Would like to see Pics of your greenhouse, : )

I like it! Are you using it to keep the peppers warmer or cooler, or is it to deal with insects. Tell us more!
Welcome to Daves!
I grow regular tomatoes in a greenhouse commerically.
Bernie

Hi, I actually use it to keep it warmer and save the plants from heavy rains that hit me in July-August !! But prior to that its used to keep it cooler from the high temps ... I also grow tomatoes in open fields but only the chery tomato variety . Do you also grow that commercially and if yes could you give me more details about which variety, yields per plant that u get, etc ?

Ill be waiting to hear from you ..

Cheers

Welcome to DG, khaadu75! You have an amazing setup. Very neat and organized beds.
:) Donna

edder, Really good looking greenhouses. You being located in Deer Lodge I can understand why you sre not trying to keep the ghs warm this time of year. Even with my little 14 x 10 gh costs me plenty to keep warm. Okay now, but when we were setting lenghth of cold earlier, was making my little heater run all the time. We did not have temp. getting anywhere near 32 degrees , day or night, for the first 3 weeks of Dec. Now is rainy and warmer than normal. Rained of all our frozen snow and i think most of frost gone out of ground too.

What all do you grow and where do you sell. Nice to see your photo too. DonnaS

Welcome khaadu75. Good looking gh you have built. Looks like bales of straw or hay that your plants are sitting on. What are you using. How do you heat when necessary. Good wishes for your success in commercial growing. DonnaS

Hi Rutholive, I think you got that slightly wrong .. Its a mix of sand and mud from the pine forest near my place and not straw !! As for the heating .. so far I don't heat the GH as I start planting in Mid March or end March depending on the weather .. after that till Mid sept it is very hot so the sides are rolled up and there is a substansial control on the temp inside. By the time it starts getting cold which is in Oct end .... I just empty the GH and give it rest for next season .

I don' grow in winters as at that point of the year the rates for all vegetables are very low and not enuff for me to be slogging .. I leave that part of the year to blow up the money I make in summers !!! One's gotta party u know ..

Any idea of forums like this but for green house growers ?? Pls let me know

Cheers

RuthOlive,

Normally I run the GH's through Christmas by growing poinsettias - which get started in July - but this year I decided not to grow any. I had several reasons for this, but the main one was the cost of heating. And am glad I decided to give myself a break this winter. These darn power companies continue to raise rates for one excuse after another. Natural gas has gone up 40% since Jan 1, 2005....and they're raising rates again on 1/1/06. Believe they need to cut some executive pay to make up the difference. Ever since deregulation went through here, we've taken it in the shorts.

Otherwise, I grow all sorts of stuff....from perennials (which I'm selling on line now and through this site), annuals, hanging baskets, color bowls, trees, shrubs, garden hard goods, garden-type ornaments, etc. I have so much stuff at times I wonder how I can keep up with it. But, I love it. I'm basically about the only GH/Nursery in the area that carries quality plant material/products and has as much as I do. Folks come in from miles away. So it's been pretty neat to watch things 'grow' to say the least.

Wow, awsome greenhouses. I want one but have to wait til
spring.

In mean-time, I found a glass showcase (like jewelry is kept
in at the stores) at an auction. I dragged it home and put it
out on back patio............as DH groaned. It has glass top,
front and sides with the sliding doors in back. It's probably 8'
long, and has glass shelf inside. Looks like it might be great
for starting seeds, as it really gets the sun. I open the back
sliding doors for ventilation, and have a couple of the old
fashioned food warmer trays for heat. Can just plug them into
outlet on patio.

Sounds crazy, but you know how gardeners are, we sit
around all winter dreaming up ways to grow something. Come
up with some pretty funny ideas sometimes.

In our area, lots of the antique stores are giving it up, so
we see these showcases for sale every so often, cheap.

I started my cold weather crops in it, broccoli, lettuce, onions.

Probably too early, but we'll see. They're up and looking
good so far.

No one else bid on this case at auction.......... so I got it for a
whopping $ 2.00.

A mini-mini greenhouse. Don't have a scanner on puter, wish
I could post pics. Maybe daughter will do it on hers for me.

Greetings ~
khaadu75, there is a forum for Market Growers here:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/market/ It isn't specifically for "green house" growers, but you might find it an interesting place to hang out.

Peggie

You could always grow a Chia Pet........(*bad deann, going to stand in the corner now*)

Peggy,
Not an odd idea at all.
I currently have a 5' Ball Python in a case like that.
Yours is FAR bigger and you can't the price! lol

Ric

Peggie - Great idea -- I would do that myself! You could even put a room humidifier in there to keep the humidity up. The possibilities!
Rj

have 4000 sq ft plasiic house--

I'm not a new member, but I don't post much. This is my 23' x 20' Grand Hideaway GH.

I recently rebuilt this bench. Here are some new guava, citrus, mango, and some other stuff.

This is the center bed. The Musa basjoo have sent too many leaves into the roof, so they have been removed and replaced with Dwarf Cavs. The center bed also has Dwarf Orinoco, Lychee 'Brewster', white BOP, and some other stuff. Jasminum nitidum and J. polyanthum are being trained up each trellis. The bananas are underplanted with coffee, and this spring I intend to add some heliconias and gingers. SB

SB great gh. How do you keep it cool enough in the summertime ? I don't use mine in summer as too difficult to keep cool enough in our 85 to 100 degree summer days.

Your new bench is very good looking. I see you have gravel floor area. Mine is poured cement, I'm thinking about using pea gravel over the cement.

DonnaS

I used gravel because I needed drainage for the raised beds in the GH. Also, I didn't want electrical conduit going this way and that overhead, so I buried the conduit under the gravel. There are a series of perforated drains buried deep in the gravel; they exit through the foundation wall, connect to the footer perimeter drain, and drains out to daylight.

Cooling is accomplished through a combination of 50% Aluminet shade cloth, roof ridge vent, exhaust fan, and overhead mist system. The shade cloth is suspended on a 3/8" galvanized pipe framework that runs the perimeter of the eave. The pipe is visible in the top right corner of the third pic above. The shade cloth slides up and down this frame. There are 3/16" garage door cables to support the shade cloth, and the misting system hangs from these cables.

How does your shade cloth slide up and down. This is my first year with a green house. I have the clear panels like yours on the east side. With the warm temperatures I see that some of my plants are distressed and their leaves are beginning to burn. I am able to regulate the heat but not the morning sun beaming in. We may have a low of 35 but by 8am it is 50 and can be 70 by 9am. I do not plan to use it this summer but am housing my pot plants for the winter. I have posted pictures of the greenhouse a month or so ago if you would care to see what I am referring to.

Raggins, nice plants. What is your roof material?

I really like the shade cloth, it could help you on that east side. Mine is attached to the pipe simply by plastic ties through the gromets. I just push it up or down with a stick. In the winter I bundle it up at the east and west eaves and I just leave them there til spring.

You could use shade cloth on your east side just like a curtain. I've considered the same thing, but I like looking out of the GH into the yard.

SB, Very nice green house, spacious. Is your shade cloth located then on the inside?

Raggins - I left a message on the Papaya thread.. Good luck

Rj

SB the roof in metal. My greenhouse is an extention of my husbands shop. It is insulated on the top. I have not had to heat for a few weeks but have used a propane heater. In fact since this is all new I went through alot of propane. I was trying to keep everyone beautiful instead of alive.

Rj, thanks.

Yes, my shade cloth is on the inside. Every spring on the GW forum we would go through this debate...shade cloth on the inside or on the outside? For me, the answer was easy...I get too much wind to have a shade cloth on the outside. My shade cloth system on the inside works fine, but IMHO, if using shade cloth inside, you need to use Aluminet or a similar product.

Okay..does that help prevent detioration?

Ragins.....for an easy fix, try a thin frost cloth- it still allows bright sun.
Rj

Rj, I am not sure what frost cloth is. Will it roll up?

Rj, I don't know whether it delays any deterioration from the sun. In my location, the wind would rip up a shade cloth long before the sun would damage it. SB

The cloth would be on the inside of the GH.

Yes, I was thinking on the inside, for a temporary thing until you figure out what you want to do...They are very light material designed to keep frost off you plants during a freeze. I have a whole bunch of them.
Try this link http://www.brackengardens.com/store/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=466

Thanks Rj. I have them ordered.

WOW, Reading this thread sure brings back memories.
My dad and I built my first and only Greenhouse when I was a teen ager.
A redwood kit I mail ordered from Oregon. (Some assembly required) It even had an automatic roof vent.
I heated it with an old kerosene burner my folks used in their old apartment in the 1940s. I'd have to run home from high school to light it on sunny Winter days. A 25 minute walk.
Sorry about the picture quality but they were taken with an old Brownie. The exterior shot was taken from my bedroom window.
I only use a cold frame now.
Andy P

Wow looks like an old catalogue shot.
Nice GH there.

Any idea what the cost of it was back then?

Ric

Ric, I think the Kit was $195 and dad had to go to the train depot to pick it up, he was not happy about that.
It came with a redwood skirt but we had to build a 3 ft cement block foundation for the actual kit framework to sit on.
The entire set up was about $300. Lots of money for a 15 year old who worked part time for 90 cents an hour.
Andy P

Your welcome Ragins...I've used them in my green house..works like a charm.

Pricey for then but a handsome unit.
What a GREAT project.
Just think the heater would be that much now. lol!

Ric

It seemed fairly priced to my limited experience. It had special 'greenhouse' glass also. Never had one pane break.
The heater was another matter. The flame went out one morning and there was thick, black soot all over everything.
Andy P

Hey Vicky, wanted to post a pic of my greenhouse I just finished at the house in town where I will have my nursery set up. I am proud, yep I really love it! Tanarae

Another of the benches inside

The entire thing cost about a thousand dollars to build. The benches were about another 150 bucks. So I think I did pretty good. I am going to add a narrower second tier to the benches and widen the center bench by 2 more feet. I should have lots of room in there then. Tanarae

Your GH looks marvelous. Where is Lipan?