Greenhouse Tips & Tricks

[Whistler]

Just bought my dad a 10'x20' greenhouse, it has 12 windows and a door on each end. It has hoop frames and I'll be setting it up on a RV slab I'm not using. Planning to fish small cable through the hoop frames and secure on each side with screw-type earth anchors. I'll be building tables down both sides out of 1"x4"s and using drip irrigation.

Any tips, tricks, warnings from the greenhouse gardeners on here? Things to avoid or things to add? I don't have any experience with greenhouses except hotbeds we used to start our tomatoes and such in and I'd like to maximize success. Appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Can't help, but sounds cool, good luck.

 

[Whistler]

I'll post a pic or two when I get it setup, before Dad craps it up...

 

[baboon]

What are your plans for ventilating it in summer & heating it in winter?

 

[Whistler]

Ventilation via 12 windows, two doors assisted by a 24" barrel fan if needed. Heating via heat lamps and convection heaters as needed (suspect heat lamps will be adequate). Thought about possibly building a solar water heater or two instead to save electricity.

 

[grasshopperglock]

Are you gonna add any supplement lights? Considered a misting system to go along with the drip? Consider hydroponics, its the best bang for the space. It'll increase the amount of crop that can be harvested.


One tool you'll enjoy is either a 1.5 or 3-4 cubic feet cement mixer. It makes quick work of mixing your own soil. Another tool is a Soil PH meter. They range from cheap to expensive. The expensive ones can be found along with golf grass supplies.


Start thinking about a worm box. Worm dirt has micro nutrients and organisms that come in handy. Added to a Soil mix, it starts the process of the breaking down of nutrients. Like blood or bone mill. In a way seasoning the soil.

 

[Whistler]

Haven't considered supplemental lighting but have a few from my time in Colorado... PH meter and familiarity with hydroponics also. Soil mixer and worm box sound like they might be good ideas.

ETA: We already compost, we stopped composted organic waste like leftover food however due to attracting rodents and subsequently snakes.

 

[grasshopperglock]

Haven't considered supplemental lighting but have a few from my time in Colorado... PH meter and familiarity with hydroponics also. Soil mixer and worm box sound like they might be good ideas.

ETA: We already compost, we stopped composted organic waste like leftover food however due to attracting rodents and subsequently snakes.

Hell you got it handled. Lol

I bought a cheap mixer from harbor freight. Mixed up 'super soil'. Bout the only easy way to mix up batches of it.



You need a cat.

 

[Whistler]

Had a cat, owl got it

 

[grasshopperglock]

Lol, that'd explain that.

 

[Lipps]

Last year (2014) I built a 10x10 hoop house/greenhouse out of 1" EMT and covered it with 6 mil poly. I wasn't satisfied with the door system I had, so this year (2015/16) I built end wall door frames on each end.
The doors are quite large and vent quite nicely in the winter. I also placed the greenhouse at the back corner of the house where the dryer vent is located. I extended the dryer duct another couple feet and installed a dryer vent inside the greenhouse. I can quickly attach the duct on cold day/nights and dry a load of laundry to warm up the GH. a couple of loads keeps it very pleasant all night. The air is warm and humid. It does require me to vent the humidity more frequently though.

For summer I can roll up the sides and I have a 12x12 shade cloth. In all, I am pretty happy with the result.

The original metal frame is staked in the ground with twelve 18" rebar stakes. Wind has not been a problem.
Most of the wood I already had. I bought the 2x6's. And yes, I know my door gussets look weirdly large. I was just trying to get rid of an old piece of plywood.
Heavy-duty ground cloth extends well outside the perimeter.
The wall with the dryer vent faces North to Northwest.

 

[grasshopperglock]

That's pretty slick. Are those white table looking things some your bees?

 

[Lipps]

That's pretty slick. Are those white table looking things some your bees?

Indeed, they are. Those are two top bar beehives. My dad built the short one and I built the tall one. Those particular hive boxes are about 9 years old. There are three more hives on the other side of the yard.

 

[Lipps]

Originally (in 2014) it looked like this: (in the first pic you can see the back of the dryer and dryer duct in the window. The duct exits that the back of the house, right there at the corner. Adding a couple of more feet to the duct has not degraded the performance of the dryer at all)

I built this table out of EMT so I would have a nice surface to bend the 10 ft. EMT conduit. Turned out to be useful for other projects as well.

Here I am assembling the frame. You can see more beehives behind the pecan tree trunk. The close one has no bees inside. They absconded the previous season. That's me in the pic -you can tell because I'm smiling.

 

[grasshopperglock]

Are the roof beam connectors store bought or did you make those?

The small section of pipe used to connect the two side pipes? Looks to be welded with a 1/4" rod....

 

[Lipps]

Yeah, I bought those hardware bits from a hoop house supplier in Mineola Texas. http://www.buildmyowngreenhouse.com/index.aspx

They sell benders, hardware, cloth, plastics, etc..
They have pretty good prices and they manufacture most of the hardware bits right there in Mineola. I will say they sell exceptionally good quality TEK screws. Home Depot and Lowes both sell crap quality TEK screws.

I bought the EMT from McCoy's

The peak connector looks like this: (mine is an older one and it is slightly different construction, but the same result)

The side perlin connectors look like this:

and the table hardware looks like this:

and this:

 

[grasshopperglock]

man, that set up....you could use for a family tent. Weekend at the lake...screw that, vacation. Throw a tarp over it and hook it up.



Hmmmm. I knew I liked you Lipps(don't try to cash that, won't get Nutin for it). It was the bee thing. Good construction.

 

[Whistler]

Wow that looks nice! Thanks for the pics Lipps! I really like the dryer vent idea, very creative and just the way I think, unfortunately this one will be located too far from the house for that to be practical. I figure I'm going to need to replace the doors and probably the entire cover after the first year or two and build something similar to those doors. How thick is your plastic and how has that held up?

 

[Lipps]

I used 6 mil poly. I bought it from the greenhouse supply. You can buy 6 mil from home depot/lowes, but it is not the same stuff and will fail much sooner. greenhouse 6 mil will last about 4 or 5 years before replacing. I think if mine were any larger the dryer would not heat nearly as well. Also, my greenhouse is primarily for tropicals. I grow curry leaf trees from India and hope to add drumstick trees this spring. So I need frost protection in winter and shade is nice in summer. Luckily, they like humidity, although I have to vent to control mold, especially in winter.

What kit did you buy? Are the windows in rigid frames? Doors?

 

[Savage805]

Worth a look.