It seems that we've made an oven for the plants inside our high plains desert geothermal greenhouse with concrete. Temps at over 120° at near the indoor roof. 🥵 Even with screened ventilation holes at the top and a shop fan at the bottom, we were cooking everything inside. Despite that, this gives us great hope for the harsh winters we have that this greenhouse will stay warm in the winter.
We just installed our shade cloth from The Bootstrap Farmer and are very grateful for the recommendations we got for the company here. Fast and free shipping over $75. Cutting and installing the cloth was easy! We have it on a ratchet system with cloth clamps so we can remove it in the winter.
Already it's extremely less oppressive! Hoping to install rain catching irrigation soon (and a more dedicated solar powered ventilation system,) so for now we're hand watering…
But oh my gosh the difference the shade cloth makes!
by the_real_maddison
7 Comments
Thanks for the update!
How much did the shade cloth drop temps?
This completely changed my plans. Looks awesome.
So it’s basically a concrete greenhouse with a single row of plants and a cold sink? Where did you get the plans? Just curious, I live in the arctic.
You could also pile up more dirt around the concrete basin. Just like a frost line in winter, heat extends downward into soils during the summer. Moving the soil line up the wall a bit more will cool the lower cement. You can usually find fill dirt for cheap at quarries.
You will see the maximum drop in temp from the shade cloth if you create an air gap between the roof and the cloth. You can achieve this a lot of ways. You could add few tent pole style strips of wood to each corner of the roof. You want about 6” gap.
Love the concrete approach. Was that to create a solid thermal mass for the greenhouse? I’m in Zone 6B and planning on making a greenhouse soon that withstands our harsh winters.