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Hope everyone's greenhouse is doing well this winter.

Some images of whats going on outside and in the GH.

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You make me envious Ian...looking good. What are you growing?

Buttercrunch lettuce, kale, tomatoes, just going to transplant peppers and more kale into an expanded horizontal grow tube setup. Don't know the actual name for it, but tried it with my Moneymaker tomatoes and basil and they love it! I'm just trying a number of different growing environments to see how things go. My wife calls me an addicted tinkerer. She's right! "chuckles".

Nice! Isn't a good feeling to be able to grow in winter conditions like that? I wish we had the money to add grow lights to our setup for the winter, but based on the size of our greenhouse, that is going to be out of the question!

Yes, it is nice to have homegrown greens year round. I'm wondering, why not create a micro-climate within your existing structure, and put a light in there? That way you are heating and lighting a much smaller space. I did that in our house, using that black/white plastic to create a tent and 2xT5 4 lamp arrays. I had the same swiss chard plants for 4 years.

We need to grow everything year round.  WE are going commercial so being able to supply what the large farmers can't during the winter is our hope.  WE will just have to deal with the shorter days and slower growth.

Ian Cameron said:

Yes, it is nice to have homegrown greens year round. I'm wondering, why not create a micro-climate within your existing structure, and put a light in there? That way you are heating and lighting a much smaller space. I did that in our house, using that black/white plastic to create a tent and 2xT5 4 lamp arrays. I had the same swiss chard plants for 4 years.

Awesome!  I love the picture of the little hobbit door going into the snow.

Just planting my new beds. Already had 1 bed planted so it didn't get covered with foam. Good idea Jeremiah. So far I'm sticking with cool weather plants.

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Looks like you did a nice job fitting your grow bed floats.

Is there a reason you didn't put insulation on top of your media?

Actually I did on the middle bed. I had already planted the 1 bed so I'll do that one next time around. the other bed is a floating raft. I covered the beds with a single mylar tunnel with a 400 watt MH lamp over each one. I run the lamps at night and don't use any other heat. The temps run in the 70s over the media bed and in the 90s over the foam. Haven't determined the exact reason for the difference unless the media is absorbing the heat(which is a good thing for the water). The temps are in the 50s during the day without the lamps. Since we don't get enough sun here in Mi. during the winter to worry about I'm not concerned with blocking it out during the day. With the grow lights on at night you can see very well through the mylar. The reflective advantage is over a 50% increase in lumens measured with my meter and even more on the perimeters of the beds.

I had already planted the 1 bed so I'll do that one next time around

That makes sense.  

The temps run in the 70s over the media bed and in the 90s over the foam. Haven't determined the exact reason for the difference unless the media is absorbing the heat

It's possible that the light is causing evaporation in the media bed.  The primary effect of this would be to humidify your mylar tunnel and greenhouse.

Since we don't get enough sun here in Mi. during the winter to worry about I'm not concerned with blocking it out during the day

I've got a friend in Ontario who's using a similar strategy.  I'm intrigued by it.  I'd love to see a comparison someday between mylar-covered beds and plastic low tunnels to see which produces the most benefit per unit of electricity.

Mylar is heat reflective(just read a story in a survival article) so I would guess it would be better not to mention the reflective benefits. This is what I used: http://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Mylar-Blanket-52-84/dp/B0047D6XA2/r...

Very inexpensive and easier to work with than plastic I think.


Jeremiah Robinson said:

I had already planted the 1 bed so I'll do that one next time around

That makes sense.  

The temps run in the 70s over the media bed and in the 90s over the foam. Haven't determined the exact reason for the difference unless the media is absorbing the heat

It's possible that the light is causing evaporation in the media bed.  The primary effect of this would be to humidify your mylar tunnel and greenhouse.

Since we don't get enough sun here in Mi. during the winter to worry about I'm not concerned with blocking it out during the day

I've got a friend in Ontario who's using a similar strategy.  I'm intrigued by it.  I'd love to see a comparison someday between mylar-covered beds and plastic low tunnels to see which produces the most benefit per unit of electricity.

That's why we did our fish house completely covered in Radiant Barrier Foil (same principal as Mylar).  

Jeff S said:

Mylar is heat reflective(just read a story in a survival article) so I would guess it would be better not to mention the reflective benefits. This is what I used: http://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Mylar-Blanket-52-84/dp/B0047D6XA2/r...

Very inexpensive and easier to work with than plastic I think.


Jeremiah Robinson said:

I had already planted the 1 bed so I'll do that one next time around

That makes sense.  

The temps run in the 70s over the media bed and in the 90s over the foam. Haven't determined the exact reason for the difference unless the media is absorbing the heat

It's possible that the light is causing evaporation in the media bed.  The primary effect of this would be to humidify your mylar tunnel and greenhouse.

Since we don't get enough sun here in Mi. during the winter to worry about I'm not concerned with blocking it out during the day

I've got a friend in Ontario who's using a similar strategy.  I'm intrigued by it.  I'd love to see a comparison someday between mylar-covered beds and plastic low tunnels to see which produces the most benefit per unit of electricity.

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