Hello everyone, I am a new face in here. I have apple and cherries grown in a greenhouse in the backyard of my house. The greenhouse is fairly big and I supply the fruits in the nearby market. Things were going pretty normal when last night I heard a noise from the greenhouse. Me and the guard went there to find the window broken into. The person who had broken into escaped leaving no traces.
I was very sure that my place is safe from all kinds of intruders or crimes so we never bothered about the safety aspects. But now I have decided to buy a dog and probably an intrusion alarm system. I don’t want some anti-social to ruin my hard work. Have any of you had such an experience? Share it if you had one.
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Welcome to GF. Sorry to hear about the intrusion. Sad state of affairs when people are breaking into greenhouses. I can’t offer any expert advice. In my neck of the woods it would be a shotgun. lol. You might want to purchase a few security cameras as well.
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Sorry to hear this. They probably think only things that could grow in greenhouse is cannabis. Put a large poster visible form the road listing content of your greenhouse and also that it is under surveillance. It may stop intruders before they arrive. Dog is good, but it takes time and skills to teach it to be a guard dog and not to be threat to the regular public.
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You might try motion sensitive lights. Those are a pretty good deterrent for casual trespassers.
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that sucks. one thing I can’t stand is thieves…lights are a good idea, but I’d also suggested hidden digital security cameras. You can get a decent system relatively inexpensively. Then a sign on the door or in different locations that says the premises is under video surveillance.
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I had kids go in and eat some fruit one time. But kids being kids they dropped the pits and half eaten fruits on the floor. An adult probably would have covered their tracks better. When they came by a few days later I asked them how they liked the fruit. The shock on their faces was obvious.
I’m sorry for your loss. When you have time please post about your location, setup, heating, cooling, chilling of the trees etc to produce a cherry crop. I’m sure many people would be interested.
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The worst thing that happened to my hobby greenhouse at work was somebody after hours,a year or two ago,poked something like a stick through the plastic,from the outside and broke some branches on a few trees.
Also like fruitnut,a couple neighbor boys,ate the fruit from one of my Nectarine trees.They did leave me two though.
Some things are going to happen,no matter what we do. Brady
I had some theft at one of my remote planting locations.
I think it depends on where you are and situation. Where are you? Are there people living nearby that will care if they could see or hear someone breaking in or an alarm?
Generally speaking, dogs are excellent for all kinds of reasons. If you had a long leash or better yet a perimeter fence where he can roam free around the outside of the greenhouse, that might solve all your problems.
Lights generally act well as a deterrent. They also make it much easier for cameras.
If you’re trying to catch the person, a cheap option is a trail or hunter camera. I have one that activates by motion sensor, takes video clips, and works equally well day or night. It has a special camera that can film at night with no visible light. However, the range and accuracy is limited.
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Thanks everyone. Honestly, I am pretty baffled to see all these replies. I never thought a newcomer would get such a warm welcome here.
I have been thinking of hidden camera, but now that you have mentioned lights are also a good option. I’ll let you all posted about the updates.
Thanks again!
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This forum is awesome! Everybody knows a lot and is really nice!
My first thought would be to put up, ‘caution, poison!’ signs everywhere, but it probably wouldn’t work. If they are breaking in in the dark, or are high, or illiterate, they won’t see the signs. And if your customers can see it, that would probably not be good. So ignore me, except for the first part.
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I think you nailed it with the cannibis theory
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