The Storm door is on....

I have finished placing the storm door that my neighbor donated to the project and it turned out very well. After leaving the door in a closed position with the window on the door open and the other two windows open in the greenhouse I checked the inside temp and in the direct afternoon sun with outside temps at 103 degrees, the inside temp jumped to 115 degrees and more later in the afternoon. Way to hot for any plants to survive. I have ordered a gable mounted attic fan that is solar powered and will install it in one end of the greenhouse to help with air flow and temperature. I am scouring craigslist fror a good used Swamp Cooler to use in the greenhouse as well...hopefully I will find one soon. Even with a relative humidity of 50% I should be able to drop the temp 10-15 degrees on a hot day, and with low pressure water misting maybe even a few degrees more.

 Here are some pics of the greenhouse as it stands now after several weeks worth of work. I still need to place the substrate / bedding for the floor in the greenhouse and then I can start building my aeroponics system.

More updates to follow once I receive the attic fan, this has been alot of fun to put together.

Finishing up on the Greenhouse

Well, I have made great progress on the greenhouse, it has been painted up, the roof and window panels are installed, along with a ridge vent.  I have two windows that open for more air flow during those "hot" times, with screening to keep the bugs at bay...it was a chore, but well worth the effort. Here are some pics....

 I still have to place the storm door which was graciously donated by my neighbor "Skip" whom I wish to thank. After which I will be placing the substrate for the flooring which will consist of sand/gravel and paver stones, and due to the excessive heat buildup I will be placing a gable mounted solar powered attic fan in one end of the building with possibly a "Swamp cooler" in the other once I run the electric and water to the building....more to come.

The Greenhouse paint job is complete

Well, it took three long, laborious days to complete the painting job on the green house. There were alot of nooks and crannies to get paint into, both inside and outside the building. I will be tackling the shingle roofing next with the FRP/PVC panels to follow. Hopefully, I can get that taken care of this week...more updates soon.

What is Aero and Aquaponics....

According to Wikipedia, "Aeroponics is the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium (known as geoponics)."  Simply put, I will be using plant mister heads from a lawn irrigation system to build the Aeroponics portion of the system, while using trays of some sort to hold the plants root systems for growth. Now for Aquaponics Wikipedia  states that "Aquaponics is a sustainable food production system that combines a traditional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment." Which really means I will basically be growing the Tilapia in large tanks, and using the water from those tanks to feed the plants in a recirculating fashion, i.e. the fish dirty the water with waste by-products and the plants use those by-products for growth thus cleaning the water which can be re-introduced back into the fish tanks. More details on this to follow.

The Building of a Greenhouse

Well, after months of debate on the type and style of greenhouse to use, and after much consideration with respect to price for prefab structures I have opted to build my own greenhouse from the ground up...without using plans. Here is what it looks like thus far. I decided on a 12Wx20Lx9H structure to start with...

As you can see this is the post setting stage with an 80lb bag of concrete securing each post.

These are two old 7'x13' dog pens that I will be converting to cold frames once the greenhouse is finished.

  This is the Girt additions to tie it all together.

  and the trusses for the roof, the peak is 9 feet and the side walls are 5.5 feet, the whole structure is 12x20 which should provide plenty of room to start and I have plenty of room to grow the structure on the left side if needed.

The roof sheathing is being placed and regular composition roofing will be used on the north side of the structure. Notice the additional bracing on the girts.

The next stage was placing the siding, I used T1-11 and cut opening for windows and also place felt paper on the north side of the roof.

and here is the structure as it sits now, I have completed the purlins for the corrugated clear polycarbonate panels on the south facing portion of the roof, and painted them with white paint as recommended by the panel manufacturer. Now on to painting the rest of the greenhouse to match our home. Time to complete this stage - 2 weeks @ 4-5 hours per day.