My GH and how it works

[gego]

How's this?

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Hahaha, there you go. Where's the coffee table?

 

[Migrant13]

And where's the cold beer?! Thanks for the tour and GH know-how. May come in handy someday....for now it's light carts in winter and under the crabapple tree in summer.

 

[abax]

Spooky SK...you look pissed off and a bit like David Morse
in one of his mean roles. Actually, that's a compliment.
He's a great character actor.

 

[SlipperKing]

Thanks a lot Rick, interesting to see how you deal with your challenges, here up north we have others- more connected to preserving heat than getting rid of it- ha ha, however with a greenhouse that preserves heat, high temperatures comes automatically. So, we get it both. Talking about solutions, two rules apply
1) Keep it simple (KISS)
and
2) If there is a chance of failure, then it will happen, - and when it happens its always when it suits the least. E.g. when you are away. So dealing with greenhouse automation I made the following rule "Its (almost) impossible to make it fool-proof; the fools are much to clever"
Good Luck with the summer heat

Heat, yes it is an issue here along the Gulf coast. Back in the late 90"s when I bought the GH out of some folks backyard it was only 7 feet tall to the peak. That would never do for me. Over the years I have taken down and re-built this same GH 4 times So with that said, I think I've improved upon each resurrection of this building. It stands now at 12 ft 2 inches to the peak which gets the heat way up away from the plants and with three fans it really moves allot air in and out. Back when I had a yard full of trees with no shade cloth at all the temps never got out of the 80's Everything bloomed as it does now, cats, vanda types,dendros etc. We loved that yard. It was like a mini forest inside the city but the drought of 2010 took out 18 pines, a maple and some other stuff. I had to drag out the old shade cloth.

As for failures, My friend Don lost a major portion of his big fancy GH just two weeks ago. He spent 80-100K on his brand new GH with all the bells and whistles including computer controlled environment. A single thermostat device failed while he was gone for one day. He came back to a 130 degree GH and allot of burned up plants! Apparently, the device's manufacturer had pre-programmed the system to default to heaters on air vents closed! The computer was reading a temp of 0 degrees! Needless to say, Don was/is very depressed.

I find it interesting how shady the growing area is, especially for those Maudiae-type and primulinum in flower. Is that area much brighter in the heat of summer?

No it is not. Mucho shade from the bench above.

Spooky SK...you look pissed off and a bit like David Morse
in one of his mean roles. Actually, that's a compliment.
He's a great character actor.

Actually Angela, I had just finished for the evening working on replacing the polycarb on the front of the GH with twinwall poly in 90+ heat with 90+ humidity. See the shine on my forehead? The beer is not in the picture

 

[bigleaf]

Thank you.

 

[JAB]

The story of your friend Don is heartbreaking! A lesson to us all that we should never trust technology complicity! Hope he can recover.

 

[Bjorn]

Yeah, understand if Don is pissed off now, I had my incidence myself, with thermostatically controlled lights, 4-5kW in the small space and with no vent. Without the shutoff and some additional sun, the temperature howered to about 49C (around 125F?). I came home and was able to turn things off, but a lot of sunscars on the cattleyas. The paphs were elsewhere luckily.

 

[NYEric]

Thanks for sharing. Good to see the earth outside the GH is not scorched this year!

 

[Carper]

Fantastic space and layout Rick.You know when you have it right. Yes, there are times when need to tweak but you gain confidence when your plants react positively. That space is a distant dream for me at present, purely because I don't have any! When it does happen, I'm going to duplicate the one I have for a much larger version.

Gary

 

[SlipperFan]

Thanks for sharing. Good to see the earth outside the GH is not scorched this year!

I was thinking that, also. From one extreme to another.

 

[JAB]

Unfortunately with plants (any living thing really) you MUST have eyes on every day! SO many things can go wrong especially the more automated we all get.

 

[SlipperKing]

Yea, poor Don. I should of taken pics to show what can happen but it wasn't the right time.

Now for more of a positive note, here is a shot of the roof at 11:24am today and two pics of the plants under the white fiberglass.

You can see the oak tree shading the far end. Below; lousy cell phone PIC. These plant really are GREEN!

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[SlipperKing]

Now the south side plants

Currently 29 degrees C

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[SlipperKing]

I finished the front too

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[Justin]

Super impressive...great work.

 

[Gilda]

Looks good !!! I found my orchids getting more sun this year. Phrags are going bonkers with blooms. Nothing burned though.
I'm having to water more frequently with the heat wave we are having.
Thanks again Rick for the tour !!!!

 

[SlipperFan]

Almost looks brand new!

 

[Brabantia]

Beautiful installation! I dream to have as much place than you to cultivate plants.
In prevention of bacterial or fungic attacks do you apply some treatements on your plants ?

 

[SlipperKing]

Beautiful installation! I dream to have as much place than you to cultivate plants.
In prevention of bacterial or fungic attacks do you apply some treatements on your plants ?

No I do not have a preventive program for bac/fung. I should clarify a bit, I keep a close watch but neither case seems to be much of a problem. Once in away I have bacterial rot on the S/H cultured Phrags

 

[AdamD]

Color me green. Very nice, thanks for the tour.