Jan 21 2015
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Solar Greenhouse Basics: Ventilation

Even a well-designed solar greenhouse will overheat sometimes. This is because greenhouses are excellent solar collectors. While all that light is needed for growth, it often creates too much heat. Ventilation is essential not only for cooling but also for plants’ health. A leaf surrounded by stagnant humid air is a bug’s best breeding ground.…
Greenhouse and chicken coop_Ceres Greenhouses
Jan 21 2015
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Solar Greenhouse Basics: Orientation

Solar greenhouse design begins with choosing the correct orientation for your greenhouse. For those in the Northern hemisphere, this means maximizing Southern exposure of your greenhouse. The length of the greenhouse (longer dimension) should face South as this is where the majority of light comes from in the Northern hemisphere. The North side of the…
Jan 15 2015
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Solar Greenhouse Basics: Insulating your foundation

Insulating the soil underneath your greenhouse is an essential (and easy) step for energy-efficient year-round growing. Here's the basics. Often when building an energy-efficient greenhouse, people think about solar greenhouse design with the right orientation and enough thermal mass. But they don’t realize that there is a whole lot going on underneath our feet. The…
GAHT system installation
Jan 13 2015
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Greenhouse Foundations

So, you want a year-round greenhouse?  Time to dig deep (literally). At Ceres Greenhouse, we design and build super energy-efficient, year-round greenhouses that are built to last.  We talk a lot about growing bananas, citrus, figs, tomatoes and other fresh fruits and vegetables, but we rarely “dig deep” to discuss the first steps of building…
ceres_hydroculture_greenhouse_hydro
Dec 18 2014
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7 Tips for Designing an Aquaponics Greenhouse

Some quick tips taken from our e-book - Designing an Energy-Efficient Aquaponics Greenhouse. You can download that for free here and get more info, floor plans and strategies for making the most out of your greenhouse investment. 1. Place grow beds in sunlight; fish tanks in shadier areas If fish tanks are in direct light they can…
ceres_netzero_3,000sqft_Boulder_02
Dec 11 2014
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Growing Bananas Off-Grid: Tour of A Tropical Greenhouse in the Rocky Mountains

Growing bananas and guava, this off-grid greenhouse is anything but your typical commercial greenhouse Step into the solar greenhouse at Golden Hoof Farm in Boulder CO and you're greeted not by a monoculture of mass-produced greens or flowers but by a forest of fruit trees -- guava, avocado, mango, banana, lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, starfruit, dragon fruit, pineapple,…
year-round greenhouse
Nov 14 2014
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3 Ways to Heat Your Greenhouse for Free this Winter

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…
Oct 28 2014
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Earth Sheltered Greenhouses

An interview with Mike Oehler, author of “The Earth Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book” We’ve talked about walipini’s: underground pit-style greenhouses that don’t have a foundation wall or frame. Going a step beyond a walipini is a framed greenhouse built underground. A common design for these is often called an Earth-Sheltered Greenhouse, a term popularized by…