To build a greenhouse or not?

[angry_shoelace]

Hi there

I recently moved to a property with a lot of extra space and am thinking of building a greenhouse to grow the obvious. I'm situated in Gauteng. I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience growing outdoor in a greenhouse and if they'd be willing to share tips or even there designs for me to work off of. the space I'm planning to use is approximately 5m x 9m.

Thanks

 

[Anthem]

Hi there

I recently moved to a property with a lot of extra space and am thinking of building a greenhouse to grow the obvious. I'm situated in Gauteng. I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience growing outdoor in a greenhouse and if they'd be willing to share tips or even there designs for me to work off of. the space I'm planning to use is approximately 5m x 9m.

Thanks

That is a large space for a green house. I would start by looking for a green house online that is prefabricated. I ran a 7' x 15 green house in my back yard for a little over a year. Did 4 runs in it and to be honest I want to say it cost me like $ 120 US and by the end the covering was junk but I got 4 runs out of it before I stopped using it. Green Houses are not as easy as some people think. I was taught from the get go to use supplemental light and cover the green house every night and uncover every morning. There are challenges with green houses. First one being heat. They get hot quick. My first run was in fall and winter in southern Cali. I had no real challenges because the sun was so far away from my neck of the world and heat was not a big problem. The next grow was from like March to end of June. I had to purchase netting to keep too much light from getting into the green house. Used a product called Alumishade. it comes in different percentages of light blocking. Also around this time I have to add additional cooling. I had a 4" and a 6" exhaust fan in that little green house and I ultimately learned that was not enough air movement. You need an air exchange about every minute. 3rd run was July thru September and that one really taught be that I did not have enough air movement to cool the plants. Had nice looking stuff but the heat just burned up the terps. I did one last run that was October thru December and the cool air with supplemental light gave me the best stuff I ever got out of that green house. It shined like indoor but because of lower light from the sun I suffered on yield.
The best advise I can give you would be to consider either purchasing a prefabricated green house, ideally with light dep curtains and to make sure you are moving at least the square footage of air thru the green house that the green house contains every minute. Additionally, when you get into a green house that size you have to consider how to move the air. You cannot have the air enter on one end and come out the other end because it will get too hot by the time it gets to the exhaust end. In closing I would probably seek out a professional that setups up greenhouses for a grow that size.

 

[angry_shoelace]

Thank you very much, you've definitely given me a lot to think about. The space is actually that particular size as it was a pool the previous owner just filled with soil to grow vegetables. Something about his wife not wanting visitors, but anyways. I'll look around for some guys who can quote me on a ready made structure.

Just for reference, what percentage shade netting did you use for yours?

 

[Anthem]

Thank you very much, you've definitely given me a lot to think about. The space is actually that particular size as it was a pool the previous owner just filled with soil to grow vegetables. Something about his wife not wanting visitors, but anyways. I'll look around for some guys who can quote me on a ready made structure.

Just for reference, what percentage shade netting did you use for yours?

I want to say I went with 25 percent. Plants were getting dark purple leaves on the ones most exposed to light. It was pretty funny looking because where leaves were half shadowed by another leaf there would be a stripe of green in the dark purple.