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benefits to having greenhouse
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Posted by thepodpiper so. east mi. z6 (My Page) on Sat, Feb 23, 08 at 9:51
| Is there any benefit to having a green house if I am not going to heat it. I would not use it in the dead of winter but maybe try to get some plants started a little early. Can a greenhouse be useful if I do not plan on heating it.
Dale |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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| Sure. I keep my greenhouse full of many things year around, and nothing is tropical. I start perennial cuttings, seeds, hold geraniums in it through the winter so that they don’t freeze. Today I just put in some new potted grape cuttings to try to encourage them to begin growth/rooting sooner than sitting outside. I do have electricity in my greenhouse for an attic fan for the hot summer, and for a small heater for the winter. My objective is to keep the inside from freezing, and it does that. Most plants I grow can go right down to 34 with no problem. |
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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| Is there anything that can benefit from growing in a greenhouse even when it gets warm enough that they really do not need it. This will only be used for vegetables. Say like watermelons, they like it hot and I live in MI. so would they benefit from a warm greenhouse in the summer as long as I had a fan so it would not get to hot? The reason that I am asking is I have the opportunity to get a 25x50 greenhouse but I do not want to get crazy and heat it all winter but I would like to get a longer growing season. But then again I do not want to take up a lot of room in my yard if I cannot grow things in it all summer. Dale Dale |
RE: benefits to having greenhouse - podpiper
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| If you're not going to heat it it may not pay to have it. A GH will be maybe 1 or 2 degrees above the outside temperature. If you want to start tender seeds you still have to do it in your house. You can't put them in an unheated GH until after frost in your area. In summer you'll need to find a way to cool it or your plants will overheat. |
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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| thepodpiper, Don't think greenhouse, think another 1250 sqft added to your living space. There are no rules here that you have to grow something in it all the time. Think of it as a structure. What you have to consider is the initial cost, the replacement covering costs and the use you can get out of it all year round. Mine is unheated (O.K. I cheat a bit) but it is used all year. That is why currently I have so much non-plant junk in there that I have to seriously try to clean it out to make space for plants. If you have kids it would make a great playroom during the winter on a sunny day. Yep I am nuts.... My greenhouse has internet access. but no proper water or electric supply! It is just nice to sit out there in the sunshine and be warm in the dead of winter. The early start for plants has become a secondary use for it. |
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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Hi
Can't help you with your questions but I'm curious as to what a 25x50 GH would cost. Would assume you'd need a foundation below frost line in your area.??
Have you checked into the costs of this even if you got the GH for free. lol
25x50 would cover my whole lot lol gary |
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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| It's not a permanent structure so I do not believe you need a rat wall. To me it's not a cost thing it's more of a is it practical for what i am doing thing. All I want to do is grow vegetables and if this would be a benefit to growing them in my area instead of a big building taking up garden space I might proceed further but from what i am getting from other forums I do not think it to be beneficial. Dale |
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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| I don't think it to be beneficial at all. In fact I think you would be causing problems such as inviting an environment for fungus to occur, etc. It just makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Dax |
RE: Hold On
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| Dale, if you were to grow summer cutting crops on a mist system, there's huge potential for it's use. I thought that should be clarified. Dax |
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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I don't heat my greenhouse and I wouldn't give it up for anything!
I can extend my growing season in the spring by two months without heat.
Just this past weekend my thermal mass (big water tank) just thawed, so it should be just a couple of weeks now before I can start moving my seedlings out to my greenhouse. I also use my greenhouse all summer to start new things from seed and cuttings. I have a two stage fan setup and also use a mister to keep it from getting too hot during the hottest part of the summer.
Another option for keep the temperature from climbing too high is to use a shade cloth. I'm planning to add this eventually to my greenhouse as well ( I don't have any ceiling vents). My greenhouse isn't quite as big as the one you are considering but I have considered growing some warmer season crops in it (like watermelon). I just haven't found the space in mine to do that. |
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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| I put up a HFGH 6x8 last March and used it during the summer for propagation. I do not heat during the winter so it is basically empty except for some perennial seeds I started. I wish I could have afforded a larger one and currently thinking of buying another one like I have and joining them together. I don't have much room with current GH but I think controlling the heating and cooling would be better with a larger one. |
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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| The big plus of having a greenhouse is it also gives you somewhere to escape to for a few hours..with no questions asked :) |
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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| I'm a big fan of unheated greenhouses. See my post in the NW gardening forum. But remember that your climate is much colder than the NW. How much do you want to spend on heat? 10x the value of the plants? 100x? If I were in Michigan, I would convert a room in the house to an indoor growing area, with fluorescents or halides. A basement would be perfect. No extra heat is required, and all of the waste heat from the light fixtures goes into heating the house. It is nice to be able to tend to your plants without going outdoors. But you will not be able to spray with toxic stuff, like you could outdoors. One of my indoor seedling starting setups is shown below. 
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Here is a link that might be useful: nw greenhouse
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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| I am a believer of a heated a greenhouse, but heating a greenhouse does not mean you have to keep it at 60°F. You might grow something that only needs 40°F etc... Its all up to you and what you want to do with it. The real beauty of these green structures is that you have a place to sneak off to. When I want to disappear from the world, I sneak off to the greenhouse. Only problem, its the first place the kids and wife look when they want to find me. You can check out my special place at the link. I will be updating it tomorrow with new pictures. |
Here is a link that might be useful: My Greenhouse
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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| If you plant directly into the soil you can harvest greens all winter in an unheated greenhouse. There's little growth in mine from mid December into February. I harvest what has already grown and is holding. We've been eating tatsoi, kale, lettuces, spinach and beet greens this winter. Link below. It looks dismal with all the snow after the storm (looks like that this morning too) but inside there's food growing. |
Here is a link that might be useful: four season greenhouse
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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| I can't imagine that much snow!!! & I'm comlaining about a huge amount of cold rain here. I'm suprised that even your winter greens survive that much cold. That's great. I'll have to try some here next year. |
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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| Robin...serious? You have salad greens and beet greens NOW in your unheated greenhouse? When did you plant them??? That's an encouraging thing for me....perhaps a good reason for me to build the greenhouse I want to build this coming year....What about carrots? will they also grow ok in the winter here in Maine? |
RE: benefits to having greenhouse
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| Serious! Everything was planted in September or early October The plants have to have time to establish a good root system. The carrots were planted too late to have good sized roots but they're growing on cold soil and that makes them great tasting baby carrots. We ate beet greens and turnip til December or January. I pulled the lettuce yesterday because it got bitter. Beet greens were planted in that space. Spinach that didn't do as well as I thought it should was pulled for compost and more spinach was seeded. To save time and make efficient use of space you can start seeds some where else. When the seedlings are ready to be planted you pull the current plants, do what you need to do to the soil and replant. I have eggplant, peppers and tomatoes germinating in the house now. They'll go into the greenhouse as five or six week old seedlings. Since it will still be cool they'll be inter-planted with the lettuce, spinach, beet greens, kale and tatoi. When it's too warm in there for the greens they'll pulled and composted. What you can do in an unheated greenhouse in winter is amazing. Each layer of cover you add over plants is the equivalent of adding a USDA hardiness zone. I had floating row cover and a low tunnel (2' tall tunnel) covered with heavy row cover inside the greenhouse. I moved the inside of the greenhouse from a warm 4/cold 5 to zone 7/8. When the plants have warmed up in the morning you remove the covers to let them get light. Before the temp starts dropping in the afternoon I cover everything up again. Plants look dismal in the morning. They're frozen and limp. It's disappointing when you first see this. By 10 am the greenhouse has warmed above freezing and the plants look great. You're always harvesting the medium sized leaves and leaving the smallest. Young leaves have very pliable cell walls. Rather than bursting when the water in the cells freeze and expand, they stretch. There are more pictures in my blog. Follow the greenhouse or winter farming links. My greenhouse is 22 x 48, 1.66" steel frame, 4' rib spacing, 6 mil/4 year poly cover, doubled on the sides. Both sides roll up to keep it cooler in summer. With additional lumber and some screws it cost around $3,300. With extensive use I'll gross $5,000 in 2008and feed my family fresh vegetables all winter. |
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