One Alaskans greenhouse

[Alasgun]

All of the main Greenhouse crop is in the ground and tomorrow i’ll plant 6 of those big pots to peas and 2 to Summer squash. After that i’ll up-pot all the stuff on the saw horses and scatter a few flowers around in the greenhouse.

5 minutes after planting that summer squash; it had fruit!

 

[digitS']

Alasgun,

do you have the exhaust fan on a thermostat?

I don't know why I didn't think of that 20+ years ago when I had the electrician involved. I put the kitchen wall fan in. Switch on, Switch off. Attention wouldn't be such a requirement on cloudy Spring days with the sunbreaks if it was automatic. So often these days at 50°f (10°C) or less, outdoor air is diverted in near the ceiling. Which is good. Still, it takes only a few minutes to plunge the greenhouse temperature to chilling levels if clouds move in front of the sun.

Steve

 

[Alasgun]

Steve, with the addition of the louvers my air/heat management just got a big up-grade.
As built the greenhouse contained the large exhaust fan (on a thermostat) And the intake louvers over the door. That door also has a sliding pane that lift’s leaving a large screened section. It was impressive to my ignorant self at first before i figured out the flaws in the system.
1. During a lot of our summer the fan would run 12-14 hours a day. It moves enough air that the door has to be fully open because the inlet louver is actually a bit of a restriction. Opening the window helps but makes it difficult to open the door when the fan’s on.
2. The fan is loud, loud enough that i fret over the noise impacting folks ON THE OTHER SIDE of our culdisac! And with the door open all day of course im telling any and all bugs to “come on in”.

So after several years of pondering i‘m attempting to make corrections.
The fan is low enough in the building that a good amount of heat remains above it all the time, a pair of oscillating fans help air movement inside but don't do much with the heat. The roof vents took care of all the afore mentioned problems and don’t require electricity.
They came with auto opening/closing devices which im not using because i dont want them opening when the Toyo is running. I keep the stove set at 64f and it runs of a night most of the summer so for now i’ll be the vent operator.
Yesterday i worked out there all day and paid attention to the temps and played with several adjustments. Here’s how it went yesterday.
50f ambient outside, 90-100 in the greenhouse with everything closed.
Then i open the roof louvers 6-8 inches and raise the door screen 6 inches and within a couple minutes the interior temp is 84! 84 is what the fan thermo is set at and has to run all the time to acomplish!

For now im ecstatic with the results but being me and realizing this will change when the outside temp rises i have another ace in the hole to employ If the need arrises. I purchased a 16 inch attic ventilator fan which is much quieter and moves less air than the big guy And if needed i’ll cut it in on the shady side and close to the ground. For now im going to wring out the potential of my passive system and possibly not need anything else. Adding another fan would create a positive pressure in the greenhouse when it’s running and might make the “as built” system obsolete?

All openings are screened now and with the door closed at all times my green lacewings will stay home! Win, win. Time will tell but I'm liking this real well.

 

[Alasgun]

The bees arrived today and were hived without incident at 43F. This “tree hive” is a bit un-conventional making hiving different. Previously i’d remove the top and go from the top but i‘d rather keep the Queen and brood lower in the column So i hole sawed a 3 1/4 inch opening that’s pretty close to the size of the feed can. Then i attached the shelf at the proper height to position the opening in line with the penetration. After the Queen was placed in the hive body the “package” was scooted up against the opening and bungeed in place. Once the bees have moved into the hive body all the extraneous stuff comes off and i put the plug back in! The theory is sound, let’s see if the application is a win?

 

[digitS']

Limits in my greenhouse  model were noted this morning.

I'm anticipating not turning on the heat overnight with our approaching near-record warmth. To make special energy saving, I left it off anticipating that I'd checked at about 2am. By 4, it was 51°f (11°C). Not especially chilly but there are newly emerging seedlings yet in the mix and attention is needed. I will leave the heat off after 7am today, for the next 3 days, I expect.

No heat or powered anything in the hoop house in 2023. The greens in the soil were joined by plants like pansies and snapdragons for a time, those then began rotating to backyard and carport. Now, the tomatoes are enjoying the greens' better sunlight environment through the daylight hours.

Most plants will be out in deciduous tree shade today.

Steve

 

[Alasgun]

Things are moving well now. One of several bigger chores completed today was the first turning of the compost!
first picture shows the steam coming out of the pile. I was real surprised to see how much of the bin was 140F. Im attributing this to having a manure source; my rabbits!
next picture shows a small section on the original pile still frozen; by tomorrow it’ll be ready to toss over the partition too.
last picture showing a great amount of breakdown as well as a good mix. This is by far the earliest i’ve ever turned this pile, previously it would be the first week of June before it could be worked. This was also the first year with the overhead canopy and there’s a noticeable difference in the moisture content, being much dryer.

 

[Alasgun]

Today i moved a 20lb box of Onions from the cellar back out to one of the shop fridges. They still look great and the “Redwing’s” have now proven they’re storage ability and will be grown again this year.

 

[heirloomgal]

That is really impressive @Alasgun ; right now, I can barely find any good onions anywhere, many of those even from the grocery store are sprouting and the insides of some are not good. What kind of temperature did you store those in? Do you attribute that longevity to the onion variety or the storage conditions, or a combo of both?

 

[Alasgun]

Over the years a number of Onion’s have been trialed; looking for a good storage variety. None seemed to measure up to they’re advertised criteria. They’re all stored in the cellar early on when the temp is in the 40-50f range; then in the spring when the temp goes above 50 i move them out to one of the fridges in the shop where they’ll stay until they go bad or are used up.

I’ve wondered if it has something to do with the fact these are adapted to 45-65 lat. Before these ALL the onions we’ve grown were in the 38-55Lat range. We are at 62Lat. here. I have nothing to support this theory except a nice box of Onions and that’s all that really matters to me. After another year with these i’ll have more of an idea.

 

[digitS']

Just talking through my hat,

Moisture may also make a difference to storage life. We are told that it does for potatoes and it is likely one reason that our basement, with its forced air furnace, isn't so great for potatoes. There's a door between the storage room and furnace room but it may not make much of a difference.

Certainly, when the bulbs need to be harvested during the year it would make a difference as it does with potatoes. I returned to the garden center for just plain-old Russet Burbank because I wasn't willing to order a late variety to supplement our selection of early types. I have focused some years on the early that I have nearly gone into "crisis mode" trying to keep them out of too warm temps.

When I first grew shallots, likely French grey and Dutch red, I had only a few and neglected them on a garage bench after harvest, right through the Winter, with freezing in the garage, they were okay. This has been true with the varieties from seed that I have grown. I'm reluctant to admit that it has worked so well that I have continued the practice but, keep in mind that "your mileage may vary!" Anyway, many of the shallot bulbs were sprouting when they were set out recently but that is quite a long storage life (in the most casual of circumstances). I don't know if they would be in better shape in the basement with the Candy and Walla Walla but shallots certainly fill some Springtime needs for us.

Steve