green house question...

dustin0352 · Post by **dustin0352** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 6:50 pm

As I am in the market of purchasing a green house I of course have questions.. The main one being, what size to get?? My price range has limited the size I can get. Either a good quality 6'x8' or a cheap quality 8'x10'. I have done the math for the square footage, and of course the 8x10 is bigger. Here is my problem... I have measured and staked out both sizes in the yard. With it just being stakes I cannot tell if the 6x8 is big enough. Does anyone have a 6x8? and does it have ample room inside?? I currently have 97 plants, and am going to sepperate my seedlings giving me about 150-200 more small pots.

Also the 6x8 is better quality and cheaper in price, which would allow me to get some decent ventalation fans (which is a must here in florida). Man who knew it would be this difficult to pick one. It like buying a home lol.

iann · Post by **iann** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 8:17 pm

The 8x10 gives you potentially double the staging space if you can obtain 3' wide staging. That still leaves a 2' space in the middle. You may want more than that, or you might just find all staging is too narrow. I'm sure you can already guess that you'll never have enough space. Or enough ventilation!

Have you considered second-hand greenhouses. These are available over here for little or no money, just the effort of dismantling and moving them.

dustin0352 · Post by **dustin0352** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 8:40 pm

I have looked into used ones, but all I can find are really old ones that are about 2-3 hours drive from me. Since all I have is a small car I have no clue how I would transport it even dissasembled. I have also looked into building on out of wood and just using the plastic film, but pressure treated wood would come out more expensive.

I would how ever build my own staging, so 3' deep shelves would not be to hard to come up with. They also sound a whole lot better than 2' shelves!!

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 11:39 pm

I would go with the largest one you can.
If you are going to be growing 100's of sedlings in there you are probably going to want to use nursery flats to hold them all, and 2 foot shelves are going to be to small for them.
I made mine 3' deep x 8' long and there is a few inches to spare front to back and side to side when all loaded up with flats and pots.

The 2' thats left over for the walk way in the center might be a little tight, but the more plants you can git in there the better.

Harriet · Post by **Harriet** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:17 am

Some enterprising company should design an expandable/modular greenhouse so you can start small knowing that there wouldn't be a hassle to expand when you need to. I could do a green house if I knew I could start inexpensively, but have the option to expand without creating a greenhouse that looks like it came from a squatters field.

Post by **CoronaCactus** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:13 pm

I agree, do whatever you can to get the biggest size you can. As Ian says, you'll never have enough room anyway

Our situation is a bit different, not only our insanity, but the fact we both collect plants.

Our 8x16 is jam packed and overflowing. I'm about 1/3 of way through building another 8x16 shadehouse. Not including the staging lumber, current cost is around $350 including the shadecloth to cover it completely. That's a mix of pressure treated and standard lumber. I also used those galvanized hanger brackets, makes for a quick and easy build. An 8x10 might come close to $350-400 total. Plus, that's a good standard shadecloth size.

Harriet brought up a good point. Expandable units. The Rion greenhouse we have is like that. It would of course remain at 8ft wide, but could be 100ft long.

Post by **daiv** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:38 pm

Each person's situation is different. You'll have to make the most of what you got. I made mine out of wood because I had lots of "scrap" lumber at my disposal. I also covered it with plastic sheeting that only lasted a year and then replaced it with better stuff this year. This enabled me to spread the cost out and get more "mileage" out of it.

So as you look around, perhaps you can plan ahead that you are going to improve as you go. Maybe go with a partial solution and add to it??

dustin0352 · Post by **dustin0352** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 10:08 pm

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I have decided to take your route Daiv. Getting ready to break ground soon. As of right now I am just going to make a roof/cover to stop the rain from getting to em. With time I will add walls with proper poly pannels, but for now just some shade cloth to catch the sideways rain. Dimensions are looking like 16'x20' !! Oh I cant wait!!

Post by **daiv** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 10:15 pm

16 x 20 - now you're talkin'!

I should add that I only was able to put Polycarbonate on the roof and went with plastic sheeting on the sides.

My plant is to replace the plastic sheeting on the site with poly at some point in the future.

Another thing you might benefit from knowning in my situation is that I have no vents added or windows to prop open. Actually the side panels can swing open or come off completely, but I haven't needed that.

This is because I didn't make tight seals in the corners or in the roof. Air can flow out and in in several places. I didn't do this on purpose necessarily, but realized that the "open" design allows for great ventilation.

Of course now that it is getting cooler and I'm thiking of running some heat on a couple cool nights, the ventilation means that the temp inside drops very fast when the sun sets or is blocked by clouds.

So I'm going to use some pipe insulation and stuff the cracks along the eaves and the side panels to retain more of the heat.

Post by **CoronaCactus** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 10:58 pm

Nice. 16 x 20 is a good size.
I'll be posting pics of my new shadehouse progression tonight. Might give you some ideas?

dustin0352 · Post by **dustin0352** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:14 am

Dude that would be great if you could post pics. I have somany ideas in my head and on paper. So many that I have no real clue on how I really want to build it (the cosmetics of it). Cant have a ugly thing in back yard wife will not agree with it lol.

Loph · Post by **Loph** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 7:03 am

your in Florida....dont you get hurricanes? we get typhoons, which are similar and i would not dare cheap out one something cause they can easily blow away. we are building one now, and although i had to sacrifice a lot of size, i know i wont b rebuilding it again next year

dustin0352 · Post by **dustin0352** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:10 pm

We sure do get hurricanes. Each of the four 4x4 posts are going to be anchored with 75lbs of concreate. So that is a total of 300lbs of non greenhouse weight, then add the weight of the wooden structure and should be more that enough. Plus the plastic pannels for the roof are going to be removable for hurricane purposes. Heck if there is a hurricane strong enough to take it down I have a whole lot more problems that just the green house!

Loph · Post by **Loph** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:08 pm

good show. weight is not the only issue though, glass breaks and plastic rips. i am getting ours done with a plastic that has screen inside. we just had a massive typhoon here in taiwan and a friend of mine had his built jsut prior. he showed me some spots where flying branches and debris hit, not a single hole. i was quite impressed

i know space is premium, but i highly suggest researching things that hold up in the weather in your area, cause nature is really strong...as are things it throws at you lol.

hope everything goes smoothly

these storms can easily wipe out entire collections though, sometimes it is better to have smaller but safer with this kind of thing

i could easily have double the space for the $ i am spending, but i know for a fact it will just take one single large typhoon and it will all have been wasted, including the investment inside the greenhouse. my 2 cents

Post by **daiv** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:11 pm

Good point regarding the Hurricane. I don't have to worry about that up in MN. We do get tornados, but if one of those decided to go over the greenhouse, it really wouldn't matter how it was built, it would be a gonner.

Dustin,
Might I propose a possible solution for the hurricane situation? Since the hurricane winds are relatively infrequent, but certain enough to be a problem sooner or later, why not prepare for temporary protection.

That is, build a strong exterior frame and have and have some plywood on-hand. That way if a big hurricane comes your way, you can quickly "batten down the hatches" until it is over. Have a frame that you could quickly attach supports and covering to with a cordless drill and some drywall screws. This will keep your actual greenhouse construction costs down and probably be stonger in the end anyway.

Of course you would still have two concerns:

1. You need a place to store the plywood sheets
2. You would have to make the exterior frame look like it fits.