We are searching data for your request:
Upon completion, a link will appear to access the found materials.
There are places on our planet where the climate allows two or even three harvests a year. Of course, agriculture thrives there and turns out to be much more profitable than in our temperate latitudes, where plants have time to grow and give us fruits only once a year.
But there is a technology that allows you to deceive nature and make the plant bear fruit all year round, even in winter, it is based on the use winter greenhouse, which you can build (do) with your own hands.
What are the advantages of a winter greenhouse?
The first - a winter greenhouse, which you can build (make) with your own hands, gives the ability of perennial southern plants to develop normally for several years in a row (as seen in the photo). The fact is that many of the plants that we grow for only one season are actually perennials. One of them is tomato. This plant can grow up to three meters in height and bear fruit abundantly, like grapes.
Second the advantage is associated with the first. it the ability to grow perennial tropical and subtropical plantsthat cannot bear fruit in the first year of their life, like a tomato. So, bananas, pineapples, lemons, kiwi and so on are grown in greenhouses.
Fig. 1 Banana tree in the greenhouse
Third - the ability to grow one- or two-year-old plants by collecting harvest more than once a year... For example, you can get a harvest of cucumbers or radishes for the New Year's table, grow carrots, radishes, beets, etc. There will be no lack of vitamins and fiber throughout the year.
If there is sufficient area of a greenhouse built by your own hands, the products can be sold in the winter period, when the price of vegetables and fruits is maximum. In addition, fruits grown in Russia will have an important competitive advantage before imported ones: they will not have time to deteriorate and there is no need to process them from rot (imported vegetables and fruits are often covered with a layer of paraffin).
Fourth - such a greenhouse has a purely technical advantage: it is a capital structure is stronger, more stable and more durablethan conventional greenhouses, greenhouses or covered beds. Such a structure necessarily has a foundation and will last longer and need less repairs.
How to make ordinary greenhouses, such as arched, polycarbonate, from window frames, single-slope wall structures or greenhouses, which are also huge: under the film, from polycarbonate, a mini-greenhouse, from PVC and polypropylene pipes, from old window frames, "Butterfly", "snowdrop" and even a winter greenhouse you can read in other articles in this section.
Mandatory requirements
Of course winter greenhouse construction for growing vegetables all year round with your own hands, should be different from the construction of a conventional greenhouse, especially from the construction of a covered garden bed or greenhouse.
Winter greenhouse must have a foundation... Moreover its depth should be greater than the depth of soil freezing in the area.
The frame of the winter greenhouse must be more durable, and consist of more reliable materials. This is especially true of the roof, because in winter snow can fall on it, which sometimes accumulates up to several tons.
Fig. 2 Winter gable greenhouse
Covering material may also be different.... For the same reasons: the film can stretch and break under a huge mass of snow. Ice is especially dangerous for the film, which is formed as a result of melting snow and its subsequent freezing. Glass in this sense is much better and safer. It should also be noted that one layer of covering material is not enough: these greenhouses are usually two-layer. If the covering material is glass, then this is also a huge load on the frame.
How to make your winter greenhouse warm yourself? A mandatory requirement is the presence of heating in the greenhouse.... Moreover, if the greenhouse is long (more than 15 meters), most likely, you will have to install not one stove, but two or even three.
And of course the lighting. In winter, plants will definitely lack light, especially in December, when short days are superimposed on cloudy weather. In the design, you will definitely have to provide a place for light sources..
Preparatory work
Preparing for the construction of a winter (year-round) greenhouse with your own hands includes planning, preparing materials, preparing for the installation of heating and arranging the foundation.
Planning
There are many options for winter greenhouse projects. They can be traditional, quadrangular in the top view, but there are also hexagonal, may be different heights, ventilate in different ways, etc. The easiest way is to take as a basis project of a quadrangular (sometimes said to be four-walled) greenhouse, and that's why:
- backyard plots and vegetable gardens usually have a quadrangular shape, by arranging the greenhouse in the shape of the garden, you rationally use the space;
- four-walled construction greenhouses for winter cultivation simpler... Especially when glazing or stretching the film;
- to maintain such a greenhouse, a single path can be drawn in the middle, along which pipes for irrigation, etc. will be directed. That is, she easier to operate.
Six- (eight-, decagonal) greenhouses usually have a modest size and the advantage that the hexagon has a more favorable area-to-perimeter ratio, hence less heat loss, but the complexity of the design and the complexity of operation, the limitation in size makes such greenhouses more a work of art than a means of earning money or growing plants for food. Therefore, we will consider just a quadrangular greenhouse.
Fig. 3 Hexagonal greenhouse
It should be oriented from north to south, the roof is best done with a gable, and under the ridge of the roof set additional supportsso that the structure does not collapse under the weight of the snow. If the frame is factory-made and the greenhouse in cross-section has the shape of an arch, this is even better - the snow will slide by itself.
The place should be level, the soil should be sandy... If it is clay, you need to make a pillow of sand, and on top - a layer of fertile black soil.
Airing should be carried out in the warm season regularlyotherwise the plants will die from the heat. This means that you need to provide this function in the design. At first, greenhouse must have two doors at opposite endsto create a draft when they are opened at the same time. Secondly, if the greenhouse is more than 10 meters in length, it is desirable that it also have opening windows... Windows can be in side walls, ceilings, next to or above doors. The higher the windows, the better.
Materials (edit)
Here the stronger the better... Best of all is a steel corner or pipes. A factory-made galvanized iron frame will do. Bolt.
Worse - timber, board or poles. It is better to fasten the tree with self-tapping screws, the nails are often pulled out by the wind, especially when the tree begins to collapse.
It is desirable to paint non-galvanized ironso that it rusts less, wood - antisepticto prevent fungi or insects from growing.
Foundation device
This must-have part of a winter greenhouse must reach a depth where the ground no longer freezes... The foundation can be made of cinder block or concrete. From above it should be necessarily insulated with waterproof material (only) so that the moisture does not rise higher.
There must be a plinth on the foundation, which is built from the same cinder block or brick. At the same time, the floor of the greenhouse may be below the level of the surrounding ground, that is, year-round greenhouses, made by hand, as if dug into the ground for better preservation of heat.
Heating preparation
For large greenhouses the best heating is wateras in the house. It will distribute the heat evenly. But this requires a lot of money, materials and labor, because it will be easier to make a few ordinary stoves... To make the potbelly stove more efficient, the pipe from it should not go vertically upwards. Instead of this make 5 meters of pipe at a low slope (up to 10 degrees) and then connect to the vertical pipe.
Be careful that there are no smoke leaks at the joints - it is harmful to plants, since it contains sulfur oxides.
Fig. 4 Example of heating in a winter greenhouse
There are also infrared gas burners, which will serve as an additional source of heat. But they need to be shielded from the ceiling and from plants. It is best to place such a burner inside a large pipe that is open on both sides. Natural gas combustion products are almost harmless to plants, in contrast to the combustion products of wood and coal.
Building a greenhouse step by step
How to build (make) a greenhouse for winter cultivation (warm, year-round or winter) with your own hands? So, in order:
- Explore the area.
- Think over the device of a winter (year-round) greenhouse - sketch out a preliminary design (drawings, diagrams of the future structure, which you will do with your own hands).
- Prepare (buy) materials.
- Change the project if it is necessary due to the absence or presence of certain materials.
- We mark a place for a greenhouse and dig a trench for the foundation.
- We make concrete and pour it into the trench (plank formwork or reinforcement can be used, but not necessary).
- We waterproof the resulting foundation with roofing felt.
- We build a plinth of red or white brick, or the same concrete.
- We collect the frame. The side posts of the frame can be attached to the plinth in different ways, depending on what materials are used. It can be anchor, if you need to fasten wood to concrete... If the metal is attached to the brick, you can simply leave space for racks in the basement, and after the racks are installed, fill them with concrete.
Fig. 5 Frame during assembly
- When the frame is ready, it's time to think about heating. Install stoves and chimneys. In the right places of the frame, it is necessary to make an outlet for the chimney. It is a square made of tin or plywood with a hole in the center to fit the pipe. Need it, so that the hot pipe does not come into contact with the covering materialwhen the greenhouse is covered.
- Prepare lighting spots. The simplest is pendant fluorescent lamps... They need hooks attached to the frame on which they will hang. You don't have to be too creative with wiring - you can use a regular extension cord and an outlet in the nearest electrified building.
- Covering the greenhouse... Special grooves in the frame and putty are needed under the glass to get rid of the cracks. The film is nailed with thin strips. The polycarbonate is fixed with bolts or self-tapping screws using large thermal washers. The holes for the pipes must remain uncovered (if you stretch the film in one piece, the future hole must be upholstered around with wooden slats, and then cut. The covering material should not touch the pipe in any case..
- We install vertical chimneys in the prepared places for them.
- We hang fluorescent lamps.
Thus, the greenhouse is ready for use. Then it will be possible to carry out drip irrigation, automatic light on / off systems, etc., but this is no longer necessary.
Fig. 6 An example of the construction of a "dug in" thermo-greenhouse with your own hands
Conclusion
Thus, winter greenhouses for year-round cultivation, built with their own hands, are more capital structure in comparison with conventional greenhouses, time-consuming and labor-intensivebut allow you to grow exotic plants even in the harsh climate of the temperate zone, as you can see from the descriptions and photos of this article. it will allow you to recoup the costs of their construction for several years.
You can more visually look at another option for the construction of a winter greenhouse in the video:
