I have a greenhouse that is basically a plastic tent with a zippered door. Most of the time the temps are reasonable but there are a few weeks in the winter where the temps drop into the 20s. At best I can just keep it from freezing in the greenhouse. I want to grow gesneriads but don't have time or money to buy a light stand for inside the house. Has anyone ever designed some type of enclosed space within a greenhouse where you could more accurately control the temps. I am thinking about a box like structure with a glass top and using a heating cable or pad or something. What do you guys think?
Outdoor greenhouse and Gesneriads
I also want to know the answer to this as I have one also.. Here is a picture of mine...
Susan
Very Nice! Oh how I miss having a greenhouse. I had a really huge @40x20 GH years ago .... it wasn't heated though and we had some pretty cold winters at one point. I finally got tired of having to drag plants out of the GH and into the house and lost too many plants due to the cold and not enough room inside for all of them. So, one spring I had hubby dismantle the thing and got rid of it. I can't believe it! Now that I'm retired I sure would love to have another one - that same size!
Only suggestions I could give is to have it on the south side of your house and if there's any way to run an extension cord to it for lights or a heater of some sort. But, that could be dangerous with extension cords and space heaters .... every winter we hear of fires from that those things ...... and that's inside someone's home! I know citrus farmers use some sort of what I think I've heard referred to as smudge pots on cold nights .... I don't know what the fuel is that is used but of course that is outdoors in the groves too .... there would be no ventilation inside your zippered hot houses!
I can put ventilation in mine but I dont know if I will.. I will not put anything but electric heat in if, if I were to put it in. I more then likely wont... To much money....
Lin would have cost a small child to heat yours...LOL
Susan
I always use the south side where my screened in porch is to over winter begonias and such............because you can add another ten degrees warmer just because it is the south side................I promise you that you cannot afford to try and heat a greenhouse that wasn't constructed to be kept warm..............it would have to be lexan, etc..........and have greenhouse heaters...............
It could cost much less to grow gesneriads on a stand from Sam's Club, Lowes, Home Depot for a hundred dollars..............the light shop fixtures are 8 dollars each from Walmart and the full spectrum light bulbs for each are six and a half dollars.............two bulbs to a fixture..........even if you only have two shelves with a fixture, you could grow a lot of gesneriads...............a lot cheaper than trying to heat a greenhouse.
I may bring my plastic house on to my deck for the winter... I really did not get it to grow for winter but to use to get a jump start on spring....
Susan
I don't know how expensive that poly stuff is at Walmart or somewhere.......you know the same thing a painter throws down.............I am thinking about wrapping my front porch with poly of some kind for the winter.................
Last year we never had an ice storm or snow to speak of... but I wont take the chance with my things I grow... I would put it up on the deck just so I had a place to go and putter with something if I wanted to plant and put in the house...
I don't know what the painter throws down.. but will look it up now...LOL
Susan
I am not talking about a drop cloth.................just the plastic ones (the poly) can hold in a lot of heat..............I am going to get a 12foot width and wrap my whole front screened in porch.............it would let the low south sun come in beautifully ...................
http://hardware.hardwarestore.com/27-112-polyethylene-film.aspx
The clear poly sheeting is fairly inexpensive and would cut the wind and help keep your porch nice in the winter for you and your plants, gessiegail.
thanks for the link............snow.................that is what I need to overwinter all my tropicals...........