Thanks again guys! It's nice to be on the home stretch trust me.

Not really sure about heat John but I'm thinking it won't be all that bad. I'm hooking it in to my natural gas line which is much cheaper then anything else by a lot. I have a 100000 btu furnace that is 80% efficient which is way more then what is needed to heat it, plus there's some serious mass in there to hold the heat when the sun is out which will really save me. I'll let you know in the spring.

Scott, my skype is down because my cell phone crapped out. I can call you from my house phone though since it's free to call Canada, I'll need your number again since it was in my cell.

Bill

So what are you going to do with it in the summer? Im assuming some palms and or bananas might stay in, but you could get away with some nice ruit crops in there, or more tropical plants as well....

I'm going to fill it up with as many tropicals as possible to great a rain forest environment for best optimal growth. All the big palms are coming out in Early April and getting transplanted into tree boxes just in case they don't sell right away, this way they'll remain healthy. I'm sure they won't mind grabbing some nutrients out of the new soil either.

No real room for fruits and vegetables, I buy all my stuff fresh grown from a farm stand 2 mins. away. He's a really nice guy, and his product blows the market away, plus I've always liked helping the little people.

Bill

One of the nice things about cold hardy palms is you really don't need to heat
a G-house like you would for tropicals!

Your climate not being to cold at night and double plastic with a forced
layer of air really helps too!

Probably only need to heat during the coldest nights and the occasional
cloudy cold day if you need to bump the temp over freezing for the afternoon-
sure you already know this but just wanted to mention that.........

that's pretty cool! 8)

Good to know, im glad it wont be sitting idle all spring/summer. To nice to waste 😀

One helluva job and a good one at that. You have some nice palms there.

Hey Jim,

Man does the greenhouse hold the heat good, after the sunny day two days ago the temps when up in there and stayed up for a long time after the sun went down. Yesterday the sun was out for maybe 45 mins. all day and it was easily 15-20f warmer then outside. All the palms packed in there are going to work to my advantage collecting heat for sure 😀

Thanks Charles!

You know where to come this spring is you want nanital, a waggie, or just a plain good ole 8' trunk trachy 😆

Bill

the temps when up in there and stayed up for a long time after the sun went down

The mulch is a big heat accumulator.
Better than barrels of water, which you don't have any room for anyway. 😛

Bill,
yes, keep us updated on temps in there but I think it will be easy to keep warm.
And, oh, the thought of an 8' trunk palm! 🙂
Maybe I can find one in Texas some year when I'm down there with a horse trailer anyways....
--Erik

Bill, did you say a furnace to heat that 😯

Hey Jim,

Man does the greenhouse hold the heat good, after the sunny day two days ago the temps when up in there and stayed up for a long time after the sun went down. Yesterday the sun was out for maybe 45 mins. all day and it was easily 15-20f warmer then outside. All the palms packed in there are going to work to my advantage collecting heat for sure 😀

Thanks Charles!

You know where to come this spring is you want nanital, a waggie, or just a plain good ole 8' trunk trachy 😆

Bill

Should I visit family up there, I may just give you some business.

Do you vent that structure? My minigreenhouse has lots of moisture in it.

Hey Jim,

Man does the greenhouse hold the heat good, after the sunny day two days ago the temps when up in there and stayed up for a long time after the sun went down. Yesterday the sun was out for maybe 45 mins. all day and it was easily 15-20f warmer then outside. All the palms packed in there are going to work to my advantage collecting heat for sure 😀

Thanks Charles!

You know where to come this spring is you want nanital, a waggie, or just a plain good ole 8' trunk trachy 😆

Bill

I know what you mean brother 😀

As you know,mine is only one layer of plastic...but get this,
it was below freezing all day today(Saturday)but in the Cactus G-house it was 40(F) inside!

Not bad considering it was cloudy all day!

Nice job. Should do well for you all winter. I'm also curious on how you got the plastic so tight and tied down. Never seen a wiggle wire installed. So it is two layers of poly on top of each other and then u inflate air in between?

How much did this whole setup cost?

Sorry, for not responding guys I've been building palm houses and wrapping stuff up the last few days.

Barb,
Definitely no room for water barrels in there unless I load palms on top of them 😆

Erik,
I don't have a digital thermometer in there yet, just a cheap little one but it hit 75f in there when the sun was out all day and it was in the upper 40's outside

😯

Jesse,
Yeah, there's a regular house furnace in there, not quiet hooked up yet but soon, it won't be as bad as you think to heat, natural gas is cheap, plus I'm setting the thermostat to 30f. If I was heating it to 70f that would be a different story all together 😉

Charles,
If your up here please stop by even if you don't need anything it would be nice to met you. I haven't chopped vents into it yet but I will need to before February, for now I'm just going to stick a huge fan in there with a thermostat on 65 or so and have it blow hot air around. It will cool off once it mixes with the colder ground air I'm thinking. I'm pretty much out of time to chop a vent in now anyways, Florida is calling me!!

Jim,
It's funny how even on cloudy days clear plastic can heat up like that, saves on heat that's for sure. My huts out front are going to get to warm being clear this year but I kinda planned on that anyways. Your going to love the idea I came up with to cure this problem, I'll post pictures when I finish it up 🙄

Thanks Tim!

The plastic is really easy, and this is the first time I did it to. You just need to do it in sections starting at the bottom pulling it out and then move up the sides doing the same. Once your doing it you figure it out pretty quick 😀

I haven't added up the cost of it but it's probably in the 3-5 thousand range with no labor. Labor would have made it way expensive so being able to do it all myself saved me at least 5-8 thousand, including heat and wiring.

Thanks Guys!

Bill