My first greenhouse!

[hendryterok]

And free sauna, Dan
Hendry

[CactusFanDan]

Nice! Congrats, Dan.
You do realize now you'll have to learn cultivation in a greenhouse setting. Quite different from windowsils

Indeed! It's been on my mind a lot lately, mainly what gets to go out when and where and all the rest. Quite a complicated job, but at least I shouldn't have to worry about unidirectional growth anymore. And my plants will finally get enough heat to grow. My Loph's have been sitting a bit stagnant indoors these past few years.

Probably too late to be telling you this, but you should have applied sealant at the frame joints as well as the glass. Do it now before the glass goes in. The corners are the worst for leaks.

Too late. I had a friend around today and we managed to get all the glass in apart from two triangle pieces: one broken and one missing. However I've bought two tubes of clear silicone sealant and some expanding foam to help seal things up. Hopefully that'll be adequate, but I somehow doubt it. The corners are basically open on my model, though, so I see what you mean. Should be able to plug it with foam, though.

I would like to see the process of the glazing up close. I enjoy seeing all of these GH projects.

Sorry, but most of the panels are in, but I'll see what I can do.

Thanks all!

[fanaticactus]

The framing, placement of the roof vent and size all look exactly the same as mine. But did you say "glass"? Mine came with polycarb panels. One hint: make sure all the nuts and bolts are tightened extremely well. Up here, the wind played havoc loosening up the joints by causing torque (I would suppose) on the bolts. I retightened everything a few weeks ago, but the GH still stands empty because of the abnormally cold spring we're having. Night temps still get down (even inside) into the high 20's (-2,-1C). Good luck with it this summer; mine made a world of difference.

[fanaticactus]

Forgot to mention mine is 6' x 8'.

[CactusFanDan]

The framing, placement of the roof vent and size all look exactly the same as mine. But did you say "glass"? Mine came with polycarb panels. One hint: make sure all the nuts and bolts are tightened extremely well. Up here, the wind played havoc loosening up the joints by causing torque (I would suppose) on the bolts. I retightened everything a few weeks ago, but the GH still stands empty because of the abnormally cold spring we're having. Night temps still get down (even inside) into the high 20's (-2,-1C). Good luck with it this summer; mine made a world of difference.

Thank you. Everything's nice and tight in there, however, all the bolts are on the inside on my model, so I'm not sure if the breeze running through the GH could loosen them.

I've pretty much finished off the main structure. Plenty of silicon around most places that could potentially let water in, the missing glass has been replaced and the floor is in. I may have to add a little more silicon, but that's an easy job. Sadly, the family camera decided to go belly up today so no pictures for now and maybe not for a while.

I've ordered some nice stainless steel staging to go in, so I'm just waiting on that and the weather to move the bulk of the plants in.

[fanaticactus]

Sounds very promising, Dan. I'll be interested to see it completed and, even better, filled with big, blooming cacti! The bolts are on the inside on mine as well. But we get extremely strong and gusty southerly winds that come up the Lake Champlain Valley; it's a very long lake and once those winds start, there's nothing to stop them on their way to Canada! My GH fronts fully on the south and gets buffeted by those winds, so I think that the (almost) constant winds have a very slight twisting effect on that large flat surface and, over time, put enough strain on the joints to loosen the nuts and bolts. Just saying...so it might be a good idea to check everything once a season or so if it's exposed to often gusty winds like mine.

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[CactusFanDan]

So far so good! It got to 34.8 degrees Celsius yesterday after a few hours of direct sun. The plants should enjoy the extra heat and light from what they're used to. I've moved almost all my Eriosyces and Copiapoas out, along with all my cold hardy plants. All the other plants are being moved out slowly. I probably need to put some fans in there for extra air movement. I don't want any scorching.

I'll try and get some pictures when I can find a camera to use, since ours broke last week.

[Sharpy]

Congrats Dan

I actually had just asked Darryl about the scorching on Copiapos... Get a fan on them. They scorch easy. More from the heat then the sun. From what I have been told

[DaveW]

I agree with Ian it always pays to seal all the gaps the manufacturers leave with sealant as you are erecting it. There are usually a few bad bits in aluminium greenhouse construction leaving open holes. I remember reading on another site where somebody bought a small aluminium greenhouse and complained it leaked and the firms rep. came up with the stupid remark "Well the plants need some watering don't they!". He informed him in no uncertain terms cacti don't like watering in winter.

I had a small aluminium one in the past where the opening roof light was designed with a lip to hold the glass on the bottom edge forming in effect a tray that backed up water over the bottom rail until it dripped inside even when the vent was closed, let alone in a more horizontal position when open. I sometimes wonder about the designers of these things, guess they must be metal workers rather than gardeners or plants men.

I usually find the aluminium bolts used in UK greenhouses corrode after a short time so little danger of undoing in the wind. In fact unless you use something like WD40 on them a day or so before dismantling an older greenhouse they often just shear when you try and undo them. Luckily replacement bolts are available in most of our garden centres.

Not often an option with the smaller greenhouses, but with my 12'-6" x 18'-0" Elite the frame and glass were listed and priced separately, but a glass sizes list was provided, so I just bought the frame from them and bought the horticultural glass from my local glass merchant saving £80 on the cost. If you want any replacement glass for a greenhouse ask for horticultural glass not window glass since it comes in standard sizes and is a lot cheaper. It is supposed to be seconds glass with defects like slight waves when you look through it but is often just cut from the remains of larger broken perfect window glass sheets at the manufacturers.

[iann]

Not sure I'd lump Copiapoas with the cold hardy plants

Scorching Copiapoas for sure. Go easy on the sun this early in the year. If your thermometer is properly protected from the sun then 35C is too warm for a Copiapoa in the sun. First sign of scorching will be a bleaching of the most exposed surfaces in the direction of then sun. If you catch it early then it will recover, a bit later and you get nasty scarring, too late and the plant is dead.

If your thermometer is in the sun then ignore everything I said because the air is probably only about 25C and only the thermometer is 35C

He informed him in no uncertain terms cacti don't like watering in winter.

Also better to water all the plants occasionally instead of just the (un-)lucky one under the drip getting watered every day

[CactusFanDan]

I had many a sheared bolt when I was trying to remove old, corroded nuts and bolts. The hacksaw came out a few times too when they just wouldn't shear or unscrew on their own. I found a blowtorch helped too. Could still do with sealing the frame up a bit more. There's a leak on my roof vent too. It drips whenever it rains, but I'm not entirely sure how the water gets in. I could either seal it up with silicone, or put my Maihuenia poeppigii under the drip.

Don't worry, I know Copiapoas aren't cold hardy, but I think they can take it fairly cool, like it is at the moment. I've moved the Copiapoas from the top shelf to the one below after learning about scorching, but they didn't have any problems with however much sun they received in the week. I think I may have to experiment. The thermometer's hung up on the frame at the south end of the greenhouse, but doesn't receive direct sunlight for most of the day as far as I know. Still a doubtful representation of the air temperature, but it should be more ideal when I get some fans in the GH.

[cactushobbyman]

I have found Never seez is a life saver. Not much good if it wasn't used first. Applying heat and letting it cool and applying heat again several times also works good. A good 3/4" drive socket wrench will shear those bolts off too. I don't know metric equivalent.