what would you do different with a 2nd greenhouse?

well we just bought a new house and hubby said i could get a new greenhouse instead of trying to move the one at the old house. so now i am going to do some things different. the first of which will be to make it larger......but how much bigger....i got plenty of room....just over 3 acres

the one i have now at the old house is a 12X24 hoop house i got from farmtek....we did put wood ends on it to hold the door and the exhaust fan


i am thinking about getting the next one with straight lines instead of being hoop so it will make it easier to have the wood ends for stability

like should i go with the pull over plastic or or the sheets of poly?

the more i type the more i begin remember how i said i would do this next time and so on...lol

any thoughts on how you would or would have done it differently would be greatly appreciated

thanks in advance
cindy

Isn't rule number one "buy the biggest one you can afford"? LOL I don't think I ever heard anyone say their greenhouse is too big.

I'd go for all the bells and whistles I could afford-exhaust, heater, mist system, thermometers with relay to the house so I'd know if there was a problem, etc.

I'm glad you are getting a new one! Let us know what you end up with. :)

Here's what I would do differently:

1) rainwater collection system...gutters, draining into the GH...to add thermal mass and so that I wouldn't have to use my hard well water on sensitive plants...

2) a partially buried cistern, to store the rainwater

3) better R-value for the glazing

4) a second exhaust fan

5) more HAF fans...I think that the standard formulas for calculating HAF fan needs FAR underestimate what is needed...I have seen substantial reductions in GH diseases since I retrofitted my original two with an additional three HAF fans.

I'm sure that there are more...

SB

dropping in to this forum for the first time!- i wish i was building another greenhouse- but there is one feature of my Northern Lights kit greenhouse that i swear, if i didn't have, i would kill all my plants- ventilation windows that open passively all by themselves when the temp inside is too warm- they have these ingenious bees wax pumps that push the windows open, then close them when it gets cool. i can only imagine how many times i would have fried my plants, or run the heater into the ground if i didn't have these windows! of course, i guess these wouldn't apply for hoop construction... have fun- what i would definitely want is more SPACE!

oh wow.....never heard of vents like that......i will do some checking

i have only looked so far at the new farm tek book i got.....i will do more checking online and see what i can find..

thanks
cindy

Oh yes! The automatic roof vent openers I have are life savers!

I have a 8.5X16.5 and wish I had gotten a bigger one. Also I wish I would have insisted on placing it in a better position. (That would have required moving the shed). Its great in the summer but wish it got a little more sun in the winter. The automatic vents are a must in my zone 9 (even in the winter). Just my experience.
Linda

I love my GH. With the kind of weather we have been having it hasn't costed much to heat it. I am now knocking on wood. But yes buy the biggest you can and with all you can get.

I forgot to add if I had it to do over, I would have fixed mine to where it would be taller like Badseed, cause you can use all the height you can get. I really do like having mine next to the house that way it doesn't get any North wind.

I would have put a fogger in , instead of the misting system I have and I would have put better venilation in it.

Jerodsmom, you can retrofit. Check out the Jaybird Aquafog 400. I'm thinking about adding this unit myself.

I remember reading about an orchid greenhouse grower who used both a mister and a fogger.

SB

tell me about the reason for a fogger?....i do know i will sure do better air circulation..i get mites from time to time and i think it is because of the air flow.....i have got to get busy on a new one...i went up to the old house and watered.....im so unhappy with the way my plants are doing......but i do think they enjoyed my attention to them today...and my cacti look great...lots are blooming, but others are not so happy.......lol

cindy

Yes, mites are from low humidity and decreased air flow. I set up a small oscillating fan in my center bed because I was getting spider mites on the bananas, and they are much reduced now.

I know what you mean about unhappy plants. I have a Key Lime that I repotted and since then it has done nothing but drop leaves. I'm afraid she's checking out. Back to the fogger...

The fogger does a couple of things. It works as an evaporative cooler and a humidifier. A true fogger sends out water droplets less than 10 microns in size. These droplets will generally not drop out of the air, thus it is called "dry fog." With droplets of this size, you can get the humidity way up.

Droplet size 20-30 microns is called "wet fog." Mist, on the other hand, is droplets in the 30-60 micron range. Spray is droplet size over 60 microns. Droplets in this size range can fall out of the air. Obviously, the larger the droplet size, the more likely the droplets are to fall out. Misters cool people off because the fine droplets fall on your skin, evaporate, and in the process of evaporation, cooling occurs. The Aquafog average droplet size is 35 microns, sort of in-between. Jaybird has a noisier fogger with average particle size of 5 microns.

It is the evaporation process that cools. When the humidity is high, less evaporation occurs and cooling is less efficient. If you want to cool, you have to have the HAF and exhaust fans running or you will saturate the air with water vapor from the fogger and loose any further evaporative cooling effect.

3790g water in a gallon
Evaporation of 1g water absorbs 540 calories
250 cal = 1 BTU
Aquafog uses up to 2 gal/hr

Therefore an Aquafog on high can give you up to 16242 BTU/hr of cooling effect.

My big reservation with foggers has been the fact that I have hard well water. When this evaporates, it leaves behind that lime or other calcium residue. I'm told that with a fogger this residue doesn't stick like it would if the water were allowed to evaporate on a surface. Rather, it settles out as a dusty residue that can be wiped off the plants. If I get one, I may still use RO or rainwater, just to be safe.

Hope that helps. SB

so where do i find these foggers?and misters...i think i might check out both

stressbaby, you are in about the same area as me.....im just south of sedalia

would the mister and or fogger work nicely with softened water?....we are on well water but we have a softener....so i need input on when hooking up a mister/or fogger if i should use the softened water for that...then hook up my faucett that i will use for 'watering' straight to the well

at the old house where my old greenhouse is, it is well water(but its treated, but not softened)

i hope i havent been to confusing about that...lol

cindy

Hi Cindy,

Try the Jaybird website for the Aquafog:
http://www.jaybird-mfg.com/Aquafog400_desc.asp
I'm sure there are others, but the Aquafog always seemed to be the most popular on GW.

Misters, well you can do lots of different things. I've known people to equip the GH with misters that you find in the lawn department at Home Depot. I tried that and the spray was too coarse, I didn't like it. I use the same misting nozzles I use on my propagation bench, just perched overhead. I got mine from Hummert in Earth City. You can order online at www.hummert.com. Minimum order is $50, but they have everything you could imagine for the GH. I got my climate controller and my misting controller from them and I love them both.

Softened water should work fine, but instead of using sodium chloride, get the potassium chloride salt. The softener doesn't care which salt you use, but the plants will. You can get KCl salt at Home Depot for sure, probably other places as well.

One other thing, you need about 20 feet of space for a fogger. You should be OK, Cindy, but I'm told that they won't work well in a 6' x 8' GH.

Let me know if you need any help at hookup time. Also, for you and Jerodsmom, if you have overhead misters in place, it's easy to get a simple emergency backup system for power loss if you want to make another easy installation. Let me know if you want more details on that, too.

SB

stressbaby...thanks for the info

i plan on checking the sites out

and i do plan on making my gh bigger than 6X8....my current one is 12X24 so the next one will be bigger for sure....just got to decide how much bigger....lol

thanks
cindy

I figured you wouldn't make your next GH smaller ;-) SB

New outdoor gardener here. I bought a greenhouse today at Lowe's for $40. It's basically just a 5-shelf planter (3 feet wide, 20 inches deep, shelves can be adjusted to all heights) with a zippable plastic enclosure-covering so when it rains the plants (yet to be bought) won't get flooded. Oh, my garden-to-be will be on a raised deck. It also has a large awning but I will still get east and south light. So it's not a real GH where I need fans and systems but it sure feels wonderful to have this wonderful shelf space that will be protected from wind and rain. This is just the beginning because I still have another 30 feet of space for my garden. Indyfilmz

The one thing I would insist on would be a thermostatically controlled vent. It was a lifesaver on the first greenhouse. Jessamine

brommon
Do you have any plans for your old greenhouse? I need a greenhouse so bad but I can't afford one. Plus I'm a paraplegic and must use a wheelchair to get around. That chair is so wide, I'm going to need atleast 3 foot wide pathways just to get through it. I'd need 4 foot rows if I needed room for a U-turn. Can you imagine how much growing space I'll be forced to waste just for walk ways? I can and it makes me sick;)
Anyhow, I've been looking for an old hoop house or any kind of frame work as a place to start. If your old greenhouse is still around, I sure would appreciate a shot at trying to buy it from you. I know it's a longshot but I figure asking can't hurt.
I hope your pre-planning for your new house goes great and works out like you want.
Good luck and thanks,
JD

i will talk to my hubby...it will greatly depend on what i do with it after we get ready to sell the property and if the realtor says it may add value to the property....in the little town the property is in, i will need all the added value i can get...but i will surely keep you in mind...:)

cindy

Cindy
Thank you for just considering the idea. I completely understand and I'm betting it could add value to the right buyer.
I hope everything goes well with your transition;)
Jeff