Greenhouse Sanitation

[Underthesun]

How do you sanitize your greenhouse or coldframe...or do you at all?

This will be my 1st year running the same greenhouse as the previous year. I had a problem with bud rot/grey mold on a few of my plants last year, mostly I believe to me forgetting to plug a few fans in and going out of town and a slightly acidic soil. So I would like to get prepared and sanatize my greenhouse to hopefully get rid of the spores left behind if thats even possible, so at least reduce the spores. I was considering spraying the interior with a bleach water mixture, a complete drench and then spraying down with just water. I wasn't planning on emptying my raised beds initially, but now think I might and just totally clean the thing. What could it hurt other than my back? So what do any of you do, if anything?

 

[sedate]

Bleach is awful to work with unless you absolutely have to.

Try physan 20.

http://www.physan.com/

 

[Underthesun]

Nice. Looks like its made for it.

 

[sixstring]

I would get a sulfer burner or 2 and do a few burns while its empty
Then keep em on standby for next season.and dont use tobacco in there.

 

[Seamaiden]

I've posted these handouts a few times in response to the issue of viruses, but I think the information is applicable in this scenario as well.

http://www.ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/pdi...h_tunnel_tomato_diseases_11-03-09_handout.pdf

http://articles.extension.org/pages...anic-tomatoes-in-greenhouses-and-high-tunnels

 

[shemshemet]

Borax as bleach alternative!!! All the way!

 

[cannabeans]

If this were my greenhouse..( and I have 3 large greenhouses) I would be looking into the life cycle of bud mold that occurred in your greenhouse.
Bud mold requires cooler/cold temps to grow and with those cold temps a rise of humidity occurs. If you were to heat the greenhouse at night to a temperature not suitable for "bud mold" to grow and reproduce (upper 70's to upper 80's) you can eliminate your problem no matter how high the humidity gets. I am writing this to you from experience.
Hope this helps!

 

[We Solidarity]

Sulphur burner will kill all spores, so would an ozone generator. Use them both. If your greenhouse is dirt floor get some gravel or something, that's where most of the spores wind up.

 

[Underthesun]

Okay, I did a few sulfur burns this winter with no plants in there. I now have a few seedlings growing and was considering doing a preventative burn now and another mid summer. Would doing a burn with seedlings be a bad idea? Also, I think I may have had it too hot when I did my lasy burn. Should you be able to wipe your fingers a few days later on a surface and get sulfur on your fingers? Thanks for all your help. I will have to figure a way out to heat my greenhouse better come fall, this cheap $20 heater won't keep it that warm.

 

[kolah]

close it up and cook it....temps will easily go to 120 F

 

[Underthesun]

close it up and cook it....temps will easily go to 120 F

Hey Kolah. Maybe I wasn't clear in my last post. I was refering to getting my sulfur burner too hot in one question. As in, if I find sulfur dust a few days later on some surfaces was I burning my sulfur too hot?

Then, unclearly I responded to a comment about keeping my greenhouse warmer in the fall at night to prevent bud rot. My little heater won't heat up my greenhouse to 80 degree temps in the fall when its in the 30s out.

Where you saying I should close up the greenhouse in mid summer to heat it up as a way to kill off mold?

 

[We Solidarity]

if you've got residue from your burner than yes, its burning too hot. It should smell pretty hard like sulphur for 6-10 hours after you burn it, but there shouldnt be any residue from it.

if you can heat your greenhouse, that's absolutely the best sterilizer. I heat my indoor rooms to 130 for a couple hours as sterilization.

 

[Underthesun]

Great info, thanks. My plants will be in pots until late June probably, so I should be able to move them out and heat up the greenhouse. Thinking I wouldn't want my plants that hot for that long.

 

[Sunbaked]

look at all commercial greenhouses ,there is a fan in each end usually. I do sulfur burning and floramite in a empty greenhouse ,but with plants I always run a fan 24/7.no mold or bud rot since I started this. and lots of ladybugs in bud for any pests.

 

[MamaBear]

At the end of each season, I do a general cleaning and then close it up tight for a few days (disconnect the auto-vent arms too). Gets well over 100 in there and fries everything living. Works great and don't cost a thing. I do it again in the spring before putting new plants in.