Even an insulated year-round greenhouse doesn’t need a finished floor as a house does. Most of the footprint will be used as a planting area, which may or may not need a level finished surface. Your flooring option usually depends on how you want to grow in the greenhouse – whether growing directly in the…
We use the term glazing to describe any transparent structural material, whether glass, rigid plastics like polycarbonate, or plastic films. If designing your own solar greenhouse, these materials are critical to greenhouse efficiency and performance. Here are the main variables to pay attention to: light transmittance, insulation, placement, durability and cost. In our next blog we’ll…
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.…
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…
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…
Looking to design an aquaponics greenhouse? Here are some quick tips and strategies for making the most out of your greenhouse aquaponics investment. 1. Place grow beds in sunlight; fish tanks in shadier areas If fish tanks are in direct light they can easily get too hot during the day, lowering the dissolved oxygen in…
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,…
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…
