How warm is it?
The only way to find out is to measure it, the human body is useless for monitoring temperature.
During cold weather, have you every come into the house and thought it was lovely and warm. Then only a few hours later you start fiddling with the thermostat, as you start to feel cold. But its still the same temperature you have just got used to it.
To make sure your plants are happy, getting the correct temperature is vital to their health.
Some plants like the cosy life and need to be kept warm, others are happy to live outside all year, there are roughly three types of plant, house, summer or outside plant. They all have a temperature range that they are happy with. If you grow them too warm or too cold problems will start.
If you research a plant, there will be a recommended temperature range, for new gardeners I think this is the hardest thing to visualise, what does 16 degree centigrade look and feel like ?
In the old days you could only have a mercury thermometer with a minimum maximum reading it would tell you the temperature right now and how low and high it has been since you last checked. On the nursery our greenhouses sensors are constantly checking temperatures and saving the data, we can use this to make sure our plants are warm enough to grow but not too hot.
We also monitor humidity to help control diseases, measuring humidity used to be expensive but now with digital electronics you can also monitor your plants like a professional.
What can you do with your readings.
You can see the temperature now, which is okay but what you really need is the plant temperature history, the best thermometers will store readings.
You can use the readings to help you understand what your plant is up to when you are not there.
You can use the thermometer to protect your plants, some are wireless you can monitor them from your favorite chair in front of the TV. This is handy on cold frosty nights you can see if your plants are safe.
Most plants have a minimum temperature for growth but often forgotten is maximum temperatures, most plants stop growing above 30 C easily achieved in a small greenhouse on a sunny day.
Average temperature perhaps our favourite reading the 24 hr average evens out the fluctuating readings and is a better measure of how your plants are growing.
So for instance if you were growing bizzy lizzies and you took a reading on a cool morning it might be 7 degrees (they have stopped growing) but when the sun comes out it quickly rises again, if the 24 hr average temperature was 16 degrees the plants would be okay they are warm enough to grow. If the average was 7 degrees the plants can’t grow and would eventually die
Simple maximum minimum okay but you have to be in the greenhouse to read them.
Slightly better a wireless option check on your plants from your house
The bees knees lots of data you can use
The bees knees, data and lots of it check the 24 hr average.
