blownz281

Well for this winter I want to store all my mother plants pups. Also have to bring in my Gros Michael,and other smaller nanner plants in a few months. This storage unit is built on the back of our house. Its has electric outlets. Cost to build a small greenhouse would be really expensive I assume. Haven't looked yet on ebay for a smaller some what cheap greenhouse. BUT if I bought a 1500watt thermo controlled heater,and hooked up my old 36" T5 HO hood with one or two 39watt bulbs -10,000k would this work to keep my plants happy?

What temp would keep them happy/alive? Only really tender plants will be Gros Michael,Siam Ruby pups.

How many hrs of light for them to survive?

Thanks

blownz281

Bump. ANYONE?

sunfish

I don't let my greenhouse drop below 48f.If that helps

blownz281

Sounds good. What about my light idea and how many hrs a day?

sunfish

No idea

natej740

I would say about 16 hours since they wouldn't get any natural light. That is a complete guess though. You could try different settings on a timer and see what works best...

d-lilly

im just outta st.louis ,mo..and in my 13 x 17 "glass house" i have windows on 3 sides and run 2 small heaters that are hooked up to thermostat..I keep it about 70, and dont put any xtra light, unless I start seeds in feb..someone gave me the windows,,and the construction was only $500. i did most my self.. I always think that if a tornado would wipe out the windows,,I would get the thick plastic for green houses..sometimes the light thru the windows get pretty hot..
about bananas,,,,they were perfectly happy with no xtra light , they didnt grow alot,,but they didnt go dorment,,and they sure look great this year...as far as ele.cost,,if it cost me a exta $50. a month..its worth it to have a place to play in the winter

shilisha

That sounds great!

blownz281

Thanks for the input guys.

GreenFin

One idea would be to make your closet into a greenhouse of sorts, and to use your house as an automatic temperature regulator:

1) cut out most of the roof and sides of your closet that can get hit with sunlight either directly or if bounced (leaving edges so that all the structural support is still intact, and leaving walls intact that won't need to let any light in, such as the wall between the closet and your house)

2) cover the whole thing in greenhouse plastic (best would be covering with 2 layers and using an inflation fan kit ($150 new) to inflate the space in between the plastic 3-4")

3) Make the building fairly air tight (perhaps bury the plastic all around the closet except for the doorway, and seal the doorway well)

4) connect your new 'greenhouse' to your house with 2 separate pipes, one located low by the floor and one located up by the ceiling. (when the greenhouse gets hot, the hot air will push its way through the high pipe into your house, which causes cooler air to be pushed out of your house through the low pipe into your greenhouse; that cycling will cool your greenhouse while providing the additional benefit of helping to heat your house)

5) if necessary, construct/install as many external reflectors as you need to reflect additional sunlight into your greenhouse (makeshift reflectors can be made using all sorts of materials; I've used blank white signs joined into big panels, aluminum foil glued to scrap boards, and pools of water)

It would be a considerable project, but I figured I'd throw the idea out there.

__________________
Set out runnin', but I'll take my time; a friend of bananas is a friend of mine.

www.GreenFinGardens.com

GreenFin

Here's an idea that doesn't involve punching holes in your house.

Start by converting the storage closet into a 'greenhouse' as outlined in steps 1-3 above, then:

get, say, 4 or 8 used 55-gallon barrels (don't know how many to recommend cuz not sure how big your closet is). set them up in the closet: 1 in each corner and, if there's enough room, 1 against the middle of each wall. connect them single-file near their middles using uni-seals and pvc so barrel 1 is connected to barrel 2, barrel 2 is connected to barrel 3, etc, but with barrel 8 not connected to barrel 1 (i.e. don't complete the loop; that is done via your roof).

cover the roof of your house with several hundred feet of black hose/tubing. One end of the hose is connected to a pump and set in barrel 1; the other end of the hose is put in barrel 8. Water is pumped out of barrel 1, up through the hose on your roof, down into barrel 8, then through barrels 7/6/5/4/3/2 and finally back into barrel 1. Fill the barrels only to the point where they're full when the pump is off.

Running the pump during daylight hours will heat up the water (while helping to keep the air relatively cool), giving you a shed that essentially now has 8 heaters. During the night those barrels will give off a LOT of warmth while also keeping the place nice and humid.

Best of luck!

__________________
Set out runnin', but I'll take my time; a friend of bananas is a friend of mine.

www.GreenFinGardens.com

blownz281

Great ideas. But I found a sweet Harbor Freight greenhouse that's exactly what we need.