Greenhouse question
luvncannin
7 years ago
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Comments (14)
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
7 years agoluvncannin
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Greenhouse Questions for beginner
Comments (11)It's not difficult but there's a learning curve. I fed my family of three and sold fresh greens in a 22 x 48 greenhouse all of last winter. You don't have to heat the greenhouse - you're better off if you don't. You need to learn what will grow and can be harvested in an unheated greenhouse. I bounce between zones 4 and 5. The greenhouse will add another half zone to bump you up to 6a. A layer of heavy duty row cover on hoops will bump you up to 6b. Don't try to grow tomatoes, peppers and other warm season crops in an unheated greenhouse in winter. You'll need to grow cold weather greens and root crops. Growth stops here around mid December and doesn't start again til about the end of the first week in February when the sun has gotten a little higher. During the time greens and roots aren't growing you can harvest fresh vegetables. You'll need to get your plants and seeds in with plenty of time for them to get established before they stop growing. The closer you get to December the slower the plants are going to grow. I'll transplant seedlings in September and October. Seeds will go in sometime in late August as space allows. Carrots, beets and turnip can be harvested in the winter. Tatsoi, bok choi, beet greens, cold weather lettuces and spinach are easy to grow in an unheated greenhouse. Eliot Coleman's book Four Season Harvest is essential. I'll link to it below. While you're on that website, take a look at the photo gallery! Winter Harvest Manual Four Season Harvest Good luck!...See Moregreenhouse question
Comments (21)can you explain about using water heater? or point me to where I can read about it? TIA. Rina %%%%%%%%%%%%% Water heater ? You can use a water heater like an old boiler to circulate hot water in a closed loop through baseboard. But it will be too involved: Need baseboard, piping, circulation pump, thermostats. But If I were going to make a decent greenhouse I would look into installing few solar panel water heater, with a pump and a storage tank. This way you can store solar heat during the day to heat the greenhouse at night(even during cold days) almost free. This will need some initial investment but it should have a short payoff time in your zone 5a. The only electricity used will be to run two very small circulator....See MoreIndoor Greenhouse questions
Comments (1)"Just ordered a hygrometer and wondering what the optimal humidity setting should be? " The desirable humidity varies with temperature, and the plant types being grown. See link below. Here is a link that might be useful: greenhouse humidity...See Moregreenhouse question
Comments (14)If I ever decide to plant in the ground inside the greenhouse, I'll have to move the greenhouse inside one of the fenced garden plots in order to keep our cats out. That first year, or maybe the second year, we built raised beds along one side and I was going to grow stuff in them in winter, but the cats thought I was building them a nice warm kitty cat outhouse with big, deep beds of enriched soil. That put a halt to me growing anything in there. We moved those beds to the big garden, one wheelbarrow load of soil at a time. The cats don't bother the plants or the soil in containers in the greenhouse, but they wouldn't leave the raised beds alone. Our greenhouse is sort of at the bottom of a slope because our neighbor's land to the south of the greenhouse is higher than our land, and that would be an issue almost anywhere on our property as their rain runoff mostly all runs downhill towards us. So, a little water stands there by the greenhouse (more outside of it than inside of it) when we have heavy rain, but we don't have heavy rain very often. Our clay soil doesn't drain quickly but we are always so rain-starved that I don't mind having a little standing water. It beats tripping over the cracks in the ground when no rain is falling. Before we built the greenhouse, its site was a weedy mess, so the greenhouse sure was an improvement over what was there before. I always thought I'd have a paver or gravel walkway in there but we never got around to putting in that walkway and I discovered it works fine with just plain old soil under mulch. I was out in the greenhouse for a while yesterday and today and it is like walking into spring in the middle of winter. I really didn't want to leave it and come back into the house. Dawn...See MoreAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
7 years agoluvncannin
7 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
7 years agomulberryknob
7 years agomulberryknob
7 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
7 years agomulberryknob
7 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
7 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
7 years agomulberryknob
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agomulberryknob
7 years ago
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Okiedawn OK Zone 7