof sockets? If I get a sparky in and ask him, he isn't going to come and do that backwards whistle thingy at me? Every time I speak to anyone about getting anything done here, they look at me as though I've asked for gold plated piped caviar or something!

Sorry to drag your thread off topic. It looks like nights will get warmer t the weekend, here.

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Wed May 04, 16 6:00 am Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

Should be a straightforward job. Hopefully there is already a consumer unit in the garage it will need to have a spare 'way' so you can run off the cable to your greenhouse. If not then one will need installing. Look on Screwfix for example prices.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/wylex-2-way-metal-garage-consumer-unit-40a-30ma-rcd/3401h £54.99
A sparky should get a small trade discount too (maybe 10%).
The armoured cable 25m:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/prysmian-lv-armoured-6943x-3-core-cable-4mm-x-25m-black/67843 £50.20
Then your waterproof socket:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/bg-nexus-13a-2g-dp-switched-socket/67928 £12.98

You don't need an rcd socket if there is already an RCD in the garage consumer unit.
There will be cable clips and the like too.
Dig the trench in advance and it will save a considerable amount on the labour costs.

I charged £25 per hr when I was an electrician (only stopped last November) - you shouldn't be charged much more and might get less.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Wed May 04, 16 8:07 am Post subject:
Thank you. I will definitely look into it.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45460
Location: yes

Posted: Wed May 04, 16 9:00 am Post subject:

what he said.
plus if you are putting a cable in a trench it needs to be quite deep and should have a plastic tape with a beware cable warning a decent distance above the cable .i cant remember the exact min depths but iirc it is about 2 feet deep for the cable and a foot for the tape.it migt not save it from a big digger but it should warn anyone hand digging .(having seen 11000v meets digger bucket i recon tape is a good idea)

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Wed May 04, 16 9:52 am Post subject:

Just going back to the original post - I'm going to plant out the sweet corn (under a large bubblewrap cloche) as its so mild today and the forecast for the next week is good too. The roots are already out the bottom of the pots.
Everything is growing like crazy in the greenhouse. I've had to pot up the toms & squash as they are rapidly outgrowing their 3ins pots too.

Definitely a spring day today.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Wed May 04, 16 9:58 am Post subject:

Can one scan for cables, like you get things to tell you where they are in walls? (without getting time team out) no reason, just interested.

The cable will go under a slabbed path, which should keep it out of the way of most mishaps.

My sweet corn is an inch high, and also growing out of the bottom of the pot. I am in two minds what to do with it. I might plant it out, and then sow some more. I've got a cold frame kicking about somewhere.

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Wed May 04, 16 10:38 am Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

Can one scan for cables, like you get things to tell you where they are in walls? (without getting time team out) no reason, just interested.

You can - but they aren't cheap. Maybe get a metal detector instead (then you can also hunt for treasure)

wellington womble wrote:

The cable will go under a slabbed path, which should keep it out of the way of most mishaps.

Sounds like a safe bet.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45460
Location: yes

Posted: Wed May 04, 16 10:52 am Post subject:

yep, one can and should scan for cables and pipes when trenching.the hand held cat3 scanners can be hired for about £60 which is far far cheaper than a repair if you run a digger bucket through a pipe or cable( and far less traumatic

)

ps they dont see plastic water/gas pipes so eyeball for any possible runs is sensible. or if you know where the end is you can run a snake through a pipe and find it that way (that is more for if you are trying to hit it rather than avoid it)

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4563
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Wed May 04, 16 9:21 pm Post subject:
Strangly,BT couldn't tell me how deep the buried phone cable was in the field,only which way it ran.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45460
Location: yes

Posted: Wed May 04, 16 9:39 pm Post subject:
was that from a map? anyway back to the frost thing it was warm today so hooves crossed my seeds will be germinating all the boxes ant tubs are half planting compost and half still hot compost underneath,im hoping that the heat of fermentation will help a bit to avoid the ground frost effect if it does swing colder again.

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4563
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Wed May 04, 16 10:03 pm Post subject:
No,from the engineer standing in my field,he stated they didn't have a device to tell the depth of the cable.

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