Greenhouse Update
Remember the article I wrote back in May about How To Build An Inexpensive Hoop-frame Greenhouse? Well, my mother-in-law (who is greatly enjoying her Mother’s Day present), took some pictures of the things she has growing in there. So I thought I’d share them here to further inspire you to build your own greenhouse next year.
Tomatoes down the length of the greenhouse
Roma Tomatoes
Beefsteak Tomatoes
Zucchini
Beans
Watermelon
Peppers
Inspired yet?
Oh, and incidentally… I just visited my brother’s A-frame greenhouse, built in the same style as my plasticless A-frame greenhouse, and it’s doing beautifully. He used the woven poly from Northern Greenhouse Sales and it’s showing no signs of wear. I am absolutely going with their plastic next year.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Fruit on the tomato plants already! And peppers! I’m not jealous at all…
February 24th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
hello I was wondering , how long will the plants stay in the greenhouse on the “floor ground” in the dirt with out freezing? I want to grow tomatoes in the cold winter season, so I wondering should I plant them in containers? thanks for your time Nancy-Jo Williams
February 24th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Well, I can’t really say how long your plants will last without freezing, but it won’t matter if they are in containers or not. The soil is not what will freeze first, it will be the air temperature that kills your plants. The soil won’t freeze until long after the plant has frozen.
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:36 am
I showed your green house to my husband, but he says it would not stand up to the wind we have here. It does blow at 60 km at times and it would be unusual for us to have no wind at all. We live in Granum, Alberta, which is about 170 km south of Calgary. There are a ton of wind farms near, so you can guess we are in the windiest part of the province.
Do you think you plan for a green house would stand of to that sort of wind?
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Hmmm… That’s a tough one. You would need strong poly for sure (11 or 12 mils). You would want to have a slightly different system of anchoring the greenhouse to the ground (as that kind of wind could lift the pvc pipes right off the rebar. And cross bracing would be a must! Depending on your budget, here are a couple of links to other home-made greenhouses:
http://www.frugal-living-freedom.com/build-a-greenhouse.html
http://www.northerngreenhouse.com/ideas/how_to/aframe.htm
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:11 am
This greenhouse looks great! How would you heat this greenhouse in the winter months?
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I never intended to heat this greenhouse over the winter. With -30 degrees, it would cost way too much!
December 27th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
I live in AZ it gets up to 120 in the summer what would you do about the heat?
December 30th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Oh man, that’s cooking! You’d need some serious ventilation. Blow open the ends of the greenhouse or roll up the sides or install some fans. You may also want to install some misters depending what you’re growing.
January 16th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
I live in N.E. Ga and had a hoop greenhouse. I am getting ready to build another for early and late veggies. Two methods I am looking at to heat it is 1. Passive solar using black tubing outside and 55 gal drums inside. circulate the solar heated water from the black tubing to the drums inside by natural convection. 2. Dig 24 inches deep inside greenhouse, lay 18 inches manure and 6 inches fill. First method seems best as I do not know what the stench would be from the second. HOW ABOUT SOME COMMENTS.
January 16th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
I think I would personally go with the solar. I don’t know if I’d bother with the tubing though – I might just go with black drums of water.