Greenhouse: From Stable to Greenhouse, 0 by AZgrammie

AZgrammie wrote:
And here is the west.

I intended to put bubble wrap under the ceiling and on the south side where the polycarbonate is, but DS doesn't think it is necessary. Hey, I remember last winter and when it gets down to 4 or 0 degrees, I THINK the greenhouse will get colder than it does now, when nights are only down to 20-odd! So far the temp at ground level has been 20, up high about 30.

We have hooked up 100-watt lightbulbs to a timer on an inverter, connected to a solar panel rack and 8 ea 6-volt batteries, hopefully to add heat. The batteries hadn't been used for awhile so we are trying to get them up to speed. So far we can only keep one of the lightbulbs on from 4 am to 7 am, to try to keep the greenhouse temps above freezing, don't think we are there yet with our experimention. I may have to give up on the ight-bulb idea and go to 12V auto heaters, dispensing with the inverter.

I have three dwarf citrus eagerly awaiting being planted in the Big Greenhouse, but I'm afraid to put them out there until I know the temps will not be below 32 degrees.

The overall size of the greenhouse is 10 x 24. I have planted the south side with various lettuce, chard, etc and it is all doing great, directly on the ground. On the north we have seven 55-gallon water barrels and five 35-gallon trash cans full of water. (all have lids.) On top if the barrels we have plywood shelves with pots of tomatoes, mostly seedlings but one big one we transplanted from outside, which so far are doing okay. Seeds of broccoli and beets are coming up. I am SO looking forward to not having to go to town to buy (yucky) lettuce & tomatoes.

I also have planted green beans and peas, and lots more tomatoes, in flats in the Little Greenhouse. I will transfer them to the Big Greenhouse when they are big enough. This time I have marked the flats with the variety names!