Enclosed Greenhouse in the winter?

Yes. There are a lot of greenhouses in our state which is colder than Ohio. I also know that there is a huge greenhouse in Maine, also colder, that does tomatoes on a big scale. For years we had a very simple leanto greenhouse along the south side of our house just using polyplastic that let us grow tomatoes and other things. The tomatoes lived year round and were about 12' tall and had vines an inch to two inches thick. We're in the mountains of northern central Vermont, not near the warmer Connecticut valley nor the warm Lake Champlain area. We get -25 to even -45 F here with lots of wind.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

I have a very small year around greenhouse with double wall polycarbonate walls and roof..the tomatoes only last until November IF we don't have our wood boiler on, if we do they'll last longer as the pex runs under the soil..but..the greens generally last all year as do the in ground root crops. I generally pick chard, lettuces, spinach, etc. whenever I want in the winter...sometimes the growth will slow a little but when the sun comes out it will generally take right off again.

In summer I grow peppers and tomatoes etc in the greenhouse as well..You probably could grow vines for most of the year in there but if they are tender they might freeze if there is no heat...sometimes something as simple as candles or extra plastic ..inside the greenhouse will protect things longer.

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Brenda Groth
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

How about passive solar green house with black water barrels for a heat sink. For more heat put in a rocket stove with a lot of mass. Finally reroute your dryer vent into green house.

I wouldn't recommend that for a closed winter greenhouse. That will pump in excess humidity (and fabric dust) that you don't want in the air inside a winter greenhouse. It causes condensation on the walls and roof and promotes fungal infections in the soil and on plants.

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Anticipating being able to build a greenhouse someday, I have accumulated 10 sheets of 4' x 8' storefront glass. Last summer I bought a brand new 5 gallon electric water heater at a garage sale for $20. I have 60' of hot water radient baseboard heating element. My thinking was to heat the greenhouse with hot water. I don't think I will need all 60' of the baseboard elements - maybe 35' or so.

[IMG][/IMG]I have a greenhouse made of salvaged windows,fully insulated all of the back(north) and areas that have no glass. 55 black p. drums along the back wall with reflective foil. It only takes a small elec. heater to keep it warm. I need lights tho to grow tomatoes,we just don't get the light needed.

Wow, ya'll, I want a greenhouse!!!! Winter gets so cold, dark, and blah.

7th swan - I'd love to see a few more pictures of yours!!

Walter,

It's not simply a function of how cold. Ohio gets a lot less sunlight than Maine (go figure).

Having said that, we use hoop greenhouses in the Cleveland area with great success. Without any heating you can pick tomatos through Thanksgiving. There are lots of cold weather crops (carrots, spinach, kale, arugula, mache, brocolli, cauliflower, etc) which do well into and through the winter as well as for early spring planting. If you heat your greenhouse even a little you can have even more options.

Mike

Hi,
There is a lot on designing solar greenhouse here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects.../sunspaces.htm

The book that I like is: he Homeowner's Complete Handbook For Add- On Solar Greenhouses and Sunspaces
Its no longer in print, but you can get used copies from Amazon used books and the like for next to nothing.
It has climate specific advice on setting up the glazing area and angles for a GH that performs well in the winter with just solar.

Gary

[IMG][/IMG]
This is the east side,uninsulated and not trimmed out yet. The backside now has a chicken coop on it. I used to push round bales up aginst it for a windblock.The Birch tree shades it from the hot west sun in the summer.

SWEET !!

.

Awesome. Thanks for all of the information, Mike.

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Mine is a leanto on the south side of my shop, the shop wall is concrete blocks and the other 3 walls are 3 blocks high. Straight walls above the blocks are double wall polycarbonate as is the leanto roof. I have black water troughs for yellow perch to hold heat. I have 6" pvc pipe for aquaponic planting along the back wall, wall is painted dark brown. The door is in the back wall into the shop as an airlock. I grow tomatoes and strawberries all winter but I start the tomatoes outside in august in big tree pots and they set tomatoes before moved in. The greenhouse is left open until threat of frost. So basically the tomatoes just ripen in there. I deadhead the plants for minimum plant growth. I do use a small 12 volt fan heater on the coldest nights. The tomatoes each have a grow light. Strawberries don't need one. It is jus a hobby and I love fresh vine ripened tomatoes. Just another way to prolong the season....James

We just finished building one out of windows we had gotten off of Craigslist. We heat it with our wood furnace. May have to look into some fluorescent lighting and if it gets too cold we have some heavy clear plastic to cover the plants up at night. This is all trial and error of course....We are located in East Central Iowa. I will try to post some photos soon.

What about a wood-burning stove for the winter?? The ones we have keep our house super warm, almost too warm sometimes!

I'll let you know. I'm putting a woodstove in my greenhouse. Between work and school it's a slow go (rain yesterday an hour after stucco work) but it is moving forward. There are several solar things I hope to incorporate such as cold frames to act as collectors and water tanks to hold heat. I'll be covering all the glazing with bubblewrap. I'm still debating a second plastic skin. I'm also going to add a home made 'thermal tarp' to cover the north side of the building.

I have radiators and a old military imersion heater to work as a supplement. I figure on adding a propane heater as a backup heater as well.

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YUP! I love that site. I find I can spend hours reading there. I get so inspired I can't sleep at night!

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