Do I have to heat my greenhouse?

15 years ago

I have a small green house 6x8 (bought from Home Depot on line) in zone 7 9 (RICHMOND,VA) do I have to heat it? We have had mild winters here the last few years. I have read that adding black barrels with water to absorb heat during the day helps keep from droping below freezing at night. FYI, I have 2 Hibiscus plants, a couple of boston ferns and a citrus lemon tree, one cat. orchid plant and a few misc. annuals, ( all these plants go outside during the summer months) What are your thought? Thanks for any response.

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Comments (4)

tsmith2579
15 years ago
I live farther south than you and I am on the zone 7B/8A border. Yes, you will need to heat even if you are just warehousing plants until spring. There are nights it will get down into the teens here. That can cause problem with tender tropicals. Even in the gh is will get into the 20s and that is not frost temps, that is FREEZING temps. The barrel thing may help by a couple of degrees but if all of the passive solar ideas worked, the big gh operations would use them. If you are going to play greenhouse, then you are going to have to put out the $$$ for it. I heat a 22 x 9 ft gh with K-1 kerosene heaters. Here we have maybe 3 nights of freezing temps and a week of 40 degree temps. I spent about $150 on kerosene last winter. I do sell a few items which help pay for my fuel. Good luck! Terry
sandy0225
15 years ago
only if you want to use it in the winter....LOL...
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Nell Jean
15 years ago
Yes. I'm farther south even than Terry. I have four 50-gallon water barrels which moderate temperatures some, but do not keep the temperature above freezing when it's freezing outside. The best you could hope for is 10 degrees difference from outside and when the temps drop into the teens, you couldn't expect that much.

A single night of freezing and your plants are crispy critters. "Mild winters" does not mean that you didn't have some temperatures in the teens in past winters. We did, in zone 8b. I use an electric heater with a kerosene heater for backup.

Your cattleya orchid is expecting to be kept around 50 degrees minimum, I'll bet. I don't do orchids, or extremely sensitive tropicals.

Nell
poppa
15 years ago
Would not even think about catts.
I would think the citrus would be fine.

I was able to grow raddishes, lettuce, carrots successfulling in z5 w no heat and occasional leaf damage. I grew cucumbers as well but any extended freeze would wipe them out. I did have a faucet freeze and burst.

I do keep citrus in an unheated (insulated) garage and seldom see damage unless someone forgets to close the garage door. They can take some pretty darn cold temps. They don't grow much though until taken out in the spring.

There is a grower here in W. Mass who claims to have semi-tropical temps in his GH with no heat. North wall is completely insulated and has a double south wall. there wasn't much in there when i visited so i take it with a grain of salt. Seeing is believing.

Guy in ontario claims to have a gh that is unheated and stays ~ 50F ala "solaroof" design. Last i heard it was not being used due to funds. IMHO, if you're not able to make enough money selling fresh veggies in canada in the winter, then your GH doesn't work as advertised.

Completely depends on what you plan to grow. I have my own experiment going and at the rate i'm building, it'll be 2010 before i'm ready for results. *sigh*

Good luck and play with what you can afford to lose.

Poppa