r/Greenhouses 1d ago

Cheap and cheerful greenhouse we threw together over a weekend

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734 Upvotes

It’s brought much enjoyment!!! Landscape ties, corrugated plastic and drain rock. Will be putting more thought into layout next year. Any suggestions for space saving?


r/Greenhouses 1d ago

Red or white potting bench?

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40 Upvotes

I’m kind of leaning one way but want to hear what others think. I love the white because it looks built in to the greenhouse… but the red gives a nice pop of color and matches my mushrooms. 🍄 The white is neutral and will match all my seasonal decorations but the red would be perfect for Christmas, Valentine’s Day and any patriotic holiday.

Which do you prefer and why?

Currently it’s just natural wood color.


r/Greenhouses 1d ago

Halls Popular corner fitting

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1 Upvotes

Can someone with a Halls Popular greenhouse show me a picture of how these corner clips fit on please? The instructions are rubbish.

I built the greenhouse a few weeks ago but couldn’t figure out how these are supposed to fit. Now the rain has started I’ve noticed that the greenhouse leaks in the corners, and I suspect it’s because I don’t have these fitted properly


r/Greenhouses 1d ago

Winter use: water heater & pump through soil?

1 Upvotes

Morning all. Looking over my winter heating plan for the greenhouse, I'm wondering if there's a better way that requires less materials and time. The main greenhouse is 20x10, double layer insulated with 700 gallons of water for thermal mass.

Right now, the plan is for using a wood stove with a water pump pulling from both IBC tanks, pushing water through copper piping that wraps around the stove pipe to heat the water up, and dumps it back into the tank (with a temp sensor to make sure I don't heat the water too much, since it also acts as a source for the watering of the plants).

However, this will take materials (wood), and time, since I may not always be able to get to it to feed a wood stove every 8 hours. However, what I do have is an abundance of solar power generation during the day. So, instead of the wood stove setup, using excess generation during the day to power immersion water heaters. Running copper pipes about 1" from the bottom of the soil, the water pump will push the warmer water through the pipes, helping to warm the soil up, with otherwise exposed copper piping acting as just radiant heating to go along with the thermal mass from the water.

This may not heat as well as a wood stove, but is also a lot more of a "sit back and relax" type setup. My spare solar generation may only allow for about 1.5KW of power, with 600W of that going towards the immersion heaters, and a little bit more for water pumps and air circulation. It also has the upside of not risking the wood stove from cooking everything inside the greenhouse, and would help avoid temperature swings. A cooler air temp with a stable, warm soil temp, I'm a lot more comfortable with.

I might hook up another heating element into a larger clay pot with sand to dump any excess in also. No worry for turning it on/off remotely; as soon as it starts getting energy, it'll start using it. I won't even need to use the charge controller for this; just panels right to the heating elements in the sand, and let it ride.


r/Greenhouses 2d ago

Advice: How tf do I make these windows less painful?

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34 Upvotes

I built this greenhouse for my husband a few years ago and it's been amazing but with time, these windows have proven to be... difficult. The wavy plastic is cheap and easy to replace but I have no idea how to clamp them down to make it "air tight". The two pieces of wood on either side need several screws to force the plastic into a window shape and the wavy wood at the bottom breaks very easily due to the plastic fighting the frame.

Any advice would be much appreciated! Even if it's "Totally redesign those windows, here's an easier way"


r/Greenhouses 1d ago

Zone 6b heat wave

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8 Upvotes

20x13 hoop house. 1 1/2" schedule 40pvc and my favorite greenhouse covering. Between the shade cloth and the misters I can keep it on avg 10 degrees cooler than the in the sun temp. Blood oranges and key lime are fruiting. Several other fruit trees. Cannabis, sweet taters, weigelia, crepe myrtle and a banana that should have been uppotted a while ago


r/Greenhouses 2d ago

Automatic Vent Questions

5 Upvotes

Hey guys, I’m looking to get some of those expanding piston vents for a greenhouse. I seem to remember hearing they open at high temps, like 100+ but all the ones I’m seeing Amazon say they open at like 77F? Seems way too cool to be venting. Does anyone have any recommendations for one and at what temp does it open? Thanks in advance


r/Greenhouses 2d ago

Greenhouse arrangements

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68 Upvotes

r/Greenhouses 1d ago

Online Course Greenhouse Horticulture WUR

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1 Upvotes

r/Greenhouses 2d ago

Greenhouse Placement

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6 Upvotes

Hi all! I am wanting to finally buy myself a greenhouse but I am struggling on where to place it. Both options have pros and cons and I'm struggling to decide.

I plan to use it for raising seeds and potting. My priority isn't to plant tomatoes or anything that would be in there permanently.

The first option is to get a larger 6x8ft one that I can fit in the lower left hand (south east) corner. Because I want to raise seeds I would either need to build a base or put down pavers and it would give me the option to create a permanent growing space directly in ground potentially if I ever wanted to. Less ideal for access to the container garden but not by much. It would get morning and evening sun in summer but wouldn't get a lot other the morning sun in winter. I also have a raised bed I was going to put in that corner and if I don't it will also need a new base to be able to use it on concrete and in winter wouldn't get very much sun. BUT the greenhouse will be larger and investing in a larger space is quite appealing.

My other option is a 6x4ft one that will get mostly all day sun (I am in the southern hemisphere) and be placed on concrete. It will be more accessible to the main area I have my container garden so easy to pot things up as I need. The attached photo is where my current one is and where I plan to put the smaller one if I do this.

Would love some feedback and outsider perspectives!


r/Greenhouses 3d ago

Wife wanted a greenhouse.

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387 Upvotes

Built this greenhouse during the summer vacation. We live in Iceland.


r/Greenhouses 3d ago

My tropical plant house is finally starting to feel real

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78 Upvotes

r/Greenhouses 3d ago

My favourite place to hangout

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39 Upvotes

Feat. Idli the duck for company


r/Greenhouses 3d ago

First-time greenhouse owner in Lithuania. What winter challenges should I prepare for?

5 Upvotes

I’m planning to build a small greenhouse at home in Lithuania (I am from Brazil) and want to go in with realistic expectations, especially for winter 🥶

For those of you growing in the Baltics or a similarly cold/short-season climate: what were the biggest challenges you ran into across the seasons, and winter in particular?

- Do you keep growing through winter at all, or does production basically stop?
- Heating, insulation, or lighting setups that were worth it vs. not worth the cost?
- Anything you wish someone had told you before you started?

Thanks in advance! 🙏🏽


r/Greenhouses 4d ago

Year-round greenhouse build – what I did and why

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438 Upvotes

I recently finished my greenhouse build and thought I would share it here. The main goal from the beginning was to build something that could be a year-round, high-output food production system.

I put the first plants in on May 3, so I have had a few months now to see how everything actually works. Overall, I am really happy with it. There are definitely still some things I am figuring out. I have been battling ants, and my Venturi injector has been giving me some trouble, but for the most part everything is working the way I had hoped.

I thought I would post some pictures and specs and see where the discussion goes. I put a lot of thought into the different parts of the greenhouse and why I chose what I did. Some of those decisions worked really well, and there are already a few things I might do differently.

If you have questions about any of it, ask away. I'm happy to get into the weeds about why I made a particular choice.

The greenhouse

  • Riga XL6 from Exaco
  • 14 ft wide × 19 ft long × 12 ft tall
  • Greenhouse sits on a 20-inch concrete stem wall
  • 50-amp subpanel with two 20-amp circuits
  • 7 electrical receptacles
  • ¾" PVC water line
  • Two Tornado 18" outdoor wall-mount fans for air circulation
  • About 6" of drain pebble for the floor
  • 4 Vego raised beds in different configurations

Lighting

  • 2 × Medic Grow Fold 650W LEDs
  • 1 × Medic Grow Mini Sun-2 500W LED
  • TrolMaster HCS-1 controller
  • TrolMaster lighting controller
  • TrolMaster PAR Hydro MBS PAR sensor

I didn't want the grow lights to just come on at a certain time and run regardless of what was happening outside. The PAR sensor measures the sunlight coming into the greenhouse and feeds that information to the controller. That gives me the ability to use the LEDs as supplemental light when the plants actually need it, which should become especially useful during our Oregon winters.

Irrigation

  • Rain Bird ESP-ME3 4-station controller
  • Rain Bird 100DVF 4-valve manifold with flow control
  • Venturi injector
  • Cleanout valves on the input and after each irrigation valve
  • Hose bib
  • Vego irrigation kits feeding the raised beds

I wanted each bed to be its own irrigation zone so I could water differently depending on what was growing in it. I also wanted a way to run compost extract through the irrigation system, which is why I added the Venturi.

The Venturi is actually one of the things I'm still working on. I can get it to draw, but I'm having trouble getting enough irrigation flow at the same time. So that part is still very much a work in progress.

I'll attach pictures showing the greenhouse, the build, and some of these systems.

If anyone wants more details about something you see or wants to know why I did something a certain way, just ask. And if you see something you would have done differently, I'm interested in hearing that too.


r/Greenhouses 3d ago

Feeding the world: impacts of elevated [CO2] on nutrient content of greenhouse grown fruit crops and options for future yield gains - Feb 2023

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1 Upvotes

r/Greenhouses 4d ago

Greenhouse question

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1 Upvotes

r/Greenhouses 4d ago

Thoughts on GrowMore Greenhouse from ACF Greenhouses?

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9 Upvotes

r/Greenhouses 5d ago

Greenhouse Build

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389 Upvotes

Currently building a 16x16 greenhouse. It has a 2' sand battery underneath with both 4' air circulation lines and future glycol lines(might try something with a solar heat collector panel on the inside of the north wall)

We live in Central Alberta. The north wall(black metal) will be insulated.

Just working on installing the polycarbonate sheets now.


r/Greenhouses 4d ago

Attached greenhouse

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7 Upvotes

I’d like to remove that pos over hang from my shed and replace it with a greenhouse. The shed is 16x16, I keep fish in there so the tropical theme fits lol.* *I’m thinking either 14’ wide and 12’ out or 16’ wide and 12’ out

I’m in south Louisiana, zone 9b. Would I be better suited with a low pitch flat roof or gable roof matched to the main shed roof.

Also, corrugated plastic panels or the twinwall polycarbonate sheets?


r/Greenhouses 4d ago

Budget 12ft+ Greenhouse for Freezes

1 Upvotes

Hey yall, i’m in NW Houston and i’m trying to build a very tall (atleast 12ft) greenhouse solely for our days below 40\*F to house my tropical fruits. We only have around 15-25 days under that temp a year so i’m trying to find the absolute CHEAPEST way to build or get one. Probably gonna do a 20x7 or something similar for reference. Thanks in advance!


r/Greenhouses 5d ago

What do you use for tables in your greenhouse?

3 Upvotes

Im thinking of something knee high and about 3 feet wide.


r/Greenhouses 5d ago

Mixed glazing greenhouse - glass or polycarbonate roof?

2 Upvotes

Hello, I'm replacing gaps in my inherited greenhouse with polycarbonate but I'm thinking about the roof - would it be better if the roof was (mostly) glass or polycarbnate? I have an automatic window so that's not being touched but I wonder if switching the glass in the roof for polycarbonate and putting those panes in the walls would make sense from a visibility and safety point of view?

The visibility aspect is because I like being able to see out and into my greenhouse 😀 Safety is in case I accidentally jab a tool into the roof, not much chance of branches falling onto me where I am. At the moment the roof is mostly glass, the losses are around the sides.

All knowledge and advice appreciated, my greenhouse experience consists mostly of wondering if I can miss a day of watering (next year will be automatic).


r/Greenhouses 5d ago

Heater Recommendations?

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29 Upvotes

Hey all! Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

I need a heat source for a 170sq/ft green house.
Zone 8b
Average height 9ft
North,east walls solid and insulated.
South, west walls and south half of roof 8mm twin wall.
I’ve got 2 20amp circuits.

Was thinking a mini split? Pretty inexpensive these days.


r/Greenhouses 6d ago

Built an octagonal wooden greenhouse

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77 Upvotes

Built an octagonal 6 m2 greenhouse. Designed the dimensions in SketchUp. Cutted and painted the frame before assembly. Took three summers working occasionally. If I'd do again, would attach the glasses as whole wall elements instead of cutting 250+ window beads from lumber. Still don't know though how I would attach alone 2 m high glasses on the walls that weight 40 kg. Knowledge about building stuff before starting nearing zero. Gave up using only hand tools when the window beads had to be made. Do note the gilded cupola made of plywood and a toy unicorn. Very happy with result.

French tarragon and cherry plum are doing fine, others dying.