Getting started with a greenhouse...links

Good Morning all!! I am happy with the collapsible greenhouse I bought on E-bay. 7X12. It is not heated and learned to cover plants with light plastic when temp. goes below 40. It got sun before leaves came out in trees, but now has shade and gets only about 4-6 hrs of sun. Not bad because I don't worry so much about cooking my plants. It has a zipper door and roll up windows on the side. Cost about $100.
Plan to start planting next week if we have warmer nights. Saw the $$ of vegetable plants and know I have saved enough to pay for the greenhouse and future years will be free...hopefully will take it down for June 1. Zone 5 here but this weather is just up and down!! I do like being able to go inside standing up or sitting and replanting and leaving my messy droppings on ground. I would recommend this one!

We bought our greenhouse through an affiliate, but it came from Poly-Tex

http://www.poly-tex.com/

They sell all sorts of supplies like shadecloth, film, lights, etc. The shadecloth was the cheapest I've found for sewn edges with grommets (very sturdy, and easy to put up)

I can't say enough about their customer service. We had a step by step instruction book, but we were still on the phone with them almost every day (we put it up ourselves). Their patience was amazing.
During construction we had 2 sets of visitors, so we stopped work for about 3 weeks- the customer service guy worried when we stopped calling- and he called us to make sure we were OK and hadn't fallen off a ladder or something.

I can't recommend them enough!

Hi lakeside, sounds like you got a great greenhouse!
I know the plastic may look weak but am sure it will hold up great..
My covering was green with small lines running through to diffuse the light and it also made it easier...Gerldine ::)

Hi Gerldine,
It sounds like you got a great greenhouse and it is in a perfect location.

Hello Fellow Gardeners,

This seems the best site and email to start the planning for a greenhouse. In my case we have just moved to northern New Mexico and fall is in the air with our Aspens just starting to turn gold. At 6,500 feet and clay soil with a PH of 8.5 I know this soil will need to be : amended, drip irrigated and also I will need a fairly substantial greenhouse.

I checked one out on a ranch north of me. It was covered with poycarbonate sheets which do a better job of resisting the hail that falls here seriously about every five years. The sides were screened in and with the breezes blowing off the Sangre de Cristo Mountains it seemed to be a pretty good choice for plants and the plants certainly seemed to appreciate their home. I noted that in order to be effective the sides need to be closed to warm up the place both early and late in the growing season. The gardeners had tacked up plastic to the sides and almost instantly with the bright sun outside the outside temperature of 70 degrees became 102 degrees inside, and of course the effect of the breezes were negated.

We have a sawmill close by that has roughcut lumber to large dimensional structural pieces can gotten quite cheaply, by comparison. I have a large corral and it will be converted to a terraced garden with the greenhouse located in the northwest corner in full sun.Full sun in northern New Mexico is 300+ days and after living in Seattle , what a pleasure!

I know the soil needs to be amended, and am concerned about designing this greenhouse correctly the FIRST time. I know about having gravel floors in greenhouses and just watering the floor to have a better humidity inside. This is an old trick a wholesale greenhouse owner ,and also patient of mine, taught me. It worked well for him in both Utah and Washington.

The three things I need help on are: the proper design for a structure faing east on a slope, and access to polycarboate paneling at a decent price, and then also ventilation,
I figured to have the sides covered with a window frame construction and then having plastic of a suitable heft to last, with some sort of easy opening and closing. Apparently a lot of things get "cooked" quickly in a greenhouse when the tempatures change so dramatically from night to day as it does here at this altitude.

Any serious ideas and insights , especially from expereinced gardeners who have dealt with this phenomenon of a dry environment with drastic temperature switches would be deeply appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

GeneSo

Help!
My husband built me a little greenhouse and I'm not sure which direction to set it up. It is 6X8 and I"m putting it near the garage for heat reflection. But should I face the door toward the east so I have even heat distribution on both sides?This picture is taken fron the north side>

An important step that no one thinks of is how to place the greenhouse. I owned and operated a commercial greenhouse in NE during the 80's. My husband built it to my specification. Believe me, I did lot of research first.

Here is that important step:

Place a greenhouse so that the long sides run North to South. Otherwise you will have hot spots in the greenhouse. Run N to S, the greenhouse will have some shade as the sun moves across the sky from East to West. As suggested in a link above, don't place a greenhouse under a tree even if it is the type that looses its leaves. It is no fun to have to climb up to clean leaves, bugs and other debris off the greenhouse roof, not to mention sap. Shading cloths are your best bet and gives you control.

More links. These relate to greenhouse heaters, all wfs:
Greenhouse heater checklist:
http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/2906/2906-1387/2906-1387.html
Ethylene in the Greenhouse:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/floriculture/hils/HIL530.pdf
Unvented GH heaters:
http://www.umass.edu/umext/floriculture/fact_sheets/greenhouse_management/jb_non_vented_heaters.htm
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/HLA/anderson/fl_prog/ghheat_u.htm
Types, placement, efficiency: http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/A3784-15.pdf

I want to grow vegetables,after several years of growing on the ground unsuccessfully (squirrels, birds, bugs,mold)
I have decided to get a greenhouse. Of course that has a whole new set of problems and after several months of looking I still don' know any more than I did when I started. We live on the Texas Gulf coast, if anyone can give some suggestions on the type of greenhouse we should buy I would really appreciate it. We can afford up to a thousand.

How much do you want to grow? Just for your family or for sale?

Just for us. We finally bought a 6x8 snap and grow. I have rock hard ground so all of the plants will be in pots/bags. Do they have to be pollinated and how do you do the bees work.
thanks

There is a new line of greenhouse kits that Polytex is offering through their dealers, the Snap and Grow series. Along with being very easy to put together, it is a quality hobby greenhouse that will suit anyone’s back yard.
http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/ProductCart/pc/Greenhouse-Kits-Cold-Frame-Kits-c139.htm

aint, I would just open the doors once it get warm and the bees will find their way in! Be careful once it gets warm, though, because small greenhouses can heat up really fast and fry everything inside.

Organic Joe, that is a great idea! You can also buy them here:
http://www.gothicarchgreenhouses.com/snap-grow-greenhouse.html

and through the dealer:
http://www.poly-tex.com/pages/greenhouses/hobby/SNG8x8/sng8x8_pricing.html

Even the 20 foot one is a very reasonable price!

This was my first greenhouse- couldn't keep anything inside for long because it would get too hot. I would take off the plastic in the summer and put on shadecloth.

I am researching greenhouse kits. Anyone know about Cross Country Greenhouse.Looking at Acadian 16mm 3ply glazing. Planning on year round production of fruit and veges. I live in zone 6, gets hot and really windy in summer and cold and windy in winter. Want a product that will stand up to both. Thanks , this is my first day to subscribe to davesgarden!

New to Dave's Garden and still consider myself a wannabe gardener.. I live on the NE slope of a mountain and just bought a FlowerHouse "pop-up" greenhouse with opaque Gro-Tec plastic. Hubby has set it up on our small deck where we get mostly east sun, and a little south sun. It is only 5x5 and 6.5 feet high. I want to put in some starter plants and maybe leave some plants in it for the growing season (will open the doors and keep it ventilated.. Today I bought some steel shelves. I can't seem to find a tiny, corrosion resistant electric heater.. or a small fan.. any ideas on that or if I should put some type of floor covering on the deck?? Thanks for any help :-)

You might check out the Farmtek website lots of greenhouse supplies there. Maybe Amazon or a farm store. Good luck. Fred

A possible floor could be a relatively inexpensive foam board with used plywood laid on it, that way you could pick it up and store it. As for a heater some times you can get away with something like this from Walmart:
Howard Berger Co Electric 1500W Personal Heater, CZ707
Howard Berger Co Electric 1500W Personal Heater, CZ707
(9)
Quiet, high efficiency fan
Powerful and compact
Adjustable thermostat
Online
$21.46
List Price:$40.52
You save: $19.06(47%)
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Be sure any extension cords you use are heavy enough and preferably have a GFI.
Ric

Bump

I did not see SolaRoof/PyraPOD greenhouses listed here. Please, hope someone could visite the following link and review it. It is truly unique and according to my understanding, it is the ONLY one that stands out from the crowds:

https://pyrapod.com

For those who would like to see the history of this type of greenhosue, please watch this video on the page:

https://pyrapod.com/historic-triple-projects-richard-nelson-team-solaroof-1982-91-97-today

HI! I'm a newbie to Daves. A neighbor "gave" me an indoor greenhouse of the type that they purchased 25 years ago at the Philadelphia Flower Show.
The heating coils underneath do not work and I can't find a supplier. Last year I just tested it, and had some success, not much, and now I ordered a heating pad for my seedlings. I leave the lights on for 10 hours a day, and it is located in my lower-level heated house. Any advice? Thanks

How big is your heat mat? What are you planning to grow? I start vegetable seed and some flowers in March under a double bank of lights and have a four foot mat. Lights are on twelve hours a day in addition to plants being against a west facing glass wall. The lights are within inches of the plants and suspended on chains. That allows them to be moved up as seedlings grow. Once seedlings are potted up from plug trays they remain on the mats until they are touching the lights and then get moved up to open shelving which also has double light banks. A heat mat and proper lights are a must. Hope this helps.