Lighting and heating; Edmonds Wa.
Submitted by Carolyn Munn on Thu, 10/29/2009 - 11:37am
I am excited with my new 8'x14' Solargem. Now I need to know what type of lighting, heating and circulation equipment to install and where I can get it.
I would welcome any suggestions, including what not to do.
Thank you
Carolyn
Edmonds, Wa.
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Fill it up
I never thought that I would be giving advice on a greenhouse. I am in my 3rd year with a 15 foot Solar Gem and it is starting to seem small. My biggest mistake the first winter I had it was not putting enough in it. I only had a lemon tree, a couple of pots and a few hanging baskets I was wintering over. I had to run two electric space heaters all the time to keep the temperature up. Then I was told the more the better and last year I filled it to with everything I could find, including a number of my neighbor’s plants. I also put in a lot of containers (all the plastic and glass containers that I used to recycle) filled with water. Last year was extremely cold here in North Bend, WA., but a rarely had to turn on even one heater and never used the second one. This year we have already had frost a few times. My greenhouse is filled to the brim again and the only heat I on is for a couple of soil heating pads I am using for the lettuce, onions, garlic, herbs and winter strawberries I am growing – they are all doing fine. Almost forgot, I also have geranium and fuchsia cutting rooting. I have not had to use any extra light for growing. I do have a clip on lamp for me to use when I go out in the dark evenings. In the winter, I have a little turning fan to move the air. I also open it up every time the temperature warms up in the winter. In the summer, this year when the temperature around here was way over 100, I put a box fan in the door. Hope this helps – I hope you will enjoy your greenhouse as much as I am enjoying mine.
Lighting and heating
I too live in North Bend, WA have had my green house for a few years. I have not got anything to grow in the winter but thanks for the tips I will try putting more in and using the water bottles. Do you use any grow lights for starting plants? Do you move most plants out of the green house into a garden area during the spring/summer? Do you grow tomatoes in the greenhouse?
Lighting and Heating
Rooney does pretty much what I do in N. Bend. Now that I have had my greenhouse for a while, I am able to do more and more. I use lights from Oct to early January. We normally have enough from late Jan to Oct. I use regular floresant lights, no special grow lights. I start my tomatoes and peppers in Jan and like Rooney leave a couple tomatoes in the greenhouse and all of the peppers. I usually have ripe tomatoes until Christmas. My friend in Tacoma still had ripe tomatoes in his Solar Gem in January. He beat me. For heat, I keep my greenhouse very full with plants and containers of water. I do have a couple of large containers and a lot of small ones full of water. Someone told me that wine bottles work best and they are doing well for me. I also use a space heater and heat mats for seed starts.
Lighting & Heating
I live in Shelton. I keep a large plastic barrel in my greenhouse filled with water during the winter and one heater that operates partially. I've had my greenhouse for 3 years and no freezing problems. I do use lights in the late winter beginning as early as January for startomg flowers along with heat mats. I start my tomatoes/peppers every March (planted seeds last Sunday and they started sprouting Wednesday/Thursday). in trays on the heat mat. I'll then transplant them into smaller containers and place those on another heat mat under lights. They'll grow like crazy!! I plant enough for my outsdie gardens and keep 2 of each variety in my greenhouse in 5-6 gal buckets. My bulk tomatoes come from the gardens but I have fresh tomatoes picked every day from the greenhouse till November. My peppers begin to turn color October-November. I don't reinstall lights in winter and with little sunlight I clean the tomatoes/peppers out and winter other plants and start over in January/February. If you want to grow 365/year you'll need lights from November-April.