Greenhouse lesson #1/Learned

[COgirl]

Ok hot is not always good for a tomato, it gets very hot very quickly in a greenhouse/hoophouse, major duh moment for me. We have been so busy we just haven't had time to get the windows done, well it got 100 degrees in there even leaving the door open and a fan going. I thought I may have cooked all my plants but we got one window in last night and I opened it today along with the door and everyone looks so much better today . Lesson #1 learned: cross ventilation is a good thing I'm sure I still have alot of mistakes to make I just hope my maters survive my learning curve :/

 

[lesa]

I feel your pain. I cooked some of my seedlings in a cold frame last year. It is hard to believe how hot it gets and how quickly it gets that way!! Enjoy your greenhouse- I envy you!

 

[digitS']

Temperature control is such a difficult thing in a greenhouse environment. Keeping it warm can be simple with a furnace thermostat but that ol' Spring Sun is a fickle thing. You start having a greater understanding of "solar energy" and what that means when you are trying to be in some kind of control.

Automation would help a great deal but I have very little of that in my greenhouse.

So, it is 40F outdoors at about 9 AM on a Spring morning. The sun is fairly high, if the greenhouse is closed the temperature in there is 90! I gotta let some of that heat out before it gets that hot without blasting in the frigid outdoor air. It is best to use some sort of high vent - passive air movement.

Now, it is 50 and 10 AM. The sun is high in the sky. I turn on a fan near the ceiling and near the window in the west wall. The warm air outlet is still open. The fan comes on when it is very warm near the ceiling and more-or-less mixes in some of the outside air. This is my only automatic "tool" and it doesn't amount to much.

It is 60 and mid-day. My program is to shut off the fan that does the mixing and turn on the exhaust fan. It would be much better if this fan was on a thermostat but it isn't. Outside air is coming in high up and more-or-less shooting across the upper part of the greenhouse.

It is 70 and into the afternoon. It will soon be waaay above 80 in the greenhouse. The outdoor air temperature is fine - I could carry all the plants out but . . . I open the door in the west wall. That wall is completely open now - there is almost nothing to impede the egress of air. I turn the mixing fan back on. The exhaust fan is running for all it's worth.

This is kind of an ideal day scenario, sort of what you get in Colorado in April, right?? Actually, the morning overcast takes awhile to "burn off" and big clouds roll in at absolutely anytime. Wind picks up from out of nowhere and windchill drops like a stone . . . at any moment!!

Do I have to be around the greenhouse every minute of every day. Well, seems like it but, generally, only thru the mornings on those Spring days.

Gives me time to be on The Easy Garden .

One additional thing: watch for the soil drying out with all that air movement on sunny days. Larger plants and limited soil - when it becomes difficult to keep their roots moist, that's a cue that it is really time to move them from greenhouse at least for a nice afternoon outing in the backyard .

Steve

 

[HunkieDorie23]

I only have what I call "a greenhouse on wheels". It's one of the cheepy's you can pick up at walmart. It has 4 shelves, a plastic cover and it on wheels. I got it last year because I was going to start growing my own plants from seed and I did. I also hooked up some lights and arranged them the proper distance etc. I grew the best and nicest tomato plants I had every seen. Then there was a beautiful day outside and I thought "hey I'll put my plants outside today while it's nice".

Now lets take a moment of silence to remember the plants... Yes I killed them. I hadn't hardened them. I was devasted, but it was only April and I grew some new ones to go into the garden for June.

I planted some of my planted this year and I was a little worried because it was so earily... but then I thought, well it'll be OK, I've killed better plants then you. They say you are not really a Dr. until you have killed a patient.... I can honestly say "I am a gardener".

 

[COgirl]

Well today and the next 4 days heat won't be my issue as our high tomorrow will be maybe 40 but by Tuesday we will be warming back up. I figure I will get the hang of this but here in Colorado that sun can do some serious heating quickly. I'm thinking shade cloth and definatly using the swamp cooler, which I hope will help out with some of the drying out issues, since I put the maters in the ground. Thankyou for the good advice digitS' this will be a learning experience this season for sure. :happy_flower

 

[digitS']

. . . and definatly using the swamp cooler, . . .

You have a swamp cooler!? . . . ?

Whoa !

You know, you can turn on your exhaust fan at one end of the greenhouse and just run the pump in your swamp cooler with the vent open . . . Gentler flow of air than turning on the big squirrel-cage fan in the cooler.

That's how lots of commercial greenhouses are set up . . . the greenhouse itself, amounts to a giant swamp cooler .

Gosh girl, you could run that greenhouse right thru Summer if'n' you wanted to .

Steve

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi Steve/digitS',

You just break me up! I have no idea what your voice is like but I imagine (& I have a very fertile imagination) that you are like a character actor in the movies...!!! You make me laugh so much -- especially in your last post about COgirl's swamp cooler (by the way what the hell is a swamp cooler; surely you don't cool swamps over there in the US) I know you do things on a grand scale BUT A WHOLE SWAMP.......!!!???

I just spat my beer all over my lap-top

Thank you for the laugh

Have a great weekend everyone :happy_flower

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[digitS']

I gotta go kill some weeds in the ornamentals but it should be time for a beer after that. So, I'll join you then, Hattie!

A "swamp" cooler is a rather inappropriate name for an evaporative cooler. It pumps water out of the reservoir at the bottom and spreads it out across pads thru which air passes.

It is a very simple process and very inexpensive compared to refrigeration. Just a pump and a fan using electricity with air passing thru water-soaked bats.

Evaporation works very well for cooling in the arid Wild West where COgirl and I live. The lower the outdoor humidity, the better it works. And, with all that dryness outdoors, the cool moist air indoors is sure welcome.

Gotta head out and whack some bulls, er, weeds. Head 'em up, move 'em out! Back near sundown!

Steve's digits

 

[COgirl]

Well digitS' that's what I'ma plannin on doin, since I wasn't bright enough to NOT plant the maters in the ground in there, just don't know what I was thinking . Thankyou for the tip of just turning on the pump. I just got some awesome melon seeds from wifezilla that I want to start in there but me thinks I don't have room for all I want to put in there, although I read about trellising melons and useing pantyhose as supports when growing in a greenhouse. Have you read Greenhouse Gardeners Companion by Shane Smith? I guess perhaps Prairie Cooler might be more appropiate for where I'm at. But for right now we have a fire going and a nice bottle of Shiraz is waiting ya'll have a wonderful evening :happy_flower