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greenhouse Started on my Greenhouse

Chris,

My outside is 13 mil! I have some completely clear 4-mil vinyl that has lasted two winters plus a summer on a window. It's similar to this. For $16 US it is well worth the cost. Last spring, I tried to build a cold frame and had some 2-mil plastic laying around - it ripped in a couple of months but it did span 8 ft.

Mike
 
Not a great day. :( Temps started out in the upper 30, were only predicted to get to 50 and stay mostly cloudy. Well, they got it wrong. I turned the heat next to off when I left at 10 am - it was only 43 outside. But by 1 pm, the sun had come out real strong and the temps neared 60. I got back at 2:30 and it was 125 inside the GH. The pump for the hydro plants had quit working, so most of those plants were literally toast. The ones in dirt looked as one would expect - like they had been thru Death Valley. But a couple of hours later, they had started to perk up a bit, though I'm sure I'll have quite a blossom drop.

This is going to be an ongoing problem, though usually the weather forecasters are generally close. That's a limitation of a ghetto GH - a professional one would have automatic vent openers. Another thing I have learned!

Mike
 
I can't, not without a rebuild. The only thing that opens now is the door and it can stick - some times I have to use both hands to open it! What I am thinking about - if I can sell enough toms this summer is to replace the top with polycarb and then add an automatic vent at the top.

Mike
 
How about a cheap sprinkler system? These can be controlled by plug in (cooling type) thermostats.

There is one on Fatalii's site that he has made but his runs off the mains

Chris
 
Chris,

Too much humidity as it is, at least on most days! Plus imagine what bunches of water in 125 degree temps would be like!

Mike
 
I know, and I will make some alterations. For one thing, this year my main goal was to keep it as air tight as possible because of our cold winter. That will not be a problem next year, as I will close it down around Christmas or so and will not reopen it until late February. I'll have to do some thinking about the best way to deal with the temp swings.

Mike
 
This week has been fun! Temps got up to 80 degrees with bright sunshine but I managed to keep the GH in the very high double digits. I'm sure once I replace a window covered with two layers of plastic with a screen window, I'll be able to cope with just about anything.

Today, I'm moving some plants from upstairs under grow lights to the building. My first big plant sale is exactly a month away and sold about 100 plants without much advertising - I didn't find out until the week before I would be able to sell them! This year, I should have close to 500 plants total I can sell That will more than cover my costs for a rotary tiller, lawn mower and string trimmer and even leave some beer money!

Mike
 
Rah, rah, Shish boom bah, none of the cheerleaders wear a bra! I checked the plants I added yesterday to see how they are doing. It got up to about 94 inside today but they show no signs of stress. Checked the light intensity - it has been sunny today and I was getting about 55K lux.

Mike
 
Since I'm running out of space upstairs in my grow room, I built a rack in my GH for plants. Ten trays of 18 plants each, plus six more trays sitting in other places. It's suppose to be cooler the next two days or so, that will give the plants a chance to get use to the brighter light and warmer temps, not to mention cut out a couple hundred watts of electricity!

Mike
 
gratz mike, glad to see things turn around a little and THANK god for beer money i swear this stuff just keeps getting more expensive, especially when you go for the good stuff :D.it's only 82 now in my grow tent, thanks for the advice on it earlier in the week btw. cheers.
 
That's good news on the grow tent. The temps got up to near 80 yesterday with bright sun but the GH stayed in the low 90s. I can live with that!

Mike
 
Finally, today I found a tomato that is starting to turn red. This is working out perfectly or so I hope. My first big plant sale day is May 1, ten days from now. By then, I should have at least 3-4 toms of almost every variety I am selling that will be ripe. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a taste has to be worth 100,000!

Mike
 
I am on Cloud Cuckoo! I needed to water the plants on the other side this evening and wow - more than a dozen tomatoes, some as large as a baseball that are nearly ripe. Finally, after starting these plants in September and early October, enduring the lack of blooming but not vertical growth in January and February, seeing them to start blooming again in March, I'm about to harvest a few pounds per week. Another plus, still lots of blooms and baby toms showing up daily.

Mike
 
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