Watering Seedlings in Hoop House Growing

So you've got yourself a developing crop of seeds and seedlings, and you need to take care of them. Even in this beautiful hoop house they need some care. So, you need to be aware of the watering issues, and the heat, and the light, the temperature, and the bugs. So let's start with watering. A good rule of thumb is that these plants like enough water to stay alive and not wilt, but not over watered. So you want your soil damp but not soggy. Common beginner mistake is to over water. So, if you have a good steady hand you can apply the water very judiciously or you could use a spray nozzle or some type of a watering can. Some people will use bottom water which is best of all. If you have some type of a tray you can water the tray and the soil cells soak up from below, and then they just use capillary action and get just the amount of water they need. So keeping up with watering is the first consideration. Perhaps equally important is the temperature. Although they're cold hardy, when these seeds come up they can't withstand hard freezes. So they might make it down into the twenties but no lower than that. So for double protection during their germination period and early development, I have this shower curtain device rigged up to protect the seeds on bitter nights. So in this double skinned un-heated hoophouse, tucked in the secondary protection zone, these plants have withstood temperatures down into the low teens and below. That's pretty cold.