Greenhouse ventilation

Hi John...yes, I plan on doing just that re the windowsill, today I saw some tomato plants for sale that were about 40cm high that looked very strong and perfect for planting in the ghouse, so it's a bit of a shame I have to wait until June before I can do that.

thanks for the help

 

@Sheps you may be missing a little of this gardening season however after having your greenhouse for aa few months before growing season ends, you will have an exciting winter of planning and prepping for next year!

I enjoy the planning and tweaking and growing from seed the most of all.

 

You mean you are not going to spend hours sorting through the hundreds of parts and the frustration of putting each section together only to find you have built it backwards way around and have to start again and when they all come together they are always just too big or too small to connect properly.

Thats just not cricket !

 

Thanks Lori...with this being my first season it's going to be a steep learning curve, and I must admit I'm really looking forward to the planning for next year, and hopefully I will have learned from the mistakes I make in the coming months

Hi John...you are giving me hope of a least a couple of good crops, but saying that, I'll be over the moon if I manage to grow just one ripe Tomato

Ey up, Ricky...it might not be cricket, but at least I'll be frustration free

Thanks for all the help and advice everyone, it's really appreciated.

 

I've got a 6 x 10", and they I've got mine set up would lose a load of space. Across the end oposite the door there's a full width growlight box with the base at staging level and the waterproof top is level my upper staging/shelf. This gives me a mass of extra room for growing and the wide upper shelf doesn't shade anything out underneath because that's where the lights are.

This gives me nearly 2 m2 extra 'staging' space, a whopping 30% extra above just having wide low level and narrow high level staging running down each side.

 

I've got a 8 x 6 with 2 roof vents (auto opening) and 1 louvre vent. Yesterday afternoon the internal temperature was touching 30c with the two roof vents open so I opened the louvre vent and left the door open just a little bit and within half an hour the temperature dropped to a more reasonable 22c

 

Thanks Spacemunkey...that is good to know re the temp drop after opening the louvre vent and the door, I guess it is going to be a bit of a juggling act controlling the temps, but I'm hoping my auto vent openers will take care of things while I'm at work.

 

I've finally planted my tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse. I've also just sown some runner beans. Fingers crossed I get results as this is my first attempt

 

Even better is 3 max/mins and check the temperature diffence between low staging, high shelving staging and even on the floor (I put freshly pricked out stuff on the floor if it's hot).

And even better than that is a data logger that when connected to a PC will download the temperature r eadings for set time intervals overnight, during day, or both. I've got 2 so can overlay graphs of temperatures at diferent levels, or compare internal and external temperatures.

You can get more normal types of temperature monitoring kit that will do this, but I bought them for discreet use at polytunnels away from my home. It's fascinating to note the hourly forecast in advance and compare it to actual outside temps, internal greehouse temps, inside polytunnels etc.

P.S. I have 2 roof vents with automatic openers in my 10 x 6' greenhouse and will use the door for additional ventilation only occasionaly, but I don't grow anything in it during the summer, only using it for production of plants to grow in open ground or polytunels.

 

Bit surprised you do not have an auto opener on your louvre as well ? they really do make life easier.

Have a spare auto vent cylinder, think of making a little bracket/arm to attach to the sliding door so it pushes it open an inch or two when it gets really hot.

 

I looked into that a couple of years ago and couldn't find anything suitable, might be time to re-check what's available. I think most equipment that worked with smartphones required their own phone sim to communicate.

When I ran the armoured cable to my shed (near greenhouse) I also laid 25mm dia. plastic ducting complete with draw wire in the trench so I could hard wire stuff at a later date.