No doubt, your garden-grown tomatoes, lettuce, beans, etc. give you the utmost pleasure. If you live in a colder climate, a greenhouse provides a contented environment for your plants to flourish.
Harvest your favorite vegetables, herbs, and flowers throughout the year. The greenhouse is also handy during the hot summer days as it protects your plants from excessive heat.
The essential elements for a plant’s life are light and humidity. These are the core principles of a greenhouse as well. Heating and lighting are the best part of it. Alongside this point, make sure that the extent of warmth and cooling remain in harmony.
Here are some tips for you to keep up these naturally. But if a situation arises, arrange some non-natural tools as well. Care for the apposite upholding of this structure that will ensure its residents’ highest wellbeing.
Go through the full article, and you’ll get a clear thought of how the greenhouse works and what safeguarding you have to pursue to guarantee the best yield.
How Greenhouse Works
The greenhouse is usually made of glass or transparent plastic, and this material allows this miracle house to provide the best environment for the plants. This article shows you the principle of a greenhouse and the mechanisms in which it operates best.
Getting Light
The sunlight penetrates the clear glass and falls upon the dark surface. Some rays are partly absorbed by the leaves and soil. The darker the surface, the lighter is absorbed. Well, when your greenhouse gets many shadows, your foliage might not get enough light.
Optimal Heat
This sunlight passes through the glass at a short wavelength and becomes trapped inside. When light falls upon any surface, it turns into warmth, and its longer wavelength fails to escape.
Some heat is absorbed by the surface, and some are reflected. As the reflected heat can’t go outside the glass so quickly, the greenhouse becomes warmer. If it is freezing winter and you are using a greenhouse means you are controlling the temperature.
If the warmth inside remains between 80 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit, this is best for your plant life. But if it reaches 100 degrees, it may dry out water from the soil and, and you can’t make the plants survive. So in summer, to save your green lives from the harshness of the sun and keep the greenhouse cool, install some fans for exposure to air.
Humidity
If the humidity of the garden air is not controlled, plants won’t get enough moisture. Trapped heat inside the greenhouse keeps the air warm.
This hot air circulates inside and reaches the roof off, letting the colder and denser air come down and receive heat from the surface.
Thus, the circulation continues, and the greenhouse remains tepid and humid all day long. This humidity lets not dry out all the water from the soil and leaf, and your plants stay soggy for their remarkable growth and development.
Well, have you already determined to assemble a greenhouse? But still, you need some consideration. Some maintenance you must continue if maximum output you wish for.
Store Some Heat for the Night
The heat produced by the greenhouse in the daytime is sufficient for your tender vegetation. But at night, little heat emits itself from the absorption of the temperature of the surface, which is not enough.
Science says that darker and high-density materials absorb more heat than light-colored and light-weighted things. So get some stone, bricks, rocks, etc. in your greenhouse.
Even water works as a good source in this regard. Arrange a black-colored barrel of water and keep it near to the plants. During a sunny day, these resources absorb a lot of heat and work as a treasure of warmth at night.
Get Rid of Extra Heat if Needed
You must add vents in your greenhouse while building it. During a dog day, ventilation will save your tender plants from extreme heat.
It may cause them to wither or even die if not get enough water. But you must be prompt in opening your vents during the day and in closing it at night. Besides, be watchful about sudden rain or the blue storm.
Choosing the Right Location for Your Greenhouse
Unless you select the right spot for building the hothouse, you will not get the peak benefits from it. Build it in a sunny place, preferably the north or northeast side of your dwelling.
You can’t let your pampered plants get flooded in the rain. So place your greenhouse on a surface with a proper drainage system.
Why You Will Prefer Greenhouse
- Expand Your Growing Season: If you are a garden lover, you dream of having almost every vegetable and flower from your garden. But it is quite challenging to get these throughout the year. However, you can enjoy all seasonal vegetables and fruits at any time of the year. Yes, the greenhouse makes your dream come true. Tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers all will grow in a greenhouse whether it’s too cold or hot outside.
- Protect Your Plants from the Adverse Environment: Sudden fall of temperature or unexpected snowfall cause your plants to die prematurely. The greenhouse protects them from some adverse effects of the environment like extreme wind, rain or cold air, etc. The exposure to the dramatic up-down of the temperature outside won’t hamper your garden anymore.
- Don’t Let the Pest Come In: If your garden is an open field, pests get in, and you must use pesticides. But inside the glasshouse, you select the best soil that is much defensive to harmful bacteria and fungi. So although not all, greenhouse significantly cut the numbers of bad bugs attacking your plants.
Drawbacks of a Greenhouse
- The greenhouse is designed to maximize your plants’ growth and production. They necessitate constant care with maintaining the temperature, the plant life, and the mechanism of the building itself.
- It comes with expensive, although you have the choice to get the cheaper materials
- If proper ventilation is not maintained, your garden may get damp unnecessarily. This wetness invites the pests, and your all efforts will go in vain.
Conclusion
The point of building any greenhouse is to maximize the benefits from your gardening by overcoming the hindrance of a specific type of weather.
Before choosing to build or buy a greenhouse, research the design appropriate for your climate, and the crops you will grow. Remember, what your greenhouse provides is half-done unless you provide it with regular care.
Fertilizing and watering the plants, venting, and controlling the heat and humidity of a greenhouse are your daily tasks. This is not a miracle house. How it works dramatically depends on your efforts.
When you understand every point above, I can say it is high time to invest in the greenhouse.