# Green house



## moondancer

Ok so I put up a green house this past spring this is my first winter . I heat passive with water containers it works well but I found a great supplemental heat wanted to share . I heat with wood and I cleaned out the ashes one day and put the ash bucket in the Green house it was a hug raise in temp overnight (it's a small green house) so there it is don't waist the heat of the ashes put it in the green house


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## Woody

Seems like you would also get a boost to the CO2 levels for the night too. I wonder if you stored a few rocks or pieces of iron under the stove and moved them into the GH at night, if that would not also help out of colder nights.


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## moondancer

Co2 boost never thought of that as for metal or rocks I bet anything will help but it would depend on how well / long the medium is able to hold and disperse heat . Highly of 10 below this weekend it will be a good test I'll try different things . Right now I have lettuce broccoli and radishes cabbage all doing great . I've had fresh lettuce all month


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## PrepN4Good

Lucky you!! :droolie:

Have you posted any pix of your GH on the forum...?


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## moondancer

No I can I'll take pic latter it's nothing special a kit I put together it's only 7 x9 and this is my test winter to see how it does and I'm real happy so going to go full force next winter


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## ContinualHarvest

Thermal mass passive heating. Nicely done!


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## lilmissy0740

Anxious to hear how the temps will be inside the gh this weekend. We are to get cold weather on Mon and Tues.


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## moondancer

So far it has only got to 40 inside with out side temp at night around 10 . I have about 50 gal of water in 5 gal black buckets that keep real mice at nihht


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## moondancer

So far it has only got to 40 inside with out side temp at night around 10 . I have about 50 gal of water in 5 gal black buckets that keep real mice at night


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## moondancer

Nice that is not mice lololol


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## Woody

moondancer said:


> So far it has only got to 40 inside with out side temp at night around 10 . I have about 50 gal of water in 5 gal black buckets that keep real mice at nihht


Interesting to know how it holds out for you. I am looking into a 10' x 20' opaque greenhouse and figured 10 - 55 gallon black barrels against the North side would keep it above freezing. Depending on where I get my information, ground temp here is 55 to 57 degrees. I was thinking with a black plastic ground cover, and plants growing through it, that I would be able to maintain above freezing temps over the winter.

As expected though, I, or someone, would NEED to monitor it and open vents once the sun comes up. With daytime temps in the 50's or greater, it would get a bit too toasty in there without monitoring!


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## moondancer

You can get auto temp operated vents that need no electricity ( it works with a bordon tube


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## 21601mom

PrepN4Good said:


> Lucky you!! :droolie:
> 
> Have you posted any pix of your GH on the forum...?


I would love to see it too!


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## moondancer

I'll take pic tomorrow it's nothing special it just works


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## jnrdesertrats

We just finished building a good sized greenhouse. We were going to go with the opaq but after talking with a professional greenhouse grower we went with clear. The reasoning was in the summer we can make it opaq by using a greenhouse paint that washes off with a little work. In winter you wash it off and have clear for max sunlight penetration. We got our stuff at greenhousemegastore.com check out the polycarbonet panels. They also sell the heat activated openers. We were very happy with thier services


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## moondancer

Tho is my green house double insulated polycarbonate pannels I've been big time happy


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## Woody

Is that a 6' x 8' model? How is it working for you, space wise. I thought even an 8' x 12' would be a little cramped once you got supplies and mature plants going. 3' for shelving and plant spread on each side leaves only 2' for a pathway. Do you wish you had gone larger or is this size working for you so far?


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## goshengirl

Yes, 6x8 is cramped. 

ETA: I'm still glad I have it, but I'd like to go bigger if we ever replace it. I didn't take storage into consideration when we got this one.


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## moondancer

I really like the size because it easy to keep warm . It will be put to the test tomorrow we expect 12 inch of snow and -40 windchill . The most I do last snow 8 inches is to keep snow off the roof just in case


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## goshengirl

moondancer said:


> I really like the size because it easy to keep warm .


Good point. Maybe I should be careful what I wish for.


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## moondancer

Ok so at the coldest it was -15 and windchill hit -48 and my small green house never got bellow freezing putting my ash bucket in there at night . My greens are still tall and green


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## Woody

GREAT! It does not get near that cold here. I am thinking just to keep it above freezing would not be that hard, here at least.


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## moondancer

Normally only single dig but mostly teens here )arctic storm not the norm here or hasn't been anyway ) so at this point I an very excited to ramp up my green house next season . This was a test year


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## rokboxer

As to cold weather I have seen the GH s that mount the the side of the house. I can only assume they always are warmer with one wall not glass and connected to a house wall.


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## Meerkat

rokboxer said:


> As to cold weather I have seen the GH s that mount the the side of the house. I can only assume they always are warmer with one wall not glass and connected to a house wall.


 They are called leanto GHs. We used a leanto for about 4 years and they are very handy, also you can use the heat for the house if you have windows inside the leanto. It has to be able to get full sun all day, we had to use our bedroom,lol,it was on the south wall. It would get cold with the windows open in the bedroom, but plenty of cover solved that little problem.:2thumb:

Also really easy to build and not expensive if you use GH poly instead of glass or panels.

We grew peppers ,tomatoes and kept out lemon and orange trees alive last winter in our leanto. We had vine ripe tomatoes in Febuary. We had several freezes but plants made it through them .


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## cantinawest

*In ground greenhouse*

I just came across this video of a guy who lives up the highway from me, in a higher elevation with more cold weather, and he dug and built an inground greenhouse.

The second video is of a better quality than the first, but they both have good information.


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