Drafty greenhouse or solid structure with grow lights?
Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
last year
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
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L20 x W16 x H9 Greenhouse Structure. Please Help.
Comments (13)Hello azee_2009, OK I originally thought it was going to be a rooftop greenhouse, but after rereading your second post I wasn't sure anymore. As far as the construction I used to build mine, it could be applied to a rooftop situation. By just building a sturdy base for the electrical conduit posts/poles. Similar to the baseboards I made for mine. The weight of it will keep it in place. The poles for my greenhouse only go down in the ground about 8-10 inches, and there is no cement holding them down (just the weight of the greenhouse structure itself). I just posted the link/information to give you some ideas. That greenhouse looks much nicer than the one I built. Although much more expensive too. Not including the subterranean system, and the hydro systems inside, I built my whole 10 by 20 foot greenhouse for about $800. Ya, heat will be challenging. Our outside temp today was about 92 degrees, but the temp inside the greenhouse was 108 degrees. When the temps here reach the 120 mark, greenhouse temps would likely be around 140-150 if I didn't have a multi tiered cooling plan. Cross ventilation is great in some circumstances, but it wont help much at all to blow 120 degree air on your plants when it gets hot. Given the best circumstances, swamp coolers may bring the temps down about 20 degrees. But if humidity isn't carefully controlled, they may only provide a difference of between 5 and 10 degrees at most of cooling effect by themselves. Just to clarify, when I mention high humidity, I mean in the greenhouse. That will depend a lot on temperature inside the greenhouse, water vapor given off from the hydroponic systems inside. Not to mention the biggest factor, how many plants your growing, and how big they are. Plants breath out water vapor (called transpiration). The water vapor (relative humidity) in the greenhouse will get higher and higher unless it's ventilated. But ventilating a cooler greenhouse with the (hot) dry outside air will only heat up the inside of your greenhouse. I have searched the web a lot & every where i have read that Double Poly Sheet that makes air pockets between them retain heat within the greenhouse & reduce heating costs about 50% compared to single poly coverings. So how would i be able to use it. As i have to fight against high temperatures. The air pocket in-bitween the two layers of poly is an insulation pocket. Air pockets are the best insulation there is. Insulation will protect against heat just as easy as it does against cold. If your greenhouse is cooler than it is outside, the insulation (air pocket) will help keep your expensive cool air inside the greenhouse stay cooler longer. If you have no way to cool the inside of the greenhouse, then it wont help much. The air pocket is just insulation, not a cooling or heating layer. It just helps block the heat transfer from one side to the other. Blocks heat from getting out during winter, and blocks against heat from getting in during summer. The 4-5 inch's between both layers you describe should be plenty. Typically it's only about one inch between layers. Though I would expect that you will still get much better results with a air blower between the two layers. The reason is if you blew the cooler air in between the layers, it won't give the air pocket a chance to heat up. Thus keep the heat transfer between the inside, and outside layers to a minimum. I want to know the link & name of software you are using to create 3D images. I want to download it to make someone understand what i mean. I use a free program called Google SketchUp. They have a pro version you can pay for, but I've always used the free version, and like it very much. I save all my drawings into a folder so I can expand on them later without starting over. Before you post your drawings, you'll need to remember to export and save it as a 2D image. Otherwise it wont be in jpg. format, and people that don't have Google Sketchup wont be able to view it. Before I built my greenhouse, I did a lot research online to figure out what would work the best for me, as well as my budget. Here are a bunch of the links I have got bookmarked from those searches. I know it's a lot to read over, and it's been a long time sense I looked through it myself. But a lot of it is in lists of topics. I just read through what was of interest to me. Arched Greenhouse PRESENTATIONS REFERENCE SOURCES Horticultural Engineering Greenhouse Energy Cost Reduction Strategies POLYTHENE GREENHOUSE FILM FACTS Chapter 11- Greenhouse Site Selection Chapter 12- Greenhouse Structures Chapter 13- Greenhouse Control Systems Chapter 14- Greenhouse Energy & Resource Alternatives "Greening" the Greenhouse Greenhouse Glazing Greenhouse Energy Conservation Strategies Greenhouse Energy Conservation Strategies: Temperature and Scheduling Managing Greenhouse Temperature...See MoreWith our short growing season who is using a greenhouse?
Comments (6)Christy, I use a greenhouse (180 square feet) for starting plants. It has a furnace that is turned on in early March. It is actually a "sunshed" so it has an insulated roof and north wall - frame construction. The south wall slopes. The angle was determined to best catch a very low, winter sun but I've never run the furnace to grow plants during the winter months. Besides the winter cold, I have to realize that the angle of the sun is very low here, there aren't many hours of daylight, and there's more cloud cover than somewhere like Colorado. Summer months the last few years, I have had basil in the greenhouse and I kept several tomato plants in there last year. Everything was opened up and it didn't get terribly hot. Basil likes it in there and the tomatoes did fine. The fruit especially, couldn't have been better-looking with no sun-damage or cracking. I think that any protection that you could give tomatoes, would benefit them. Of course, you can't cook them! However, you can get yourself into a lot of bother with a greenhouse. I have very little automation and during those cold, windy, late winter/early spring days with the big clouds and frequent sunbreaks -- I almost can't leave! The temperature goes up and drops with amazing rapidity! For the summer, the more open your greenhouse is during the daytime, the better. However, wind can be a serious problem. Of course, my tomatoes are in the open garden but the primary concern I have in selecting varieties is earliness of harvest. Even some varieties rated at 75 days have been very disappointing. Usually not but this days-to-maturity rating is sometimes really off! It should be good for comparison purposes but even that doesn't always work. Anyway, cherry tomatoes usually ripen quicker than the beefsteaks. Smaller plants, usually have ripe fruit earlier than large plants. None of this is always true but there are some very nice tomato varieties that may do well for you and be a pleasure to have on your table - be sure to give them a try. Steve...See MoreHow do I grow Tomatoes in TX winters w/o greenhouse?
Comments (10)Nick, the average tomato plant won't set fruit below fifty or so degrees F, so to get much production you'd have to keep the temps around them higher than that (not sure if that can be done without a greenhouse, or a rather extensive structure of some type). There are some types that are more likely to produce in cooler temps ~ Siberian types, one called "Oregon Spring", etc. ~ so I'd grow those for sure. If you put them against the south side of a large building (preferably your house), that will help as well. And I don't know if daylength has anything to do with it, but I surely wouldn't be surprised to find out it did. You may want to try some supplemental lighting on a few to test it out if you can't get a straight answer anywhere else. Since tomato blooms are self-fertile you won't have to uncover them to let insects pollinate, but you will need to move the blooms to do it. The natural action of the wind or an insect landing on the bloom is what triggers pollen to drop inside each flower onto the pistil (female part) and pollinate it. So either brush them with your hand repeatedly or install a small fan to move them around. Overall, and you probably already know this, but don't expect the same production as we get in summer. In cooler temps, growth of everything slows down, so it'll take longer for those tomatoes to form and ripen....See MoreQuestion about growing from seed in small greenhouse
Comments (6)Dave is right. Greenhouse can mean a lot of different things. Like I have four of the mini-greenhouses- the four shelf things with removable covers. Depending on what time of year it is, they get used as shelves for seed starting or to hold wintersown jugs outside- or more like coldframes with the covers on outside to help with hardening off plants. In the past, I have occasionally used a mini-greenhouse in my solarium with the cover on and hot water jugs in the bottom to overnight tomatoes and peppers if the solarium was supposed to get too chill for them. That might be closer to what you are doing. But without a proper heat mat, I wouldn't try using the mini-greenhouse as a home to start seedlings....See MoreJason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
last yearJason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
last yearbeesneeds
last yearJason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
last yearbeesneeds
last yearJason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
last yearbeesneeds
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