We have been saving wine bottles for awhile. We have the benefit of other people’s bottles as well. Husband and I discussed various ways to make a hot box from wine bottles and the results are pretty nice if I do say so myself. We scavenged another wooden trough type structure from the local Kubota. Husband drilled holes in it and bam, hot box. We will be testing this as time goes on. Hot peppers are the current residents of the hot box.
A little bit about how this works and why you would want it:
The sun heats up the air inside of the wine bottles. The hot air then pushes through the neck of the bottle and into the soil, increasing soil temperature. This is a good way to increase your growing zone. We chose to put hot peppers in the hot box because of their love for hot soils. I hope to see them take off soon!
Did this work for you? Do the bottles need to be level or could the be angled down? Like if I were to try to line them up and angle them so the opening went under a cold frame?
It has worked really well. We’ve gotten a lot of hot peppers out of this. The only issue is because our bottles are angled down. They fill with water and in the winter freeze and break. We replace a bunch each year. It’s not a huge issue, but picking glass out of the garden is a pain. I suppose a good way to prevent this would be to remove the bottles after harvest and store until the following year. I haven’t done that, but I should.