Help w/ green houses for dummies

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Author Message   Okiegardener  My Weather My Time Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 01:13 pm:    We purchased a green house kit several years ago and my wife assembled it herself. The house is approximately 6'x8'x8' with a sliding door on the front of it. A couple of years ago I built a foundation for it out of 3/4" plywood and 2x6 's to keep it from blowing away in our Oklahoma wind. Up until this point we have used this little building as more or less a garden shed. Now we are wanting to use it as a green house this fall and winter or even now if possible. My questions are these. What is the primary use of a green house, what type of secondary lighting do I need? Does it have to be in a really sunny area of the yard? How do I make a propagation tray " heating tray for bottom heat"? What is the best type of secondary heating system for it? Any other help you can give is very much appreciated. Thank you in advance, Michael Okiegardener - Oklahoma, Zone "6b"   Terryk  My Weather My Garden My Time Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 01:36 pm:    Welcome to gardenbuddies, Michael. I hope you get some answers. I am in zone 6/5 and would love to own one but have so many questions too. I think that you have to decide what you want to grow, shade or sun lovers. That could answer some of your questions about light conditions. Also, if you go to www.leevalley.com you will find some heat mats and propagation supplies that are reasonable. I have used them for certain products and have been extremely happy with them. Here's a link from someone from gardenbuddies too: http://gardenrich.tripod.com/id7.html My one question that keeps popping up is if I use it for plants tolerant of 35-40 degrees how do you water in the winter without the ground becoming an ice rink? Terryk - NY, Zone "6"   Cahenry  My Favorite Photo My Garden Journal My Weather My Garden My Time Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 04:46 pm:    Hey, Michael. I have a 8 1/2 x 12 greenhouse that we built from a kit. Mine is sited so that it gets morning through early afternoon sun and is shaded for the rest of the day. This is ideal in my zone 7 heat of summer. I don't use any secondary lighting. I haven't run power to it. The roof vents open automatically and are controlled by the temperature inside. I use gas heat in winter and overwinter my tender plants. I am currently using mine to house newly potted up seedling that were started under lights inside. Its the interim step before moving to the outside growing benches. I also start cuttings in warm weather and keep my begonia collection year round. Cahenry - Georgia, Zone "7"   Tony_willis  Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 06:17 pm:    hi Michael, I am a pretty keen grower in the greenhouse and use it for either protecting hardy plants from the winter rain (and summer too) and to look after some tender plants. In the first picture you will see I have built a wooden bench filled with sand and in it there is a soil warming cable.The pots are plunged in it. Over the top I have a wooden frame covered in bubble polythene.The lids are kept lowered when there is frost.This keeps the tender plants just frost free.I open them on warm days to let in air. In the second picture there is a similar frame but also the sand plunge on the floor.This is for hardy plants and just keeps them from getting too wet,but they still freeze.This is a cheap and wefficient way of having the best of both worlds but would not do for larger tender plants.The third picture shows the first bench as spring moves on.Hope this helps. Tony_willis - Lancashire, Zone "7"   Terryk  My Weather My Garden My Time Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 08:04 pm:    How do you water in the winter months Tony or do you always stay above freezing so icing is not a problem? Terryk - NY, Zone "6"

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