I decided to take it up a notch and bought a greenhouse on E-Bay. It has the plastic, not the panels. I know nothing about where to place it on my property. We have 2 1/2 acres with about half cleared woodland. Should I wait until fall to set it up? Help!
i heard that the best place is wherever it gets the most sun
Wherever you put it, better anchor it down good. Looks like one good wind would blow that one all the way to the coast.
Ideally you want to find a place that in the summer gets morning sun and afternoon shade and all day sun in the winter. Otherwise, in summer you will have to invest in shade cloth.
X
This message was edited Jun 8, 2008 9:07 PM
How do you keep the plants in the green house from cooking in the summer? I've been in big ones with shade cloth and large fans but those seem to be a pretty big production.
Previous years I used double shade cloth, kept the vents wide open and am able to wedge a window screen into the door so I can keep it wide open. This year, the trees on the NE side of it have grown enough to give it good shade until 3pm and they lose their leaves in winter.
I also let the roof panels get dirty (I clean all the panels inside and out around the middle of October) .. that helps in filtering the sun. I find as long as I keep vents and door open, water a lot, humidity high (70+) by watering the floor and keep tender plants out of direct sun it can get over 100 degrees in the greenhouse and the plants don't care. My hoya think they are in heaven, I've never seen them look so good along with my yearling canna I've grown from seed. Ghost plant is happy too and pregnant onion is flowering!
X
i just leave the door open and put shade cloth over mine, and have the vents open... it works pretty well
There's a whole lot more to growing things in a greenhouse than just the structure itself, rhsundblad! Orientation is key. Don't know where Easley is, but I oriented mine East-West, with a largely deciduous "forest" to the west and north of it. I thought this would protect it from spring/summer high temps. It doesn't. No amount of shade can protect against spring/summer sun. I move all plants out in May, "button-up" the GH, and let it overheat itself (it's reached 130 degrees in there---as high as my thermometer measures). But it seems to kill most problems that have developed during the previous growing season (white flies, mites, aphids, etc.) without the use of chemicals. You need to visit the Greenhouse Forum on DG...lot of people have gone through the hoops you're jumping through now, and they're more than willing to share
Cooking the GH probably is a good way to get rid of anything. Once you hit 130 not much can live through that.
New to the site, so did not even know that there was a "greenhouse forum". Duh! My husband says that I am getting a little OCD about gardening. My mailbox is flooded with catalogs from nurseries, etc. I think that I am going to "pitch" my greenhouse behind my shed. It would have a long side with southern exposure and the other long side up against my shed. I think I will try to anchor it somehow to the shed on that side. I will also have access to power and water there so I can set up a misting system, as well as heat and ventilation. I didn't want to invest a lot of money into a greenhouse, until I am satisfied that I will use it enough to justify the investment. Thanks for all the advice. This is the greatest place ever!
The only bug that seems to "survive" the super-heating treatment is spider mites, Core HHI, but I don't think they really survive---I think I inadvertantly bring them in on the plants in the fall---in spite of blasting them with the hose then soaking them with Safer Soap. Mites are a real problem in the GH. Only thing I can recommend is to watch for the first signs of them early, then over-react. Soak EVERYTHING in the GH with whatever you're comfortable with, and keep doing it until you move the plants out in the spring. Otherwise, they simply take over!
rhsundblad,
I want to add this to the greenhouse discussion ... Mine that I had in Ohio was oriented north to south. Looking at the shade cloth prices, I decided to opt out for the "dog kennel shade cloths" at Meyer's ( a discount store). Of course there was no price on the one I wanted, so I waited for the unfortunate verdict. Fortunately, the price was stated as $10.00 so I hurried on my merry way to the cash register to pay THEIR price.
It stayed on the greenhouse until winter. While it really didn't keep it cool, it did provide some shade and I kept bird seed in plastic tubs in there, used pots & trays, & other suppies that I was too lazy to move. I was told that the only way to get the greenhouse cooler was to put some type of shade cloth also inside the greenhouse (like on the inside under the roof). That would have involved too much work for me and how to rig something like that up, so that one was a NO for me. There IS a scientific principle (which I forget) that makes sense about putting the shade cloth on the inside.
My greenhouse also had at least one heat extractor (don't know its real name right now). It takes heat right out the ends of the structure and a fan that would come on automatically. I will look up the link to the post I had in the greenhouse forum where I described it.
Now if you use it in the winter, you have to have another source for heating in the winter. I don't have a greenhouse here in NC. 8-(((
Karin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
P.S. Personally, I would think that the cooler temperatures like in Ohio would be easier to deal with, now that I know how hot it gets down here. Does anyone want to state a scientific principle about having shade cloth, etc. inside the greenhouse to make it cooler?
Here is a picture of the shade cloths I use on my gh .. Since the back side is shaded by trees, I only have the front side which gets the sun covered. I haven't put them on this year since the highest it's gotten in there this year is 100. Notice the vents are wide open and the window screen on the door. I still have lots of plants in it and they are doing just fine. Geranium, pregnant onion (which is blooming), Cereus cactus, Hoya, Rain lily (they are toddlers, just a year old grown from seed), Canna babies, Violets, Succulents like Ghost Plant, Morning Glory, Banana pup, Birds Nest fern, Spider Plants, Oxalis and lots more. They all like the heat and no one is showing signs of stress. As long as there is air circulation you are ok .. by leaving the door open and the vents open.
Mine face roughly Southeast/Northwest. Also notice that it is tied down with mobile home augers. I have my shed tied down with those too. I also clear it out in late Spring, pull all the weeds and pick up dead leaves then spray the gravel floor with bug killer/fungicide at a slightly higher rate than you use for plants. I used to solarize it by closing it up but found that it encourages algae to grow inside the panels which have air spaces.
Forgot to add that the shade cloth most definitely reduced the temperature in there. I only start using the shade cloth when the temps stay above 100 for longer than a few hours.
X
This message was edited Jun 15, 2008 8:35 AM
Your shadecloth appears white, Xeramtheum...mine was black, when I tried it. Does yours have any kind of reflective coating on it? I'm wondering if my total lack of success with shade cloth could be because the black shade cloth absorbed so much heat and kept it so close to the roof that it actually transferred heat to the GH rather than dispersing it?
Mine is a cream color and is somewhat shiny .. coupled with letting the roof panels get dirty, they filter the light enough to drop the temp in the gh 10 degrees or better. I've never understood why people would use black shade cloth for the very reason you mentioned. I got mine, there are 2 pieces from lowes.
X
Here's my reasons for using black shade cloth, X: It was recommended by the purveyor of the GH(and I'd never had a GH before, so was totally susceptible); it was readily available and relatively inexpensive; and I'd seen it used on most professional GH's in the local area, so I figured it must be the way to go. It wasn't, at least for me. I need a shade cloth that reflects HEAT, not light. I need all the light I can get (because of the southwest, west, and north tall shade trees). Until I find the magic bullet, emptying the GH in May seems the most easy(?) and effective solution. I could put a cooler in, but that would involve a whole lot of work and $tructural change, so I opted to just move things out of the GH during the "killing months" (June-Sept). Seems to work...even if it's a lot more work!
