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Post by adelea on Feb 20, 2014 8:51:12 GMT
I have just moved into my new place and found that the yard is useless for a polyhouse (which I use during uni), The area I want to put something is cement pavers, the problem is that it gets full sun from 9a through till 3pm, also the water here is highly toxic (I had to buy a purifier for human consumption), so I will be getting water from dads place north of here (normally I get 160-180L per trip, that’s every fortnight).
What I was thinking is to build a greenhouse frame out of timber and cover it with white 50% shade cloth, then place the polyhouse within it, however I am not sure if this will be enough to cool it, I can’t just use shade cloth as the humidity here is to low so I have to use poly film.Any other suggestions?
Also the poly got to 68C today before I opend the door, but luckily it was set as a trial so no plants where injured in the process, so I need atleast a 40C drop, I am not sure the shade cloth will block enough heat out. If there is nothing I can do the world will not end as I could just keep everything at my greenhouse (at dads) and the smaller/rarer plants in a couple terrariums (such as new neps, as I am now)
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Post by sykosarah on Feb 20, 2014 16:49:59 GMT
I am not sure you want to use wood, ants, and more importantly, termites might prevent it from remaining structurally sound. Now, the sun is most bright towards the east and south of a building, and since you have nepenthes, which prefer filtered light over anything else, you could put it close enough to your house that shade is partly provided. However, since you live in a rather dry (and hot?) area, I don't know if I would recommend a green house at all. Do you have many trees on the property? Their shade would most certainly help. Being in the state of Michigan, I have to contend with temperatures that can be lower than -20 degrees Celsius for multiple days, and summers where the temperature can exceed 35 degrees Celsius readily. Which is probably why there aren't many native CPs in my state. Personally, I would need to know how many plants you have to come up with a reasonable solution. I don't know if this is economic for you, but have you ever considered a below ground growing arrangement? Air flow might be a little difficult, but if you had only the top of the "green house" exposed to sunlight while the rest remains under ground (where it is cooler) might work.
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Post by adelea on Feb 20, 2014 20:32:03 GMT
Timber is fine, my greenhouse at dads is timber, I just posion around it every few months with webzone (insectacide). I mainly want it for my smaller neps (less than 30cm diameter), pervillei, campanulata, bellii and viellardii are the main worries (although viellardii seems have enough in the greenhouse). I also normally keep my larger utrics here with me (like reniformis and longifolia) and they suffer without humidity here.
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Post by sykosarah on Feb 21, 2014 4:43:24 GMT
Maybe a humidifier would help? Would probably help you too if it is that dry
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Post by adelea on Feb 21, 2014 5:20:32 GMT
I'm not that interested in spending over $300 on the setup, the timber and shadecloth would cost just shy of that.
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Post by sykosarah on Feb 21, 2014 14:48:04 GMT
Then I don't know, sorry.
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Post by adelea on Feb 22, 2014 9:45:50 GMT
Thanks anyway, if anyone else has any ideas or knows if this will work please let me know
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Post by paulbarden on Feb 22, 2014 15:34:13 GMT
Shade cloth alone will not reduce heat accumulation in an enclosed space without the help of other technologies. You will need to consider some other cooling equipment, such as a swamp (evaporative) cooler, but since you've stated that your water is "toxic", I doubt you could run a swamp cooler with such a bad water source. You may be better off leaving your plants in Dad's greenhouse.
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Post by adelea on Feb 22, 2014 21:04:42 GMT
I setup a 3foot tank that got a few hours of morning sun and reached 54C, but after I put a cover up (50% shade-cloth) the temp went down, that was just over a week ago and the max temp has been 30-31C since then and 95-98% humidity, and all I have running is a small fan and a fed LED light to intensify the light. This is why I was thinking shade cloth, setting up a fan would not be hard as I have plenty in the shed. But if I can't build this greenhouse then I guess I will have to just setup a couple extra 3foot tanks (I used to breed reptiles so I have plenty of tanks anyway, I obviously couldn't continue that hobby whilst renting but luckily they let tenants have vivariums)
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