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One of the original solar collectors!
In round numbers, the current plan is to have a 30" tall half-wall and a hoop-house of feedlot panels and UV resistant poly film covering.
The footprint will be roughly 10' square (which meshes with the feedlot panels).
The door will be on the east side, which is different than the drawing shown above. the peak of the hoop will run East-West.
The surface of the growing media will be raised up on benches 27" above the ground (2X4 frames resting on three 8" cinder-block high supports) and will be 4'-to-6" deep. The growing media will be held up by a feedlot panel with plastic mesh above it. The next layer will be an inch or so of wood chips (which will not fall through the plastic mesh) and then peat-based growing media.
The grow benches around the perimeter will be 18" in width while the center bench will be 36" to facilitate ergonomic operation.
The project was justified on the basis of being able to supply Romaine Lettuce for the ERJ household kitchen from October 1 until January 1.
Of course, once the benches are producing it is pretty easy to sneak in some green onions and other cool-season salad makings.
In fact, the benches might be installed and the greenhouse built around it afterward.
SO....
I know that I have readers who are ROCKSTARS in using greenhouses effectively (Howard! "E"! "M"! Yes, I am looking at you) to grow food in hostile climates.
I suspect that I have a multitude of readers who are thinking about using a greenhouse to leverage their gardens to produce more food.
Please point out errors in the plan so we don't all step on the same landmines. The mistakes that beginners make are predictable. We have an incomplete picture of how things work. We follow the same logic and we all step into the same open manholes.
Please suggest additional cool/cold season crops that will "hold" well in an unheated greenhouse.
What are some things every greenhouse operator needs to do? Vents? Fans? Shade?
Don'ts?
Any videos that you think are educational and not too painful to watch?
Gawd, its like you can read minds....
ReplyDeleteSeriously, yuks aside, your choice of articles some times would suggest you have your finger on the pulse of your readers.
I have been kicking around a greenhouse idea since I started the hydroponic lettuce in spring (yaknow, if I put a tarp over this...)
No room for the greenhouse on Casa De Bacon.......
ReplyDeleteThoughts that come to mind include footings to hold it down. Poly on a screen sounds like a kite. And plenty of gravel under foot to a) not waste top soil and b) keep watering from becoming a mud pit. Lastly make its position and construction such that you can expand it when you succeed. Bolt certain sections. Roger
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNJnwCbnFX4&t=367s
ReplyDeleteMy experience has shown that growing on tables in a greenhouse doesn't work as well as growing at ground level. If you want to grow in raised beds, see: https://www.youtube.com/@dirtpatcheaven/videos
Look for her greenhouse videos. She is raising veggies thru the winter with raised hotbeds. I think a combination of the hotbeds and the Chinese style greenhouse would be ideal. Raise the greenhouse two feet above surrounding ground and dig out 11/2 feet inside for hotbeds. Build 11/2foot sides around the hole. Fill the beds with the stuff needed for heat and plant.
Bury a hose underground for a water supply. Use 6 mil 4 layer uv rated 6 years will last 15. Paint all steel, or plastic will blacken. also bury power cord with water line, heat tapes ya know. Woody
ReplyDeleteMy husband built a small greenhouse using a dozen or so old windows and building the frames to fit them together. The windows slide open and screens allow air circulation when it gets too hot. Ours is not heated, it’s only to help get an early start on growing the seedlings. Works wonderfully for our purpose. He anchored to the ground or paver blocks to keep it from sailing. The shelves inside are reclaimed wire shelves, which allows light to pass through. Only real drawback is the windows are not suited for load bearing, so we have keep the snow raked off it in the winter.
ReplyDeleteWe also use ours to dry herbs or seeds or anything else as needed.
Southern NH
Rather than benches, consider plastic water barrels as the base for your growing trays. Fill them approximately 80% full of water to allow for expansion when they freeze in deep winter.
ReplyDeleteIf all of the areas shaded green in your drawing were sitting atop hundreds of gallons of liquid THERMAL MASS, you will help keep your plants warmer at night, and cooler during the day/full sun.
Also - double layer of plastic with an air gap in between is key for insulation. I have seen several of the Amish greenhouses down around Homer, Michigan that use a molded plastic spacer between plastic layers (about the size of a milk jug).
The Amish also used water barrels as thermal mass, and a small wood stove was ubiquitous in each and every one.
My last month paycheck was for 11000 dollars…3-4 hours/day ./95 bucks every hour…..> https://www.pay.salary49.com
ReplyDeleteMy greenhouse, 15’ by 12’, moves each year with the crop rotations. That helps to reduce pest and disease build up. Always growing in the soil. Great for raising/holding my bedding plants in spring and then used for my tomato crop and melons for main season.
ReplyDeleteFall lettuce rotation is less successful here in the Pacific NW in the fall due to excessive perpetual cloud cover, but a lettuce/spinach bed can be helped/extended once the tomatoes are done. However we found that sunlight trumps temperature and that is our handicap.
I’d recommend a second door on the other end for max ventilation on those hottest days.
We haven't used them for greenhouses...yet...but we have similar "hoop houses" for our chickens. The wire cattle panels won't make a 10' long house-they are actually 50" high. Our hoop houses are 8'X8'3", and not quite 6' high in the center. Four 8' 2x4 for the base, plus some for making the doors. Wind can move them, a few steel fencepost at the corners should take care of that.
ReplyDeleteI don't think heat will be a big problem that far north but down here in Texas we gotta roll the side walls up in the morning and lower them late afternoon.
ReplyDeleteFred in Texas
As you said, I’m in an area with an adverse climate for warm weather crops with out aid. Normally cole crops, peas, carrots and beets grow fine outside but this year the outside ground I fenced last year to keep moose out of those crops was still too wet to till so aside from my potatoes which are doing fine outside on a different patch, I won’t have any peas and the others will be only those grown in the hoop houses and green house!
ReplyDeleteThe hoop houses are made with chain link top rail bent with a bender I bough from Johnny’s Select Seeds in Maine. Two pieces joined at the top and inserted in half chain link 8 foot posts on four foot centers. I made both of mine 24foot long and parallel with the hard plastic 24foot by 12 foot greenhouse. The 20foot greenhouse grade plastic is attached to the outside planks of the raised beds with lath. Johnny’s sells other hoop options with some other plastic sizes. End walls are plywood with four foot doors and roll up tarp to cover the doors. I have a 30 inch raised bed on each side and a three foot center bed with two foot walkways between. One year I plant my green beans in one center bed and my squash in a side bed of that house. With both ends covered I can keep them warm down to about 22 with a 15000BTU tank top heater. I use IRT with beans and reusable ground cover for squash, and extra early cole crops, drip irrigation all around and plant things like early carrots, beets, lettuce etc with the fabric folded back. You can grow all of those things outside. On a good year we have a frost free period of June 1 through September 1. We have the long day advantage so I try to extend the season into May rather than late September or October when we loose light fast! The hoops would work for you but your idea is fine. I’d use raised beds and wire hoops to support agricultural fabric to extend your frost free. Maybe since you live on grid some grow lights for the shortest days. A fan wouldn’t hurt. I have doors on both ends of all three buildings and rely on natural air flow since we are off grid. I have a wood stove in the greenhouse and put tomatoes, peppers cucumbers in pots and grow bags. The cucumbers are in hanging baskets?
My last month paycheck was for 11000 dollars… 3-4 hours/day ./ 95 bucks every hour…..> www.pay.salary49.com
ReplyDelete