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How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
Anyone doing it?
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How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
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How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
The Cook wrote:
Anyone doing it? Not many things will grow at 110°F which is what the temperature is in mine right now (4:45pm). I am planning to start some tomatoes and basil outside on the deck in the next few days. When it gets cool enough I will move them into the greenhouse. I live in North Carolina. Oops.... I guess I should have worded it better Can you grow food in the WINTER months in your green house? If yes..... how do you grow stuff in the summer? Cant you open the green house up entirely to keep heat from building up? Please bear with dumb questions....as you can tell I know NOTHING abt growing food. Nor greenhouses |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
wrote in message ... The Cook wrote: Anyone doing it? Not many things will grow at 110°F which is what the temperature is in mine right now (4:45pm). I am planning to start some tomatoes and basil outside on the deck in the next few days. When it gets cool enough I will move them into the greenhouse. I live in North Carolina. Oops.... I guess I should have worded it better Can you grow food in the WINTER months in your green house? If yes..... how do you grow stuff in the summer? Cant you open the green house up entirely to keep heat from building up? Please bear with dumb questions....as you can tell I know NOTHING abt growing food. Nor greenhouses That all depends on how elaborate of a greenhouse you want to operate. Some of them have totally controlled environments. For the most part, trying to do what I think you want to do, you are going to have to learn to do some canning, some drying, some dehydrating and just generally acting like the proverbial squirrel and "gather up nuts for the winter". Yes, you can grow in a greenhouse year round, but you are going to have to be selective in what you grow, when. And here is the old boogaboo, the old "what works for others, doesn't mean it will work for you". I don't know if you have done this yet, but one thing you really should do, actually two things, is pick the brain of your NEAREST agricultural extension agent and get in touch with your local or closest Master Gardner program. -- J.C. |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
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How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
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How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
"The Cook" wrote in message Can you grow food in the WINTER months in your green house? Maybe if you are willing to pay for the heat to keep things from freezing, especially at night. And I am not sure what I would want to grow in the winter. Forget most of the summer vegetables because it is not just the temperature, it is also the amount and kind of light. Are you making assumptions about where the OP lives or do you know? I plan to try to keep a few tomato plants and basil going this winter. Then about February the greenhouse will be full of seedlings since I start almost all of my plants from seed. If yes..... how do you grow stuff in the summer? Cant you open the green house up entirely to keep heat from building up? I have the door and vents open all of the time in the summer. I have enough room outside to grow all the summer fruits and vegetables that I want (that grow in my climate). Perhaps your experience would help the rest of us more if you said what your climate is. David |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
"simy1" wrote in message
They grow veggies under cover in France, after all, which is much farther North than here. Well vegetable also grow on the Equator and that is much farther North than here! |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 07:38:41 GMT, "David Hare-Scott"
wrote: "The Cook" wrote in message Can you grow food in the WINTER months in your green house? Maybe if you are willing to pay for the heat to keep things from freezing, especially at night. And I am not sure what I would want to grow in the winter. Forget most of the summer vegetables because it is not just the temperature, it is also the amount and kind of light. Are you making assumptions about where the OP lives or do you know? No I do not know, but I did ask in the last paragraph of my reply, which you snipped. A greenhouse cools fairly fast after the sun is no longer on it. The temperature in the greenhouse is now 64°F and the current outside temperature is 61°F. The sun us just now reaching the greenhouse at 7:30am Eastern Daylight Time in the US. I plan to try to keep a few tomato plants and basil going this winter. Then about February the greenhouse will be full of seedlings since I start almost all of my plants from seed. If yes..... how do you grow stuff in the summer? Cant you open the green house up entirely to keep heat from building up? I have the door and vents open all of the time in the summer. I have enough room outside to grow all the summer fruits and vegetables that I want (that grow in my climate). Perhaps your experience would help the rest of us more if you said what your climate is. I did mention in my first response to the OP that I lived in North Carolina. To be more specific I live in the western part of the state in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Latitude: 36.26 N, Longitude: 80.85 W. I can be on the Blue Ridge Parkway in 25 minutes. The climate is moderate. Average first frost in the spring is May 1 and average last frost in the fall is November 1. We get freezing temperatures and snow in the winter but not constantly. In the summer it gets as hot as 100°F on occasion. Does that give you enough information? -- Susan N. "Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral, 48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy." Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974 |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
The Cook wrote:
Where do you live?. Does anyone near you grow vegetables? If so, go talk to them. I live in north Missouri From what I gather here..... it sound like growing a food garden all year round is just impossible without a significant investment in infrastructure I guess I better move to Big Island Hawaii and do it there! g |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
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How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
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How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
Wow. If you are not familiar with winter gardening, do indeed check
out extending the harvest. Then do a little reading up on the works of Eliot Coleman: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/189...712600?ie=UTF8 Brief summary: covers shift your garden 1 zone south for each layer (unheated hoophouse, floating row cover) I'm in zone 5 and when outdoor temps are 0-10, it can be as high as 40 in the hoophouse. When the sun really comes out, it can get as high as 50 (temps always lower at night though). I have 3 months in the dead of winter when life is tough for the plants, and 3-4 weeks either end of the season when plants are just fine under cover. Bottom line: hoophouses are great for beginners, not a huge investment in time, material or infrastructure. If you really want to get into winter gardening but want to start small, I suggest a couple cold frames to get you going. |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
"The Cook" wrote in message Perhaps your experience would help the rest of us more if you said what your climate is. I did mention in my first response to the OP that I lived in North Carolina. To be more specific I live in the western part of the state in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Latitude: 36.26 N, Longitude: 80.85 W. I can be on the Blue Ridge Parkway in 25 minutes. The climate is moderate. Average first frost in the spring is May 1 and average last frost in the fall is November 1. We get freezing temperatures and snow in the winter but not constantly. In the summer it gets as hot as 100°F on occasion. Does that give you enough information? -- Susan N. Yes thank you. David |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
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How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
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How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
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How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
The Guy wrote:
Yes things grow all year round on the Big Island but you also have a real bug problem. Been there done that. what did you do there? can you share the story? |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
James wrote: Huh? A PVC pipe for each hoop costs $1.60. 100 feet of 12 ft poly costs $27. The clamps will cost you another $20, and you have to have some bricks to hold down the poly on windy days (concrete chunks will do as well). If treated well, the poly lasts three years and the clamps and hoops last forever. You are looking at $15 per winter harvest. Works if you don't live in a windy area. It's easier to hold down the poly than to keep it from tearing. Hoop tunnels 2' or 3' may work better in windy areas. I live in a fairly windy area. It took me a couple winters to get the tunnels down pat. You need clamps, double clamps at the end of the tunnels, and a smooth tunnel with some poly laying on the path, wieghed down by bricks, so that no air can get inside. I never had a blowout when there is deep snow, it seals the tunnels perfectly. |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
simy1 wrote:
I live in a fairly windy area. It took me a couple winters to get the tunnels down pat. You need clamps, double clamps at the end of the tunnels, and a smooth tunnel with some poly laying on the path, wieghed down by bricks, so that no air can get inside. I never had a blowout when there is deep snow, it seals the tunnels perfectly. Do you grow under them in the winter? If so, what can you grow? I've done garlic uncovered but that's about it. I have two poly tunnels now (and keep the plastic down with netting ...removing the plastic at the height of summer and the net remains to keep out the hares). Would onions survive the winter. As it stands, I can't get onions much bigger than a golf ball. I wonder if planting in the fall would help that. .. Zone 5a in Canada's Far East. |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
cloud dreamer wrote: Do you grow under them in the winter? If so, what can you grow? I've done garlic uncovered but that's about it. I have two poly tunnels now (and keep the plastic down with netting ...removing the plastic at the height of summer and the net remains to keep out the hares). Would onions survive the winter. As it stands, I can't get onions much bigger than a golf ball. I wonder if planting in the fall would help that. I am not sure about regular onions because I grow multiplier onions, which I plant in the fall, either covered or uncovered. They are shallot-like, and about twice golf ball in volume, which is their regular size. Under tunnels I maintain carrots, kale, collard, radicchio, dandelion, bokchoi which were grown during the warm season and attained full size in october. The tunnels also warm the beds quickly in the spring. |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
"simy1",
I'm an escapee from the housing tracts so please abide me while I sort out your greenhouse design. With your 100' x 12' vinyl, you get a tunnel, that, in a perfect world, can be no more than 3.82' tall, with a width of 7.64', right? Practically, what is it? What grade and o.d. PVC pipe do you use for the hoops? How many and what kind of clamps do you use, and where have you found it most advantageous to place them? Double clamps? What's that? Any special fold in the vinyl to seal the tunnel? What important question didn't I ask? So that give you an ideal maximum protected surface area of 352.79 sq. ft. with no vinyl to lay the bricks, concrete, heavy somethin' on. What is the reality? What measurements do you have for height, width, and usable surface area in your green house? How is the accessabilty? I'm about 6'2" and 250 lbs, Am I going to need a mechanic's platform dollie to get in and out of the tunnel? Sorry for so many questions but I already have enough chores and I'd like to avoid re-inventing the wheel. Thanks for your time, - Bill In article . com, "simy1" wrote: James wrote: Huh? A PVC pipe for each hoop costs $1.60. 100 feet of 12 ft poly costs $27. The clamps will cost you another $20, and you have to have some bricks to hold down the poly on windy days (concrete chunks will do as well). If treated well, the poly lasts three years and the clamps and hoops last forever. You are looking at $15 per winter harvest. Works if you don't live in a windy area. It's easier to hold down the poly than to keep it from tearing. Hoop tunnels 2' or 3' may work better in windy areas. I live in a fairly windy area. It took me a couple winters to get the tunnels down pat. You need clamps, double clamps at the end of the tunnels, and a smooth tunnel with some poly laying on the path, wieghed down by bricks, so that no air can get inside. I never had a blowout when there is deep snow, it seals the tunnels perfectly. |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
William L. Rose wrote: "simy1", I'm an escapee from the housing tracts so please abide me while I sort out your greenhouse design. With your 100' x 12' vinyl, you get a tunnel, that, in a perfect world, can be no more than 3.82' tall, with a width of 7.64', right? Practically, what is it? What grade and o.d. PVC pipe do you use for the hoops? How many and what kind of clamps do you use, and where have you found it most advantageous to place them? Double clamps? What's that? Any special fold in the vinyl to seal the tunnel? What important question didn't I ask? So that give you an ideal maximum protected surface area of 352.79 sq. ft. with no vinyl to lay the bricks, concrete, heavy somethin' on. What is the reality? What measurements do you have for height, width, and usable surface area in your green house? How is the accessabilty? I'm about 6'2" and 250 lbs, Am I going to need a mechanic's platform dollie to get in and out of the tunnel? Sorry for so many questions but I already have enough chores and I'd like to avoid re-inventing the wheel. Thanks for your time, - Bill I think with 12' wide sheets he's got hoop tunnels instead of hoop house. One doesn't enter a hoop tunnel. You put the sheet over growing plants and take it off to harvest. Of course he could have a house if he puts the sheets on as 100' wide and 12' long. A friend got the hoop house plan off the internet but used cheap vinyl instead of greenhouse quality stuff. Winds torn the plastic the first winter. |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
William L. Rose wrote: "simy1", With your 100' x 12' vinyl, you get a tunnel, that, in a perfect world, can be no more than 3.82' tall, with a width of 7.64', right? Practically, what is it? What grade and o.d. PVC pipe do you use for the hoops? How many and what kind of clamps do you use, and where have you found it most advantageous to place them? Double clamps? What's that? Any special fold in the vinyl to seal the tunnel? What important question didn't I ask? Yes, the tunnels are low enough that you can crawl under. The beds are about 25 ft long, and 4ft wide, so one sheet, cut into three, covers them all with a few feet of waste. You need the sheets to be several feet longer than the beds to tuck the ends properly. You buy the PVC pipes at Home Depot that are, from memory, 3/4" thick. You also buy the 100X12 rolls of clear plastic from the Paint section. I prefer 4mils, but 6 or even 2 will usually do (I have tried all three). The PVC pipes are 12 ft long. You cut them at an angle at the tips, bend them, and stick them one foot into the ground on either side. Total hoop length: 10 feet. You can either put a hoop every four feet, which makes it a bit difficult to maneuver a wheelbarrow, or every 7 feet, like I do, and them put an extra pipe on top of the hoops for extra strength, secured to the hoops with cable ties and a screw to avoid slipping. The top pipes are connected to one another with PVC cement and a connector, exactly as if you were building your plumbing. Once you have all the hoops in place, and I leave them there, summer and winter, you garden the beds normally until it is time to cover them. The clamps can be found at Territorial Seeds and are half cylinder that clamp onto the pipes tigthly, grabbing the plastic. They are excellent. The one foot of plastic on either side (12-10=2) can be held down with bricks. The ends, too, can be held down with bricks. The secret to keep the tunnels going in windy weather is to make sure as little air as possible comes in. Specially the ends, I put down a continuous line of bricks to eliminate air leaks. If there is snow on the ground, no air comes in and the seal is perfect. The plastic I am suggesting is not UV-treated and is not indicated for summer use. In my case, I use it for about 3-4 years, and typically I toss it due to various mechanical tears, like when I try to get ice off of it. There is negligible UV degradation in the winter. I cover on the Thanksgiving weekend and uncover on April 1. So that give you an ideal maximum protected surface area of 352.79 sq. ft. with no vinyl to lay the bricks, concrete, heavy somethin' on. What is the reality? What measurements do you have for height, width, and usable surface area in your green house? How is the accessabilty? I'm about 6'2" and 250 lbs, Am I going to need a mechanic's platform dollie to get in and out of the tunnel? It will be a bit harder for you to crawl under for winter harvest. Undoing a tunnel is a chore, so in the winter I harvest once a week, filling a couple of buckets of greens. I undo only a section, on one side, then get under the plastic on my knees. You should, like I do, get organized and have the greens laid out so you harvest one section at a time. That is, if you have carrots, beets, radicchio, and collard, you should have one row of each, so you only need to uncover that section for a complete harvest. Then there is no need for crawling up and down the bed, and no need to uncover more than one section. Opening a section means removing the clamps on two consecutive hoops on one side only. The plastic will have enough slack to let you knee under it. Tunnels are much better than greenhouses. They are cheaper, much warmer for the same insulation, the thermal ballast is the soil itself (you must not mulch), and they never run out of CO2, as greenhouses do, because soil with high organic content will give off plenty of it. In Michigan, the soil under the tunnels freezes for time periods of order one or two days, but one sunny day is enough to unfreeze it. Outside the tunnels, the soil freezes for about 10 weeks straight. I have two hoophouses as well, but for a starter, tunnels are the best. Also, if you seed under the tunnels in march, stuff will come up much earlier. Sorry for so many questions but I already have enough chores and I'd like to avoid re-inventing the wheel. Thanks for your time, - Bill In article . com, "simy1" wrote: James wrote: Huh? A PVC pipe for each hoop costs $1.60. 100 feet of 12 ft poly costs $27. The clamps will cost you another $20, and you have to have some bricks to hold down the poly on windy days (concrete chunks will do as well). If treated well, the poly lasts three years and the clamps and hoops last forever. You are looking at $15 per winter harvest. Works if you don't live in a windy area. It's easier to hold down the poly than to keep it from tearing. Hoop tunnels 2' or 3' may work better in windy areas. I live in a fairly windy area. It took me a couple winters to get the tunnels down pat. You need clamps, double clamps at the end of the tunnels, and a smooth tunnel with some poly laying on the path, wieghed down by bricks, so that no air can get inside. I never had a blowout when there is deep snow, it seals the tunnels perfectly. |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
simy1,
thanks for sharing your experience. What would you think of a ridged frame for the tunnel? I'm thinking more pvc across the bottom with Ts and rt. angle connectors to tie the bottom of the tunnel together. I don't have the mechanical problem of snow. I'm on the hilly edge of a redwood (temperate rain) forest. When the wind howls on the flats around here, we have a nice breeze. It can get windy but not extremely. Our problem is that these humongs trees don't have tap roots and when they come down (not if), they can slice a house in half like a birthday cake. Fortunately, I am surrounded mostly by oak and bay. We get about 40" of rain between Nov. and April. The temp may drop to 28F on occasion. I saw frost four time last year, which is typical. Lastly, the Sun doesn't get above the tree line from mid Dec. to mid Jan. During the summer, the sweet part of my garden gets about 6hr/day of sun (the rest of the garden gets less as it goes down the hill) and the temps are typically in the high 80s. Anyway, my thought is with a stiff frame, about 20' long, I could undo the ends of the frame and one side and open it like a chest. Do my gardening and then just re-dress the three edges. I'm presuming that larger chunks of concrete or cinder blocks can compensate for the inherent aerodynamics of the tunnel. I'd love to hear any thoughts. I do get some detritus falling off the oaks and bays. The largest are small limbs (1' - 1 1/2' x 1/2") that are totally rotten out (fairly light). Can you quantify or qualify the strength of the vinyl? Is there any problem with humidity in the tunnels? Do you ever have mold or mildew problems? Gratefully, - Bill |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
William L. Rose wrote: simy1, thanks for sharing your experience. What would you think of a ridged frame for the tunnel? I'm thinking more pvc across the bottom with Ts and rt. angle connectors to tie the bottom of the tunnel together. It could work. I don't have the mechanical problem of snow. I'm on the hilly edge of a redwood (temperate rain) forest. When the wind howls on the flats around here, we have a nice breeze. It can get windy but not extremely. Our problem is that these humongs trees don't have tap roots and when they come down (not if), they can slice a house in half like a birthday cake. Fortunately, I am surrounded mostly by oak and bay. We get about 40" of rain between Nov. and April. The temp may drop to 28F on occasion. I saw If it goes down to 28, what do you need the tunnels for? There are two dozens vegetables that take 10F when established. I don't think you need tunnels. Anyway, my thought is with a stiff frame, about 20' long, I could undo the ends of the frame and one side and open it like a chest. Do my gardening and then just re-dress the three edges. I'm presuming that larger chunks of concrete or cinder blocks can compensate for the inherent aerodynamics of the tunnel. I'd love to hear any thoughts. I think it could work. I do get some detritus falling off the oaks and bays. The largest are small limbs (1' - 1 1/2' x 1/2") that are totally rotten out (fairly light). Can you quantify or qualify the strength of the vinyl? It is much stronger than it looks. I have had trees dump hundreds of pounds on the tunnels without tearing the poly. It is polyethylene, not vinyl. Is there any problem with humidity in the tunnels? Do you ever have mold or mildew problems? Mildew when the night temps are 15F? No. Besides, all brassicas love 100% humidity, with the condensation dripping on them all day. and the other greens (and carrots and beets) at least tolerate 100% humidity. |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
simy1,
two dozen? It's absolutely amazing how long some people stay alive. There are two problems that I am trying to address: Numero Uno, in the past any greens left in the garden have been hammered into pulp by the rains. Numero Two-o is that I've have had a couple of peppers over-winter. They also get hammered by the rain but the stalk still has some green to it and it re-generates when the weather warms up. The last few winters have been mild and the severe lack direct sunlight in Dec.-Jan. seems to take it's toll. I'd like to give them more of an edge than that. Numero three-o (there are at least three problems that I would like to address) is that the slugs and snails here are like pirana fish. You may as well drop a cow in with the velocorapters. Bye-bye! Again, if you think of some question I should have asked, please pass it on. Again, thanks for your time and your hard earned knowledge, - Bill |
How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?
On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 15:35:23 -0500, wrote:
Something I find interesting in this respect. I live in Sussex, UK. Locally during the 19th and early 20th Century a local family developed a system of using greenhouses mounted on rails/. They then were able to move each complete greenhouse over the plants as reqired. Excellent. |
That all depends on how busy of a greenhouse you wish to operate. Some of them accept absolutely controlled environments. For the a lot of part, aggravating to do what I anticipate you wish to do, you are traveling to accept to apprentice to do some canning, some drying, some dehydrating and just about acting like the proverbial accumulate and "gather up basics for the winter".
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