Greenhouse

Brent Dowell said:

The whole vent thing seems a little flimsy to me, but it was working today. Just a little gas piston thing that opens as the temp goes up and down when it cools. If it's cool enough, it's closed. Pretty stiff and hard to move. It will be interesting to see how things hold up in the wind. I'm assuming I'll get pretty good at repairing wind damage.

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Yeah that's a risk for sure! Sort of a trade off, you either hope things don't burn or that the wind doesn't rip things apart When I looked at these they mostly worked based on a wax fill which liquified and expanded when hot... really simple tech (as much as I love complicated control systems.. something to be said for simple/clever).

Brent Dowell said:

On some of the arduino programming sites I've been frequenting it seems as if everyone with a greenhouse and a yen for programming gets the idea to monitor/control aspects of the green house. The aquaponic guys are even worse.

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Hah you should see the homebrewers! Talk about complex control and management systems A lot of the commercially available systems are sadly kind of junk (or at least based on 10 -20 year old technology) and very expensive (yes people sell multi-thousand dollar control systems to HOME BREWERS ) so making your own makes a lot of sense.

I also have a friend who rewired his espresso maker to get the temperature control to < 0.1C on the key parts There are crazy people everywhere

Ryan Mooney said:

Hah you should see the homebrewers! Talk about complex control and management systems A lot of the commercially available systems are sadly kind of junk (or at least based on 10 -20 year old technology) and very expensive (yes people sell multi-thousand dollar control systems to HOME BREWERS ) so making your own makes a lot of sense.

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I used to do 10 gallon full grain mash brewing. I did have "A" pump, that helped to move the liquids around, but never got around to automating things. It's another one of those hobbies I'd like to get back into. Back when I was active in that, there were a lot of guys getting started to automate the process, but I imagine it was quite rudimentary to what can be done today...

Well, I did get the 'pond' filled up and finished off today. Going to get some seedlings started tomorrow, but will be doing that inside for now, and will move them out to the green house in a few weeks.

Brent,

I feel bad, as if I've misadvised you. I *should* have said something about getting water and power out to the greenhouse while you were still in the planning stages. It's pretty important... important enough that I once dug a 300 foot trench to get those two things out there.

I'm also a little worried about something you said... that the inside temperature matched the outside temperature one morning. Two things: are you certain you have a good seal around the bottom? This is so important I used to heap several inches of dirt around the edges, even though I was certain I had a decent seal. Also, those pavers. I can see how they'd be good, keeping it clean and discouraging critters (snakes and mice both love greenhouses). I'm just a little worried they'll form a thermal barrier, preventing the ground heat from flowing up into the house. I've spent more nights than I can count out in the desert, so I know what it's like to lose 4-5 degrees an hour to the clear open sky...

On to pest control. In Houston and Mobile, I used to catch Anole lizards (the locals called them Chameleons), and let them go inside. No big deal if I lost one, I'd just catch another. In your part of the woods, I think I'd do what I did in California: I'd order a praying Mantis egg case. Six bucks on Amazon. You just string them up on thread hanging from the ceiling, and when it gets warm enough for pests, they hatch out. They'll eat more white flies and mealybugs than you can count.

Thanks,

Bill

Bill Lantry said:

I feel bad, as if I've misadvised you. I *should* have said something about getting water and power out to the greenhouse while you were still in the planning stages. It's pretty important... important enough that I once dug a 300 foot trench to get those two things out there.

I'm also a little worried about something you said... that the inside temperature matched the outside temperature one morning. Two things: are you certain you have a good seal around the bottom? This is so important I used to heap several inches of dirt around the edges, even though I was certain I had a decent seal. Also, those pavers. I can see how they'd be good, keeping it clean and discouraging critters (snakes and mice both love greenhouses). I'm just a little worried they'll form a thermal barrier, preventing the ground heat from flowing up into the house. I've spent more nights than I can count out in the desert, so I know what it's like to lose 4-5 degrees an hour to the clear open sky...

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I've known I need to run power and water out there, but doing that is a little more of a long term project. I need to get an electrician out to do a few things, upgrading the box, sub panel for the garage, etc... Until then, It's going to be extension cords and hoses.

As far as a seal around the bottom, no, there was a big gap on one end where the foundation was a little short. I shored that up yesterday so I should be pretty good to go there.

As far as lizards and mantis's go, We've got both of them around here generally. I should be able to get some lizards to live in there easy enough, and finding a mantis around here generally isn't too hard.

I don't think you've steered me wrong...

Well, It's time to revisit this project.

Don't get me wrong, this greenhouse has been fun and useful over the last few years, but I would definitely advice people against buying one of these kits now.

It has held up in some amazing winds here. Certainly winds up to 60+ mph, but the choice of materials has been a disappointement. While one of the attractive features of this kit for me was the clear poly carb panels, they just have not held up. In fact, as I tore it down today, just touching them could cause the side panels to fall apart. The roof panel (twin wall poly carb) have held up very well and are still in great shape. The problem is there's no way to repair the side walls without completely dismantling the green house, so thats what I did.

I purchased some 2'x6' twin wall poly carb panels and am in the process of rebuild the green house with wood. This is probably what I should have done in the first place.

Live and Learn, I reckon.

Anyway, Here is what the side panels looked like. They had gotten all hazy, and it took very little pressure to just poke you finger through them.



And here is where I am at today. I tore the old one down and have started framing up the new greenhouse.



This new one gives me several advantages, as the side walls are now 2' higher. I should also be better able to 'seal' it up to prevent any drafts from entering into the greenhouse.

Also, in the long run, it will be much more easy to repair should any of the side or roof panels fail and need replacement.

Looking good, will be watching this one as I saved our casement windows that were part of the sunroom for the purpose of building a small green house perhaps this spring.

Looks like a good start. Do you drain the water line to the hose bib in the winter? Seems like it'd otherwise be a good candidate for freezing.

Yep, It gets drained. I have a water barrel I keep filled out there to use for watering plants in the winter time.

If you need some help Saturday...let me know!

Have you ever looked at doing a hoop house? 6Mil greenhouse poly is usually good for five of six years, maybe more.
http://nsla.nevadaculture.org/statepubs/epubs/31428003027162.pdf

I've definitely thought about doing a hoop house.

My garden is a series of raised beds. I'm actually thinking of enclosing a couple of those just to get an early start on things.

The greenhouse is mainly for getting plants ready to go in the garden. If this one turns out to stay warmer than the old one, I might try and over winter some plants in there next year.

I have the tube benders (4', 6' and 12' radius) from Johnny's and they work great. You can even make your own bender. I've used both 1/2" and 3/4" EMT and have settled on using the larger EMT for all my caterpillar tunnels, just because it's stronger. Haven't tried the 12' tunnel yet. Johnny's is a good source of ideas, although they are commercial grower oriented. If you nose around their site, there are videos on how the process works.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-1028-quick-hoops-high-tunnels.aspx
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/search.aspx?searchterm=low+tunnels&isusersearch=1

Going to need some pictures of your hoop houses Ted. It would be very tempting to put one up some day. I've watched Elliot Coleman on TV before and our local 'garden show' has had him out to do a hoophouse class before, but That was before I started listening to him.

At any rate, I got the rest of the framing done today.

Next up will be to build the doors and roof vents. Then it's just a matter of putting on the poly carb panels.

Really like the way this is shaping up. Got some braces on the corners as well and this thing is pretty much rock solid right now. Way more solid than the aluminum frame on the old one.

I might not even be scared to be in it during out windstorms!

Very nice Brent looks to me like you have relocated its position. This one sure looks sturdy. The idea of picking up ex windows from somewhere like Habitat Restore it store sounds like a good one for a project like this.

The position and footprint is one of the the things (along with the roof materials ) I'm not changing. Did too much work putting in that foundation and paver floor and fish tank to move it!

One of the things I was trying to figure out was how to reuse the roof vents. The old green house had an aluminum extrusion along the ridge. Part of it's function was to hold the poly carb panels in place.

So here is the peak extrusion. The top part is what clamps the roof panels in place, and acts as a hinge for the roof vents. What I need to do is get rid of the bottom part so I can screw that right onto my wooden roof beam.


Probably lots of ways I could have done it. The table saw just didn't feel right, as there's really no good way safely move the material through the blade.
Didn't want to use my woodworking bandsaw due to the metal shavings, and even though I know I can, didn't want to potentially damage a woodworking blade.

So I pulled out my little hand held metal bandsaw and clamped it up vertical. Wasted a couple of pieces figuring out the best way to make the cut, but got it down. There were extra pieces because the corners of the greenhouse used the same extrusion.



Finished product. This should work well. I'll put some flashing down on the ridge and then screw this on top.

I'd have gone with the angle grinder because I don't have a cute little metal bandsaw like that, that thing is nifty. Which one do you have?

When did you get that little band saw? Brown and I are going to have to have a conversation. He's not keeping his end of the bargain