Taylor

Hello Board-Members,

It is that time of year again.
Yes, the cold one.

I have recently found out most of my Bananas won't store worth a darn. SO! I need a greenhouse. Maybe 6' by 6' to 10' by 10', anything around there, not exact. PLMK any Websites dealing with a greenhouse of that size, for a really low price (anything to $250) or a website you used that you like. Please tell me what you know, I just NEED one, not WANT one. Big difference. Anyone work in the Greenhouse Business or have a used one about to be scrapped, that could be sold cheap. LMK!

-Taylor

mikevan

How tall are your nanners? A couple of cattle-panels (stock-panels - 52" x 16') assembled into a hoop-house work very well for me if the nanners weren't too tall. Cheap poly from the hardware will last you 4 or 5 months, depending on wind. More if you can protect from wind. This year they're going in an 8' deep 12' wide covered pit to give me 12.5' of headroom.

Be well,
Mike

Taylor

LOL! Only about 2-3 feet tall. I don't know if I understand. Do you have any Pictures or Links on the internet of what you are talking about? Sounds like a good idea though.

mikevan

A while back I ganged 7 of them together to form a 33' long, 9' wide, 6' tall hoophouse. You can assemble fewer for a shorter greenhouse. 2 even. They're attached to each other with zip-ties, and there's pipe insulation on the ends to prevent the wire from chafing the plastic. Here's a pic:


My dwarf nanner - barely viewable in there - survived a dip to 20F when the heater went out - greenhouses really add a lot of latitude to a plant's survivability.

Be well,
Mike

Taylor

I really don't think I can get those type things though. I live in a big City, with only an acre yard. I need something a little smaller maybe. like up to 10 feet by 10 feet. Great idea though. Maybe for the day I move out west Well. Couldit get anysmaller, or with a door or something. We get 0 degree temps here.

mikevan

2 of them ganged up (2 x 52") is only a little over 8' x 9' wide - just a little less than 10x10 and would be 6' tall. Check with your local Low's or Pate's - these panels are not nearly as uncommon as they may seem. You can plywood the ends easily too. Complete DIY specific to your personal needs.

Be well,
Mike

momoese

How on earth did you dig a 8 foot by 12 foot pit? Tractor?

mikevan

Back-hoe. 45' long hole. I'm forever appreciative of my wife for letting me dig it. Just wait until I'm done with all my other projects too - the backyard will not be recognizeable. For the pit, I'm blessed with having sandstone for subsoil - walls are solid! Took the dull rounded tines on the back-hoe bucket and transformed them into short shiny and very sharp claws when I was done. It will be framed and covered in a month. Here's a pic:


I have my very own sand-box to play in.

Be well,
Mike

banana_fun

That is awsome!

momoese

Now that's some serious Banana dedication!

Where did all the old sand stone go?

Did you drive the back-hoe?

Will the plants be in the ground or containers?

Any chance it will fill full of water from the surrounding sandstone expelling water into it?

mikevan

Believe it or not, all my nanners will go into topside beds permanantly when all is said and done. So will my taro tho I still keep backups under protection. The greenhouse is for my tender tropicals - cacao theobroma, coffea arabica, vanilla planifolia, cashew, tropical yams, boswellia sacra, piper nigrum, etc etc etc... The sandstone is piled up on either side of the pit currently - when I pour the footings up topside and install the permanant cover, the risers for the cover will be bermed - I'll have a 15' to 20' of headroom from the final sloped cover and the top of the pit will be carved to be 20' wide to fit the wider canopy when all is said and done. And why can't I play on big toys? No, this time I had a professional friend do it. Professional friend - that sounded weird - yeah, I pay him to be my friend. No, a professional back-hoe driver.

While the pit is under development - the current cover will only be temporary while I weld together the permanant one - they'll be in containers. When permanantly covered and the walls cleaned up some, I'll take a pick and carve out permanent beds for the plants and they'll go into the ground.

I guess I shouldn't mention the 25' diameter pit I'm starting that I'll cover with a geodome to house a pair of coconut palms.

No worries about the water. Our water table is a steady 16.5' rain or dry. I could probably hand-dig a well in the corner of the greenhouse if I chose, tho we already have a well. It would be neat tho. Anyway, it's poured down in there numerous times since it was dug with no problems whatsoever - it drains fairly rapidly.

And that is some very fine very pure white sand! Break that sandstone up and it's almost a fine gritty powder! I could sell that stuff!

Be well,
Mike

AnnaJW

Holy cow Mike! That is truly awesome!!!

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Living my life in MMORPG's

mikevan

Yeah. I got a lot of weird looks when I invited people at my old job to come look at my white sandy hole in the back. Cough. My kids love the big pile of sand too! They're going to help me clean out the loose sand inside to the solid floor - they'll get tired of sand real quick. Anyway - this will be far cheaper to keep warm and cool due to the earth-mass effect which will make it way easier for me to make my little rainforest a reality without emptying my wallet. Up topside I'm putting in a Moso and Henon bamboo jungle with clearings for bananas, figs and other fruits, tree ferns, butia capitata palms, etc. Like I said - in 5 years or so, this property will be a totally different place! It's nice when you don't concern yourself with property resale value and whatnot...

Be well,
Mike

PhilMusa

Holy cow Mike,

You're nuts in a good way. Please post pics when your done!

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PhilMusa

frankthetank

Nice hole Mike! I figure i'd have to get down pretty deep to raise bananas up here in the winter! SO you won't be heating that at all??? How much sunlight does that get?

mikevan

Depends on what you're growing - dwarfs are fairly easy to greenhouse - I've kept them going thru more than a few winters in a regular hoophouse tho sometimes you have to stuff them in there. And remember, where you can't go down, you can bring down up. Berm.

Nevertheless, I'm using the Bolivian walipini design for my pit greenhouse and here in Texas we have no shortage of sun, even during the winter. It'll get very warm in there during the day and only a few nights are really cold - the earth-mass will help offset that. I may use a solar heater to heat up water-tanks in there for really bad periods. Only a small fraction of glazing area will be exposed compared to the earths surface area (walls and floor) as well as the volume inside. The plants roots will be growing well below the reach of the winter chill - even tho our top-soil only freezes perhaps a few inches if that on really cold nights. Gives me a larger latitude than what I'd get in an above-ground greenhouse. The original walipini's were in the highlands of Bolivia that has similar tempuratures in their winter that we do here and they're about as low-tech as you can get. All my trees will be pruned to fit - cacao can get to 40' in the rainforests, tho plantations often prune them to around 11'. Coffee will be pruned to around 8'. Cashews around 15'. Avocado will be kept around 8 to 10'. Papaya will be composted after around 12' - you can almost grow those as annuals. You can see, even tho it's 12' wide and 45' long - it will still get tight in there really quick. Lotsa pruning to keep things happy. Anything with any cold tolerance will be planted topside. I'll dig a root-cellar to store taro corms, gingers, plumeria and others over the winter. I had lemongrass survive last winter topside - will experiment some more in hopes of having a permanent bed up there, tho a cold-frame could also be implimented too. Same with pineapples - bermed coldframes for them too. Needless to say, working at home takes on a whole new meaning when you have all this extra work to do as well.

Be well,
Mike

MediaHound

find any dinosaurs?

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frankthetank

Last summer i had my first outing with a 4 wheel drive tractor (putting in a new lawn). Let me say that if i owned that piece of equipment, my yard would have no grass whatsoever! Good going and take lots of pics!

jeffreyp

The beauty of living here in south florida is that we can grow just about all the cultivars without worry of frost. We're fortunate in the sense that we can also observe the growth of the plants year-round - not just a few months out of the year. I have noticed things do slow down for sure (if not a complete stand still) when winter temps dip into the 50's at night. Basjoo, musella, and ensete love to cool weather. For a small green house, I'd grow these bananas..truly tiny, and super dwarf cavendish. In a larger greenhouse I'd also recommend growing Raja Puri, dwarf namwa, dwarf orinoco, dwarf cavendish, and mohoi cavendish. There's probably others that are also suitable, but those come to mind..

Zac in NC

Mike- You sir, are my hero. Wow. That is awesome. I am at a loss for words.

Zac