The Rubicon: A greenhouse from recycled materials: Putting on Shadecloth

Before I get started on this, I wanted to tell anyone who reads this (lol wut readers?) that I'm going to write my next post on some semi-comprehensive web research on how to build a greenhouse out of recycled windows and other materials. Obviously I'm not an expert, but there have been a lot of people who have tried this and similar projects with varying results. I'll try to put on a lot of links and what I think about the various resources.

Now, on account of how hot I anticipate this summer getting, I ordered some aluminet shade cloth from gemplers.com. I also ordered some of these hinged grommets.

I cut the shade cloth to size and hemmed the sides (my wife did this!) and stretched a piece across the south side and the roof. I put in screws, leaving the head a half inch from fully embedded, to act as anchors. The shadecloth is 50%, and already yesterday (sunny and 66 degrees) I noticed that the air in the greenhouse was not heating nearly as fast. The greenhouse now looks even more like a futuristic spaceship.

Those are strawberry beds in the foreground.

I don't anticipate covering much more window space in in shadecloth, since most of the worst spots are now covered, and since many of the remaining window spaces can be opened (though I guess I could make it so that they could be opened with shadecloth applied if I was careful on the tailoring side). I might place individual pieces on a window on the west wall and one on the east wall, but I'm going to wait and see what happens on an 85 degree day before I take those steps.

I'm probably going to order a new 12" variable speed exhaust fan from www.littlegreenhouse.com because I don't think the fan I have installed has nearly enough power to turn the air over in the greenhouse quickly enough. Since tomatoes won't fruit and start to become damaged at prolonged temperatures above 93 degrees, I'm going to have to need all the help I can get from an exhaust fan to keep growing through July and August.

When I started this venture I thought operating a greenhouse was all about keeping things warm, but I've quickly figured out that at least here in Kentucky, 6 months out of the year it will be all about keeping the damn thing cool enough. Right now in my heat-fighting repertoire I have a 650 cfm evaporative cooler, which will be a big help on the hottest days where I can't cool the overall ambient temperature enough with the fan and shadecloth. I also have 8 windows that can be opened if you count the slide on the door. The problem is that none of the windows open on the south side. Oh well. If I buy the new exhaust fan I'll be guaranteed to have an air exchange that ranges from 1100 to 550 cfm. The worst case scenario is that all of these measures won't be enough to cool the greenhouse on a 95 degree day and then my only real options will be to buy a higher percentage shade cloth (like 80%) or to build a fogger to mist water into the air. I'd rather not cut out more light with a denser shadecloth, and building a fogger sounds like a risky proposition, b/c I haven't made everything in the greenhouse water proof, and have electrical stuff all over the floor. I'd have to come up with a solution for that before trying to build a fogger. Not to mention the $$$ it will cost, and that I basically don't have any more $$$ to spend on it. I'm so over-budget I feel like a government contractor. Add that problem to the fact that I have no experience with foggers and I don't have the slightest clue how to build an effective one, and that's my last ditch option.

I also checked my ph for the first time in a while and discovered it was way up there, between 7 and 7.5. Apparently the best range to be in is 5.8-6.2. I hadn't worried about it for a while because the plants looked so good. Maybe things will start to look even better now that I've fixed it. In any case here are what the plants look like now.