Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Anyone in Zone 9 or hotter that can point me in a direction for greenhouse cooling that works in your area? I want to grow veggies year round, so I need a greenhouse not only for what we laughingly call winter here, but to keep the growing media from overheating.

shade cloth and fans bro

Gotta agree with captainron there... I see plant nurseries all over the place when I pass through Houston, all adorned with shade-cloth galore. If worse come to worst, you can always rig up (or purchase) a swamp cooler.

I guess I've been silly in my hope that I wouldn't need to spend the money on running and replacing fans. I know I can't get around the expense of the shade cloth, but I still want to look for the most passive cooling system I can find. Thanks for the input.

If you don't already have your greenhouse,

1. They do make larger greenhouses with roll down sides and some use inflatable sides (but they're more expensive). I believe either of these can be retrofitted onto an existing greenhouse. The inflatable sides require a battery and a blower motor and if they aren't inflated your greenhouse will be open to the outside air

http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/ca ... ain_1.html
http://www.usgr.com/ventilation/poly-ve ... _vents.php

2. For smaller greenhouses like the Harbor Freight versions you can replace the sidewall lexan pieces using window screen kits and inserting either screen or aluminet shade cloth which allows the air to flow through.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/loa ... 29743.html




There are other solutions like swamp coolers and fans.

Hey there, I am I'm Dallas and depending on the size of the greenhouse your talking about you might want to look into the idea of Subterranean Heating and Cooling. Specifically it is the idea that the ground stays a constant temp and if you blow hot air during summer you can get cooler air out and vice versa in winter.

There is a guy I met east of DFW who says he gets a 20+ degree difference simply by blowing his air through a ductwork buried under his greenhouse. Now granted he buried almost 4,000 linear feet of 4" pipe at three levels beneath his greenhouse (30' x 100'), but that is still a heck of a temp difference during a Texas summer.

I will see if I can dig up some more information from my files.

Adam

Maybe until I get some land I own, shade cloth draped over a framework facing South will do. The in ground ac system sounds like more of an expense than the fans. But probably more effective than fans alone. Plus I know even if I did own this house, there is no way I could dig four feet down with all the utilities in the area.

Your weather doesn't get to freezing that often in the Winter so you probably can get by without a greenhouse. Might not be able to grow all Winter but you won't miss much of it.

Better figure in a way to drain off some of the water from those torrential rains you have along the gulf coast.

It froze just North of here two days ago, and I want to buy land North of where I am currently living. The more I think about it, the more I know I'm a brand spanking newbie. If I had what my vision was built, I'd have probably lost some fish if not all of them. Maybe some sort of reuseable insulation I can take off for the summer? Or bury the tanks in the ground some to get the cooling from the dirt? I've accepted fans and shade cloth to keep from heating the grow media to the point the fish can't breathe and the plants won't grow.