Planning on Building a New Greenhouse

Well i'm tired of growing outdoors without any protection and the bugs are murdering me this year so it's time to build a greenhouse. I have a couple locations scouted out on my property but i'm really leaning towards one in general.

What i'm planning on is building a 16'x32' wood frame structure. Of course there will be supplemental lighting and light deprivation when required. Year round growing is the plan.

Here's a pic of the location I plan on building in. I'll be updating my progress in this thread I guess as a kind of journal. Things might be slow going at first until I can get the base completed.

 

Progress update:

I will be picking up some concrete piers this afternoon to start work on the base. My schedule has been moved ahead since I have a little more money than I thought.

I'll hopefully have some pics tomorrow of some progress. Even if it's just some control lines. I'm not setting a grueling schedule due to the fact that I will be doing this all myself. Just going to try and get at least a little bit done everyday and try and have this complete by Thanksgiving.

Thanks for stopping by guys. It might not be exciting and pretty to look at right now but just hang in here with me and I promise some good stuff.

 

Alright guys. Project Greenhouse is officially a go. I got the concrete piers and will start doing the layout, leveling and digging for them early this afternoon. It's supposed to be around 103 today so we will see how far I actually get.



Next on the list is sourcing a good deal on 6-4"x4"x12's and 2 4"x4"x16's. The reason I went with the piers was to avoid the outrageous price of treated lumber by raising the foundation off the ground. I guess I am still debating using redwood vs doug fir. I might go with redwood 4"x4"s for their strength and higher resistance to rot, not to mention no chemicals to leach into the soil. The bottom plate will be doug fir secured to the above mentioned material by through bolts.

This greenhouse will be temporary permanent if you know what I mean. The ability to unbolt and move this monster if I choose to do so is something I am aiming for.

Will keep you all updated. Thanks for sticking it out with me.

 

Yesterday I traveled to Ganahl Lumber and pick up 2 4"x4"x16' so I could start with the ends of the base frame. Didn't get much done other than laying out the string lines for the base. The dimensions have been changed to 15'x30'. Hoping to get all the concrete piers in the ground today and both 4"x4"x16's cut to length and bolted in place.

If anybody is wondering where I got the plans for this build here's a link with pics and simple instructions: Free greenhouse plans | HowToSpecialist - How to Build, Step by Step DIY Plans

 

Looking at the backyard garden location I forgot to mention that I need to cut about 4" from one side and fill 4" on the other. Pretty shitty situation but it shouldn't be to bad if the weather doesn't hit yesterdays temp.

Here's a simple attempt to show you what I am talking about.

 

Got the concrete piers in place today. Wasn't that bad and they look good. I'll be going back to Ganahl in the next couple of days to get 4 more 4"x4"x16's for the base. Also been scouring the internet for good deals on 2x4's. Might be getting a good deal on 40 of them for $50 which would be killer. That would allow me to do both long walls by the end of the week.

Total cost for the base is going to be $145. Hoping to be able to build the structure for under $400. Add the $200 for greenhouse plastic and the build should be around $600.

 

I decided to go a little green on this project and reuse some old lumber. I found some free old 4"x10"s on craigslist that I am going to be ripping down to 2"x4"s. I am able to get 5 perfectly good 8' studs out of each of the 4"x10"s. I picked up 21 of the beams so that will give me approximately 100 studs minus a couple bad ones that are bound to happen. I will also be picking up some 18' old beams and cut them down to 4"x4"s for the base. This will drop my lumber cost dramatically freeing up extra money for electrical costs.

New cost is $55 for the concrete piers. I am going to return the 4"x4"x16's that I got yesterday and get my $30 dollars back.

Total cost to date: $55

 

I haven't updated in a few days but I will be back on here regularly. In the past few days I have had some difficulties with the landlord and where he thinks a greenhouse belongs. After discussing things with him i'll be moving the location to the next best spot at the back of the property.

He seems to be under the impression that this will be a permanent structure and he will be inheriting it upon my moving out. Little does he know I am constructing it in a way that it will be easily disassembled and easily transportable.

The official size has been changed once again to 15.5'x 31'. Thus giving me approximately 480 sq. ft. Not sure yet on height of the walls. That will be something i'll have to figure out once I get the base height established.

Keep you guys posted!

 

Worked on moving some stuff away from the new location. Hopefully this weekend i'll have something to show you guys.

Recently acquired a CAP Gen2e NG Co2 generator for the greenhouse and i'm also working on getting a 50,000 BTU heater for this bad boy also. Crossing my fingers and hoping everything comes out as planned.

 

The second link you posted is pretty much what I am basing my build off of. I chose 16' x 32' for the ability to grow anything I wanted. Light deprivation is going to be a pain in the ass but I think I can figure out a nice way to do it inside the greenhouse due to it's massive size.

Just like every other DIY thread on the internet my ideas are always a lot better than reality. Building the base out of the recycle wood I found is a huge pain in the ass so i'm just going to buy a few more 4"x4"s. Thankfully it's harvest season and I have some extra cash flow to be able to afford this luxury. One other major design change I am implementing is doing the walls with 4"x4"s spaced around 5' apart with knee braces at the top for added support connecting them with the top plate. The commercial greenhouse down the street is built this way and I can vouch that it has stood the test of time.

Like I said before a little effort a day will help bring this project to fruition. That's what I have been trying to do and it seems to be working. Pics will be up later today showing most of the base completed and a huge clutter in the actual area of the greenhouse.

More positive news on the growing side of things. I picked up 2 4' x 6 lamp t8 fixtures with mini pin tombstones the other day for $30. I'm going to swap out the ballasts to F54t5 HO and use them for seedling, clones, and mothers. Maybe i'll post a how to thing on here for anybody interested in doing this.

If you guys don't see any progress on the greenhouse project please be patient there is a lot of other stuff that I am trying to take care to get everything flowing properly.

 

Well finally after a ton of back and forth with the landlord I have finally started making permanent progress on this damn thing.

New non-changing official size is 16'x23'.

The last couple days has seen some progress. I've put about 8 hours into this project over the past 4 days and i'm feeling good about finishing by Sunday afternoon. Going to pick up my bro and get some help building the roof. After that i'll just be waiting on the plastic to be shipped.

Already have my eye on some clones that i'll be picking up on Saturday. Those babies will be under the T5's for 2 weeks and than put into the greenhouse and cross my fingers to get my first winter harvest by Valentines day.

Pics to follow tonight.

 

Photo update for everyone. I took a break from everything and finally dedicated some real time to this project. Yesterday I picked up all the material I needed for the roof trusses. Today was spent getting everything pre-cut and actually building one of these things. Tomorrow i'll finish building them and try to cut them installed.

 

I have some actual bud porn, really just clone porn but it's still something green for you guys. Also trying to get my hands on some Holy Grail OG clones by tonight. Appearing from left to right will be 2 Super Sour Headband, 1 Blue Diamond, 2 Blueberry Bubbas and 2 Triple Crown OG.



I have them sitting under the new 4ft 6 lamp T5HO Pioneer IV that I picked up a couple weeks ago. I'm going to let them adjust to these lights for about 3 days. After that they will be topped and put back under the lights for a week. With another week of slowly hardening them off for a few hours a day and back under the lights. Giving them a total of 17 days vegging. November 10th they should be in the completed Greenhouse.

The reason i'm going with clones is because of the quicker turn around compared to seeds. While these guys are vegging and flowering i'll be popping some Violator Kush, Larry OG, Hash Plant and Blue Moonshine beans. Things should get interesting, please stay tuned.

 

I'm not sure if anyone is paying attention or not but i'm going to ask anyways.

Does anyone know if a 50K Btu heater is enough to keep a 2,760 cu.ft. greenhouse warm?

I'm only going to have to raise the temps from low 50's during the middle of winter so it shouldn't be too bad just curious.

Also how does one go about Co2 enrichment within a greenhouse?

Please only answer the second question if you have some actual knowledge.

 

I already own this so it would be convenient if it will do the job.
This is the heater in question: