I’ve now got a 10x20ft greenhouse inside my 32x54ft GH. I’m heating the small one as much as 25F warmer than the big one in order to root figs and grow out plants. Figs don’t grow much if the media drops into the 50s or colder at night.
At night the red tarps cover the entire roof.
How do you throw the tarp over ? is it on a rope to just pull it ?
is that one of those pull springs that are in the cheap dollar store blinds it is a round pole ?
or is it just a pole holding the tarp?
Heat rises how does the fans work different in the summer , and differ in the winter ?
Do you use heating cable under the flats for the pots?
I know some cutting kept cool at night are better for the stem, but the soil kept warm
Is there a preferred temp for the soil to root cuttings for fig?
If you have a greenhouse inside your greenhouse… You are a “fruitnut” 
Looks great. Happy growing.
Each tarp has a rope and the pole keeps the ropes from cutting into the tarp. It actually works pretty well for my jury rigged setup. It’s a round galvanized 1 inch tube.
I probably need some ceiling fans to push the heat down in the big GH. The small one has a fan running 24/7.
Only heat in the small GH is a 1500 watt space heater. It holds 75 at night when the big GH is 50. It’s worked well.
You could try craigslist
or even ask a scrap yard for a celling fan .
(edit was actually gonna ask about you having a celing fan if that is good)
I don’t know if or how much a ceiling fan would help when heating a GH. What GH have is horizontal air circulation fans. So 90 degrees difference in air flow objective.
Looks great @fruitnut. Is that the Outsunny 20x10x8? If not, it looks pretty close. How do you like it? I’ve been looking at the cheap 20x10 greenhouses to see if they might be useful for protecting mangoes and some other cold sensitive plants during the occasional freezes we get here in my 9a zone (with a heat source inside the greenhouse) rather than protecting each tree individually or wheeling container plants into the unheated garage.
I remember you mentioning trying mangoes yourself in a setup like this. Is that why you went with a greenhouse rather than using a low tunnel for the small rooted figs?
This guy has been on a roll with these kind of videos… not a bad idea though.
Yes that’s the Outsunny. It’s doing what I wanted. It did take a lot of insulation to reach 30F differential but to protect something in your zone it would work without that. A 1500 watt heater should protect at least 10F for mangos without extra insulation.
I would get the 9ft rather than 8ft for that need.
I do like that little GH and his setup…!!
Great, yes, I see you protected most of the surfaces with the foil bubble insulation which would likely not be needed for my application except in those rare 1 in 25-100 year freeze events. I think 10F would be sufficient for me. 30F is impressive.
How easy is is to assemble/disassemble? My initial thoughts would be to assemble in late fall/early winter a little before the first freeze is projected and leave the frame up, only covering with the plastic during an anticipated near freeze. Then remove the structure in spring once threat of frost is passed. Some that I’ve seen look a bit cheap though and I don’t know how well they’d hold up with routine assembly/disassembly. Looks like the plastic is secured by bungees as well so I’m wondering about durability. I have also seen some frost blankets designed to wrap individual trees, which look like they may protect a tree up to 10’ by maybe 6’ wide. Those are pretty inexpensive but the material is breathable agfabric so I’m not sure how much of a temperature differential they’d be capable of maintaining with a heat source inside.
Do you plan on growing anything inside of yours or will this just be to support your young fig trees?
This is how all of these videos are- all brand new equipment and some guy talking about what he’s going to do. What is hard to find is someone who is 5 years into it and it’s still working as planned. If that dude thinks that water and those blocks is going to hold that thing down during a big storm he’s nuts.
It was pretty easy to assemble but I’m not sure how long it would last doing that each yr. It would be more effective than trying to cover something with the frost blanket.
I’m on a yr by yr plan. I don’t know if I can last even this yr doing what I’m doing. Next yr will be different but I’m not sure how.
I agree. However the current every day citizen isnt like the old timers.
Our elders had gardens and tillers and grew things in the ground. They hoed and weeded and watered and tended gardens. Those kind of things dont fit the modern person.
The current trend is to buy a gadget or contraption on Amazon and buy potting soil and some pots and grow food in the backyard or patio.
The market is exploding with how to lazily grow a garden and Amazon and these influencers are just feeding the frenzy.
Backyard food forests are trending… and the market is responding.
I don’t know- my grandfather in Germany had a greenhouse and cloned all kinds of plants back in the 1970’s. He counted every tomato and pepper he picked from each plant and kept detailed records from year to year to guide his plantings. He had a small orchard full of grafted apples, grapes and currants. His garden was unbelievable.
Setting up a greenhouse and growing potted plants is much, much more difficult than growing in the ground. Everything about it is more difficult and more expensive.
Well-thought out. Reflective Aluminum Insulation is great to have for cooling and heating greenhouse structures. I think it’s absolutely, beautiful, what you’ve done.
