Greenhouse Up and running

[Joel143]

Finally with my greenhouse finally complete, except for the doors, its just about ready for me to move my collection off my front porch. I've been monitoring it and its been getting up between 110 and 115 degrees during the hottest part of the day. I want to place a fan or two for air circulation to keep it alittle cooler. The doors I don't plan to put on until the fall since for now with no doors it can help with air circulation. Its an 8ft x 12ft Rion greenhouse. I placed about 3 inches of pea gravel on the bottom due to when we get heavy rain, it can get alittle muddy. Getting a day time temperature as mentioned, does anyone see it causing a problem for certain cactus?




Just an idea, the below pics are of my collection I plan to move inside.

[CactusFanDan]

Excellent! I don't see the gravel being a problem, really, but it can hold moisture against the bottom of the soil, but it shouldn't matter too much. I would, however, recommend getting some shelving to keep plants off the floor and to utilise all that space better.

[Harriet]

Looks like a great place for your great collection... I have found that shelves, in addition to space and other normal considerations, are important because you might find that you have a weed problem. Those pesky weeds are hard to handle when pots of prickly plants are in the way. The pea gravel will help with that too, but some grass and other weeds are just plain hard to get rid of. Greenhouse weeds are not often a topic of discussion here, but I suspect those of us in the Southeast especially have more than our share of that problem to deal with.

[Joel143]

Handling those pesky weeds is one of the reasons I placed pea gravel. It will help in preventing most weeds and grass.

Shelving is a definite for me and will be going in. Right now I am debating on an idea. In the back or to one side, I would like to put a raised bed for cactus like echinopsis, trichocereus and some mammillaria. Since they don't get that tall except for the trichs, I think it would be something nice. Any thoughts on that from anybody?

[Harriet]

I love it! You have not moved your plants in yet and you already need a second green house -- one for your potted collection, and another for raised beds and in-ground plants.

Whatever you decide, it will be fun. And I do like the idea of beds in the greenhouse.

[Joel143]

Thanks Harriet. I'm just alittle too scared to do a raised bed outdoors uncovered with all our rainfall. I know I can fix a fast draining soil but as you know with our rainfall even that at times is not enough. As mentioned I do plan on placing a fan or two but am still interested in comments when it comes to high temps in a greenhouse.

Oh and yes already thoughts are going towards a second greenhouse....just as you mentioned.

[Harriet]

I have a hybrid greenhouse/shade house of sorts. In the winter I can close it up and it stays warm, but for the rest of the year I have the sides open, and a fan going, for ventilation. It gets "hotter than the hinges of Hell" in there even with the sides propped open. But the cactus does not mind.

[Joel143]

Thanks Harriet. I know cactus can handle high temps but would require more frequent watering. Once everything is in place along with the raised bed I will post pics. Hoping it all turns out like I have pictured in my mind.

[CoronaCactus]

Nice!
We have the same brand. The small square mid panels remove easily for added ventilation. We then use window screen held in place by the snap on rails. Shadecloth was a bit too thick to allow the rails to snap on.

[Tony]

I have found it nessessary to use a door on my houses to keep cats and opossums and who knows what else out.
It sucks to go out and find newly repotted plants pulled out of pots or worse, pots upside down on the floor.
Could you just put screen in the door it came with?

[Harriet]

I have run into the same need for closing up my shade house. Something gets in there and munches on my plants. I haven't figured out how to handle it in my particular situation though...

[CoronaCactus]

Could you just put screen in the door it came with?

Yup! Use the poly panels it came with as a template, cut a 2" frame from 1/4" plywood, wrap with window screen and stick em back in the doors.

[Joel143]

I haven't thought of that....mainly since I never had that problem when I had my cactus on my open front porch. Something I will need to look into. I will probably do the same and put a poly panel blocking the front entrance.

[cactushobbyman]

[quote="Joel143"]Handling those pesky weeds is one of the reasons I placed pea gravel. It will help in preventing most weeds and grass.

They make a weed cloth. I used it and after two years no Bermuda grass. Weed cloth and then pea gravel.

[Harriet]

Trouble with weed cloth in the South is that it turns our weeds into a difficult to remove carpet of roots and unwanted greenery. Even with the cleanest ground cover (of any sort) over the cloth, weeds here will establish themselves in no time... The cloth makes the weeds harder to pull, and the frustrated gardener much more prone to using nasty chemicals and a scorched earth policy. And I'm not kidding!