At 08:43 AM 04-01-99 -0700, you wrote: >At 10:36 AM 1/4/99 -0500, you wrote: >>Around here the Mennonite farmers use bottom heat -- a layer of manure. It >>need not touch the planting soil. It heats up pretty effectively and >>accomplishes early sprouting from a different angle. Lucinda, Canada >> >Lucinda, I think this is called a hotframe or something opposite of >coldframe. Do you have any idea how deep the manure layer is and how long >it stays hot? I'm hoping you know someone to ask, not measure the depth >yourself. Margaret This make take awhile to find out, Margaret. I haven't the foggiest idea if there is any specific ratio between poop and dirt. All I can say now is most of the boxes I've seen are for cabbage and are slapped together from old lumber, average size about 8 inches deep, 2-4 feet long and one or 2 rows wide. Sometimes they are set on a pile of manure which looks to be about 6 inches thick but it's underneath the box, not on the bottom inside. All this is on a plaform of some sort or at least raised up (warms up faster) off the ground. Kay must know a lot about poop. How much does it take for a hotframe? Lucinda > > >