New here and to greenhouses!

[krig12]

Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum and to greenhouse gardening. DH just built a greenhouse (around 12' x 20' I think, but could be wrong) and we will be looking to get started when fall starts. I've got a few questions I would love some help with!

1. How do you heat your greenhouse during prolonged cold spells? I would prefer not to use electricity (for many reasons). While weather here is certainly not terrible in winter, we can have prolonged periods of freezing temps and snowfall/sleet/etc. I've heard of people using rabbits or chickens and I'd prefer to keep neither in the greenhouse, though we do have a flock of chickens (unless someone can convince me otherwise!). I've also heard about painting jugs/trashcans/paint cans black and filling with water... I like the thought of that, but have a hard time believing you could keep the space warmer than like 5 degrees above outside temps for more than a couple of hours?

2. What do you grow in your greenhouse? Obviously I'm planning on growing vegetables that are a bit more cold-hardy (no okra/tomatoes/watermelons) and can fit in containers/trays/etc, but are their any particular suggestions?

3. Did you buy soil or use your own? Any tips or tricks to getting a greenhouse started?

Thanks Ladies and Gents!

 

[Denim Deb]

I don't have any answers for you, but will be watching this thread to see what kind of replies you get.

One thing you could possibly do is heat your greenhouse w/wood-either from a wood stove, or a rocket mass heater. I used to use a kerosene heater in mine (I only start plants), until the kerosene got to be so expensive. I haven't had much luck w/it since then.

Oh, almost forgot to say,

 

[Mr.Andersson]

Hello, and

 

[Joel_BC]

3. Did you buy soil or use your own? Any tips or tricks to getting a greenhouse started?

On question #3, we've used the greenhouse both as part of our seed starting in spring, and as a place to grow our personal crops of tomatoes, cucumbers, and certain varieties of peppers. For the crops that we mature in the greenhouse, we made our basic greenhous soil - whch has gone into permanent cedar-wood-enclosed raised beds.

The initial mix was about equal parts local sedge peat (not sphagnum peat moss), coarse sand, and composted manure (which was, as I recall, a mix of horse and cattle manures) - with a liberal dash of gypsum added for calcium. Into the original soil mix, in the years after, we've added worm castings - and this year we top-dressed the beds with composted chicken manure.

This has been a good nourishing soil for our plants.

We are not extending the natural solar-heating of the greenhouse by anything more than a couple weeks in the spring and a couple in the fall (after night-time temps get below freezing again). We're using electric heat for that, but because we live very near power dams on the Columbia River system, electricity is cheap here.

One thing I'll say about the new-to-greenhouse experience is that, through the seasons,
you find out that ventilation and cooling is equally important as heating.

Enjoy your greenhouse, and good luck with it.

 

[sleuth]

I read something in Mother Earth News about heating your greenhouse with a compost pit, bin, or pile.

Might be something you want to look into.

 

[Daffodils At The Sea]

krig, my greenhouses have given me peace of mind.

Number 1, I have mild winters, maybe down to freezing at times, but rarely below. I build big piles of compost, 3x3x3, 6 feet apart, down both sides of the 12 foot length, and they put off a lot of heat. I also have a passive solar cinderblock wall on the longest wall facing south( in the Northern Hemisphere,) that seems to contribute to holding the Earth's 50 degree heat in. Also, 2 layers of plastic covering, because air is an insulator. So the combination of all these three might work in a colder environment, but I only have experience with at-freezing temps.

2. I grow tomatoes because it's cold at the coast in the summer, and I couldn't grow them without it. But I also do early zucchini, beans, peppers

3. Your own soil is what the roots of your plants will find down under anything you put on top of the soil. Clay actually has great minerals and water-holding qualities, and it's great stuff if you treat it right Tomatoes can go down 5 feet! So don't bother spending money on bringing in soil. Make as much compost as you can, a stew of ingredients of mowed weeds, dead leaves, kitchen scraps, bush trimmings, the smaller the better. My lawn mower puts out the perfect sized pieces, because my piles of weeds get hot overnight, so the smaller the better. If you have animal manure, that's great. If you have composting toilet manure that's composted, use it on perennials. Any manure, you don't want any splash-up onto greens like lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, kale, chard, peas...anything you eat raw.

 

[~gd]

Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum and to greenhouse gardening. DH just built a greenhouse (around 12' x 20' I think, but could be wrong) and we will be looking to get started when fall starts. I've got a few questions I would love some help with!

1. How do you heat your greenhouse during prolonged cold spells? I would prefer not to use electricity (for many reasons). While weather here is certainly not terrible in winter, we can have prolonged periods of freezing temps and snowfall/sleet/etc. I've heard of people using rabbits or chickens and I'd prefer to keep neither in the greenhouse, though we do have a flock of chickens (unless someone can convince me otherwise!). I've also heard about painting jugs/trashcans/paint cans black and filling with water... I like the thought of that, but have a hard time believing you could keep the space warmer than like 5 degrees above outside temps for more than a couple of hours?

2. What do you grow in your greenhouse? Obviously I'm planning on growing vegetables that are a bit more cold-hardy (no okra/tomatoes/watermelons) and can fit in containers/trays/etc, but are their any particular suggestions?

3. Did you buy soil or use your own? Any tips or tricks to getting a greenhouse started?

Thanks Ladies and Gents!

Why did you build a green House in the first place? They are pretty much the original Solar Heat project. They take sunlight and convert it to heat. Plants grow very well at 50degrees F most will survive [with little growth] down to frost point 32 F Yep Chickens throw off a lot of body heat the chicken coop was the warmest place on our farm in the morning untill Dad got the wood stove hot or Mom got the wood burning kitchen stove going.
I can understand not wanting to have chickens running about in your greenhouse but they do shed a lot of heat and humidity{humid air holds more heat than dry air] so see if you can work out a plan wher air from the coop is piped to the green house If you can get the vent at the lowest point of the GH {GH=green house] gravity will suck the coldest air from the bottom of the GH thru the chickens who will warm it and take it back to the green house to keep the cycle moving. Were you planning on having the growing surface up off the ground because the ground will have the coldest air, 2what to grow? peas like cool weather and they are great in the spring and fall but not the heat of the summer. I was not a big bean grower but many keep on producing until frost. That reminds me Pollination can be a big problem in green houses. Bees don't like to work there. Peas and beans usually need pollination but they can be moved for that to happen. Veggies of most tyoes either don;t have blooms or the blooms themselves are eaten before pollination. #3 Done both Clay takes too much work/too long So I bought compost [many cities pick up leaves and compost them You can usually get the best deal there if you can haul your own in bulk]. on sandy soil just keep every scrap and compost it and add back to the soil. tips and tricks -What did you do for drainge? I have seen more greenhouses spoiled by bad drainage than any other reason. What becomes of the rain off the roof and many people tend to over water either way the excess water needs a home. ~gd