I have been trying to find out when I should be starting seeds in my cattle panel greenhouse and I cannot find any information on when to start seeds in my zone (zone 7) do you go by the seed packet or do I have to look up when the planting times are for zone 8 since the greenhouse will be zone 8 can anyone help me with this

I start a month earlier than I would if i were planting directly in the garden.

David Rains wrote:I have been trying to find out when I should be starting seeds in my cattle panel greenhouse and I cannot find any information on when to start seeds in my zone (zone 7) do you go by the seed packet or do I have to look up when the planting times are for zone 8 since the greenhouse will be zone 8 can anyone help me with this

Do you have examples of your green house? We just bought land and are bringing cattle panels with us. I just read about planting cucumbers, peas, beans under black locust trees. Ah, so exciting....

Bonnie Bellmer wrote:

David Rains wrote:I have been trying to find out when I should be starting seeds in my cattle panel greenhouse and I cannot find any information on when to start seeds in my zone (zone 7) do you go by the seed packet or do I have to look up when the planting times are for zone 8 since the greenhouse will be zone 8 can anyone help me with this

Do you have examples of your green house? We just bought land and are bringing cattle panels with us. I just read about planting cucumbers, peas, beans under black locust trees. Ah, so exciting....

Bonnie, I built mine from watching this video:


I forgot to add, you may want to install automatic window openers if you go this route.  Here in zone 4b, mine went over 100 degrees F a couple weeks ago when it was 25 degrees F outside.  Of course, as soon as the sun isn't hitting it, it soon goes down to barely above the outside temperatures.  I use mine for season extension only, it doesn't have any source of heat other than the sun.

I would germinate the seeds indoors and only move out to the greenhouse after they are sprouted, assuming that frost isn't in the forecast. If you do get a couple of days that are really too cold, you can move flats back indoors until conditions improve, even if this is a major PITA. Warm weather crops, like tomatoes, will grow slowly if the temps are too cool but I'm talking from a Zone 4 perspective. Here we start plants indoors beginning mid February until early May, depending on the crop.