GH Benches
cugal
11 years ago
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Comments (13)
another_buffalo
11 years agocole_robbie
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Any rule of thumb for gravel depth?
Comments (12)If I understood your description of how you will be laying out your floor plan: You will have concrete walkways, and are concerned only about gravel under the benches? If so; then why pea gravel? It looks lovely when freshly laid, but over time, leaves, soil and other debris will accumulate and be a devil to remove and eventually, mat on the surface and clog drainage and if you try to sweep or rake it, you will take out as much of the gravel as dirt. Why not river stone? It would still give you wonderful drainage and if you use large stone, you can clean it with quite a bit of force from a hose without disturbing it. In fact, you could even wait until sections are dry and vaccuum away most all of the soil and debris. The key to that, is stones too large and heavy to be picked up with the vaccuum. As for depth: that really depends on the permeability of the soil beneath your GH benches. The less permeable, the deeper you need to dig down and fill with stone to prevent standing water. Frankly, if your "construction professionals" didn't check your soil maps or do any borings before they started construction, they wern't being very professional. But it's still not too late. Contact your local Soil & Water Conservation District. They will have the soil maps, and in-house experts to help you make sure your drainage is done correctly, courtesy of your state and federal taxes; for a change- at work- for you....See MoreMisting Systems
Comments (10)I suppose it depends upon what you're trying to grow. In order to control the kind of temperatures I have here in the Florida panhandle, I'd be misting regularly, for long periods of time during the warmer months. This would be death to my orchids, since prolonged wetness in leaf axils, and having the potting medium (for those I have in pots) too wet, causes rot. (When I water, I must do this in the early morning so that any residual droplets have evaporated by the time night falls.) I would also think that having small seedlings wet would invite problems too. It's logical to wonder, "Yes, but it rains at night in nature." It does, but there is usually air movement present, and the infinite capacity of the volume of air can continue to absorb vater vapor from evaporation. Also, the plants that grow in those tropical places where nighttime rains can be often, are adapted to those conditions. As ghers, we want to grow what pleases us, from varying climates and locations around the world. We must compromise, and understand the limitations of a closed, confined system to keep it hospitable. In more temperate locations, rains are usually infrequent, such that things can dry out between downpours. In a gh this would be different, because in order to keep things cool, misting must be done regularly, daily. Perhaps mature tropicals, and larger, woody plants, can tolerate the wetness -- especially if the misting isn't directly overhead. I noticed the photos of your gh, stressbaby, on your homepage...and it's massive. Is it possible the extra space allows you to avoid wetness issues? The larger interior volume increases the overall potential for evaporation for a given level of humidity, as well. By comparison, I don't have much space, either laterally or overhead, in my 8x14 gh. I suppose what this indicates is that there are several factors to be considered when designing a cooling system: 1) interior volume of gh 2) desired plants 3) desired interior temp vs. outside ambient 4) average ambient humidity (because this controls the degree of evaporation) 5) CFM of exhaust system vs. interior volume #4 is particularly important, because not only does humidity dictate the effectiveness of any method of cooling, but if it is high it also will restrict evaporation of water off of plants. -Bruce...See MoreGreenhousers what are you up too!
Comments (19)Krayers: My system in GH#1 has worked very well for nearly all of the season. It has reached a high of 109 degree underground about 1 foot. It made a big difference in the early spring as the temperature in the single layer greenhouse stayed much higher overnight once the system was up and running for a few days. You are probably aware that with single layer greenhouses, the nighttime temperatures drop to nearly ambient, with only a few degrees difference between outside and inside. With the underground hot water system, I saw 12 degree temperature differences overnight in less than a week. Unfortunately, I think the fliter on the intake has become clogged with sediment. I will have to remove that and fliter (with nylon stockings) at the discharge where I can get at it for periodic cleaning. I believe the sediment from the old solar panel slowly built up on the filter inside the tank. I will also change the configuration of the piping this winter. Instead of heating the walkways, it will be increased to heat everywhere about 1 foot deep. That should provide for great thermal mass for the enclosure, and help put heat right where the roots need it. The idea of wood heat is fine, but you're going to be busy feeding the fire. A wood fire will only last an hour or so at it's peak, so unless you have a large capacity stove, it will be inconvenient. I will be making simple waste oil burners for the greenhouses. These can run all night long at the same high temperature, and they should be relatively clean burning since they will be fed air by a blower. It is important to recognize that I'm not trying to fight nature, but rather help it along a bit during season startup and season's end. Any heating system I have will be supplemental at best. I won't try to heat the greenhouse to a comfortable temperature all winter. Instead, I'll adjust what I am growing to be cold weather tolerant. Fighting nature is just too hard. For those interested in what can be grown/harvested over the winter in a greenhouse without supplemental heat, see the link below. Clair Here is a link that might be useful: Cold weather vegetables...See MoreGH bench construction
Comments (9)Hi LivelyDirt, Our raised beds are about 26"s high - sitting on about 12"s of top soil - the center bed is 14"s. I made filling the beds a little easier by using my tractor before installing the polycarbonate. I filled the beds with top soil that I dug from the GH footings (about 12"s) then finished filling the raised beds with my own mix - similar to Eliot Coleman's - Vermiculite, peat moss, compost and top soil. With a small amount of Azomite, phosphate, Coir, greensand and cotton seed meal. Our top soil drains very well and when I water the plants in the raised bed - water does not run out of the raised bed any where. We live near a creek - when we dug for the footings and basement of our home, there was about 12-15"s of top soil - then the soil was very rocky with a low water table and excellent drainage....See Moresquirrellypete
11 years agocugal
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11 years agosquirrellypete
11 years agoSuzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
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