Harbor Freight 10x12 Greenhouse installed Evaporative Cooler

I have now added a cooler to my greenhouse
prior to this addition the greenhouse was not useable in the summer
Our tempurature in Sacramento is above 100 degrees often
when it is that hot the greenhouse is above 115 even when covered with 60% shade cloth

The cooler costs around $300 at home depot
the motor and electrical cost me another $100 for parts

today the greenhouse was 75 degrees while it was 100 degrees outside
see the pictures on my website at http://www.rader.org/garden/cooler.htm

What is the ideal high temp for a greenhouse ?

It depends on what you're growing--some tropicals like it hot and you might not get a lot of growth and flowers out of them at 75 degrees. I'd say in the 80-90 degree range most plants would probably do OK. Hopefully someone else who knows more about this will chime in too, but those are my thoughts.

Thank you for your quick response !

My next challenge is heating the greenhouse

If you have a greenhouse, do you heat it and what heat method do you use?
I hear the oil filled electric heaters do very well?

You're not that much colder than me in the winter, I just have a fairly small electric heater, paid about $50 for it from one of the greenhouse supply places. It's not oil filled, just a regular electric heater and it did fine, kept my greenhouse at about 45-50 degrees overnight except when we had that really cold snap, then it got down into the 30's for a couple nights (I also had big air gaps underneath the greenhouse--it's built on a slight slope, so on one end I had about a foot tall gap, tried to fill it with things as best as I could be it was definitely not airtight). My GH is only 5x9 so you'd probably need something a little more powerful than what I had.

Search through the many past threads on this forum. You will find a wealth of information.

The weather is hot, 2 days in a row above 105
the cooler has the table with the plants below 90

the humidity is up higher than normal
normally the cooler will drop the temp 20 degrees

how hot is it in your greenhouse today ?

Sounds like it's working fine. We've had quite a few days over 100 this Summer and the greenhouse usually stays under 100 with the humidity going up from 20% outside to about 40% inside. I'm using misting but the precess is the same. It's a beautiful 62 degrees here this morning - a sure sign that Fall is coming.

It has been over 110 here for the past couple of days. My greenhouse temps have stayed under 96 with the humidity hovering around 69 -73%. I've been using an evaporative cooler for the past 4 summers, works great. During the winter I use a electric heater, and the temps stay around 55 - 60. My greenhouse is 6mm, 9 x 12.

Blessings,
Awanda

Awanda, if you were growing strictly cacti and succulents in your greenhouse, do you have any thoughts about how happy they would be with 69-73% humidity during the summer months? And, do you use an exhaust fan in addition to the evaporative cooler...or just the evap cooler alone?

I'm still trying to figure out the best cooling plan for my HFGH 10x12. 103° is usually the max for us here, so you have us beat! Sheri

Hi Sheri,

I'm not quite sure I understand your comment about growing strictly cacti and succulents:-). Are you asking if that's what I grow or would they be okay with that much humidity if you decided to grow them in a gh?

I grow hoyas and some tropicals. I don't have an exhaust fan, just an open window. My gh is situated between two large trees and it only receives filtered sun most of the day.

Blessings,
Awanda

Hi Awanda,
Thanks, and sorry to be unclear! Yes, I was asking if you thought that much humidity would be too much for cacti and succulents (I had it in my fuzzy memory that you grew cacti as well as your beautiful hoyas and tropicals!) My greenhouse will be used entirely for cacti and succulents, so I'm on the hunt for the best solution for those plants in particular.

Our average humidity here is only around 27%, and I believe that's averaging in our humid monsoon season. The rest of the year we're dry as toast, and my plants seem to like it that way (most of 'em.)

Your plants look very happy in your nice greenhouse! I'm glad to know the evap cooler has worked so well for you...I'm still kicking it around! :-)
Sheri

Ok, I understand now. I do grow cactus and succulents, but they are all outside, happy and growing:-).

Blessings,
Awanda