Any serious vegetable gardener should have a greenhouse or serious cold frame that lets them start plants a couple of months before they can put them into the ground, IMO. It’s all about bang for the buck as far as how much harvest you get for your labor.
The tomato plants I put in the ground when it warms enough to favor them would cost me very big money if I purchased them from a nursery in 5 gallon pots. I am harvesting all the tomatoes I need at least a month before any other gardeners I know in my area, except those that invest the big money in those expensive plants. And my varieties are better.
With peppers the advantages are even more dramatic. Eggplant also.
So I found a listing locally for double wall poly sheets 4’x8’ for $75/sheet. It looks like they are around 100+ shipping online so I might go the “better but time consuming” route and DIY.
We have a dry winter with sunny days. I want my GH dry all year long. No way am I running a humidifier. In fact humidity is high at night in my GH esp in winter.
Nothing in particular. I just try to stay in the 40-60% range for everything. I have my humidifier connected to a Rainbird sensor, so it turns off and on as humidity goes up and down. With 50 degree temp swings this time of year my humidity is all over the place.
Can you tell me more about how you found this? It turns out that the 10x12 Harbor Freight greenhouse that my father bought and never assembled would be unsuitable. Many of the reviews said they it couldn’t handle 10 MPH winds, so I am looking at building a walipini after all, but with wood chip better walls instead of dirt. GrowersSupply.com has 4x8 sheets of twin-wall polycarbonate, but the shipping will be costly. Home Depot has them as well, but at well more than the $78. I cannot find any greenhouse supply company locally where I could just buy the materials for the roof.
They are close enough to make it worth the effort. I’m heading there shortly to pick up the panels!
Plus they were willing to go for 70/panel since I committed to all of them.
I MAY need more than 5 depending on how I design things, and am considering plywood on the north side instead to reduce costs and make a door.
Plus some funky stuff on the roof to make vents using those auto - opening gas springs. Does anyone else use those? Are they worth the effort to install?
I am definitely interested in using the auto-opening wax cylinder/gas spring opener that I’ve seen at a couple of vendors. Since I want to construct a single slope roof like a walipini has, my thought is to have the roof extend past those opposing walls by a few inches, and have the vents located on the low and the high side walls, hinged at their bottom, and they just tilt from their vertical (closed) position. This allows me to open and close a larger (and heavier) vent with the lighter duty model they have for sale.
I would like to have a nice cold frame… large enough to grow all the greens we need thru the late fall – winter – early spring months.
Been experimenting with a mini hoop house (bent cattle panel frame) with floating rowcover on top… and when really cold like this past week 3F… i added on additional covers (old bed sheets/blankets) and hung some incadescent Christmas lights.
They survived perfectly well with a string of lights and some covers (4 days of exterme cold) for my area.
Looks like in a smaller area like a cold frame… it does not take anything all that fancy or expensive to get greens thru a very cold spell.
I hope to put more effort into this before next fall… increase the size, raise the bed, etc.
I used a couple of them bought at Harbor Freight.They lasted about a year or two,until the cartridges wore out or started leaking.Probably can’t handle a lot of weight.
For about $25,not a bad deal.The cylinders may be sold separately.
If you don’t mind doing your own math and fabrication, McMaster.com sells all sorts of forces and configurations of gas springs to make your own system.
Thanks for the input Brady! I found double spring models on Amazon for about 25 a piece so it’s good to know they might not last very long.
I buy stuff for work from McMaster Carr often. Sometimes you can place an order at 3 pm and have it by noon the next day at our office. They often have the best prices but some things you can tell are up-charges from other merchants.
Hey Ryan
You are beyond busy. I used the gas powered opener for about 5 years and found that it made little difference for my greenhouse. However I think the smaller the greenhouse and the larger the vent controlled by the opener, the better the efficiency. In a cold frame or a house with less than 100 square feet it could be a life saver. The limit on weight that the opener can handle is one consideration. If you set up a vent so it is in a wall, for instance, the opener has better leverage than a vent on the roof (also less problem making the vent watertight,if that is important)
I also got your message on the bulk order. If you can drop out the two blueberries Legacy and Sweetheart, and put me down for a Draper blueberry (1) an Aurora haskap and a Ben Lear Cranberry I’d be happy. I’ll post to that thread also in case you are looking for my response there.
I likewise found a roof hatch made very little difference in my 300ish sq ft greenhouse, and ended up removing the cylinder and keeping the roof hatch closed. I installed an exhaust fan instead, which works really well.
Hey guys (and gals), I was doing an internet search for twin wall polycarbonate sheets, and discovered that Lowes (a national big box home improvement store that we have locally) has these in-stock at a really reasonable price: Tuftex Multi-Wall 6mm Panel Clear 4-ft x 8-ft Corrugated Clear Polycarbonate Plastic Roof Panel
