How well do you understand temperature and relative humidity? By Harry Connor Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) is used by growers to assess how dry the air is at a given moment. If the air is too dry, photosynthesis will stop in order to protect the plant from exhaustion. Photosynthesis is the process of converting sunlight,…
Summer is almost here! As outdoor temperatures begin to rise, greenhouse temperatures rise as well. Luckily, there are a few methods for reducing the amount of heat that enters your greenhouse. Here at Ceres, we think that shade paint is a great way to reduce greenhouse temperatures. Shade paint can be applied once your greenhouse…
Innovation plays an important role in every industry. Bulky, inefficient methods are catalysts for new-age technology. Since traditional greenhouses lack insulation, thermal masses can provide extra heat. Thermal mass materials absorb heat during the day and release the heat back into the greenhouse at night. Water barrels are widely used to maintain temperatures in…
With demand for local food continuing at a strong pace, a year-round greenhouse is often a good business venture. You can greatly improve your chances for a successful greenhouse business with proper planning. Planning for a greenhouse business requires basic business planning -- thorough research and usually spreadsheets. Here are five essential tools to aid that process, based…
A climate battery is a ground to air heat exchanger, which provides year-round heating and cooling of solar greenhouses and other structures using the thermal mass of the soil underground. Ceres’ patent-pending Ground to Air Heat Transfer (GAHT™) is a high-performance climate battery specialized for year-round greenhouse growers. For more on how a GAHT™ system…
Year round greenhouses, or even those used for season extension, face the challenge of extreme temperature swings. A greenhouse structure can collect excessive amounts of heat during the day when the sun is out, causing them to easily overheat. However, they quickly lose this heat at night due to a lack of insulation, resulting in…
Growing in a year-round greenhouse often means contending with heat. For most crops, photosynthesis slows when temperatures exceed 95 F. As the dog-days of summer hit, we explore the most energy-efficient ways of cooling a greenhouse. 1. Keep heat out (Shade Cloth) Best for: all climates The first is to reduce light and heat gain…
“The Phase Change Material has been up for a few weeks now and is keeping the greenhouse about 20 degrees warmer than the minimum outside temp. Without the PCM, the greenhouse was about 10 degrees warmer. As of today [Nov 17th] I am still getting lots of tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers. My Myer’s lemon…
What do I want to grow and when? In other words why do you want a greenhouse? This is the first question we start with when planning any greenhouse, because what you want to grow, over what seasons, dictates a lot about your greenhouse design. Generally, we group greenhouses into three categories by their temperature…
Learn how to harness and store solar energy to keep your greenhouse growing through the winter for free (or next to nothing) Greenhouses can be interesting environments to grow in. This is because standard greenhouse materials like glass and plastic (“glazing”) are extremely good at letting in light and heat in, and extremely good at…
