Help me! I need a greenhouse design!

Hello everyone I need some help with a greenhouse design. I missed the spring/summer season and want to still grow in the fall/winter season, but can't grow inside, therefore I want to grow my babies in a greenhouse. I live in the Chicagoland area and so we have harsh winters, but they dont come until January usually.

I am looking for a stealthy greenhouse design that would be able to grow 5-10 plants well. Also, you can include a water pump method as well if you could explain it well enough to me, because there is a small pond next to the secluded area that I would be growing.

Thanks all ideas will be helpful, btw this will be my first grow.

Get a bunch of 2x4x8
cut 4 in to 7 ft pieces
2 8ft pieces
next cut 2 x 5ft pieces
make a box frame with 8ft and 5ft pieces {use nail,screws or brackets<
Use the 7ft pieces for legs
stand up and cover with husky 6mil clear plastic.
Boom green house,need more space make it 8 x 8x 8!
Get a zipper from hydro store and stik that on onside for entrance
good luck hbr

hey i really like that idea, however do you think that i should make a roof to it, because it may snow or show signs of frost in the mornings? Also, i will not be able to have electricity so will the sun give naturally enough in the midwest during this season? If you could just be more detailed in your explanation it would be much appreciated. Thanks

i need help asap because i dont want to have it still growing in january when there is snow actually on the ground, so please help thanks!

''make a box frame with 8ft and 5ft pieces''
that is the roof,think of it like a big coffee table.
You could frame the bottome too for support
But yes 6mil clear plastic over the top and if u want you can have one side of the roof 1foot taller than the other so sno/rain wont get stuck up there.
you shouldnt need electricity in there unless ur vegging.Good luckhbr

ok thanks but i still have some questions. do you think the temperature inside of the growbox would be around 78 degrees farenheit solely from entraping the heat from the sun over the course of the day? and also as far as the vegging goes, does that mean the beginning stages of growth?

oh yeah and if so how long should i have the plants going then before i put them into the greenhouse?

What about heat? If you cant keep the temp over 32 degrees, your plants will die. A small greenhouse wont retain enough heat to get through a cold night. Plus, unless you grow a strain that was bred for cooler climates, it wont produce much of anything with a temp below about 50 degrees. Good luck with your grow, I hope it works out.

What is your estimate of what the temperature would be if became around 50-60 degrees outside on average with days being less than that. Also, what size would make it able to hold the appropriate heat in it? Is smaller or bigger better? IS there any way I can get some sort of solar panel heating to make it warmer inside the greenhouse?

I know these are a lot of questions but please help if you can!

Im not too sure on your temps check your local weather site for that.
But Seal it up and give her a shot<is this on your land or out in the woods?
You might need to do a proper big greenhouse if you need elctronics etc,like a shed from home depot...Theres portable greenhouses ive seen for around $3oo.
Are you gona be able to run power out there?

whiterain said:

What is your estimate of what the temperature would be if became around 50-60 degrees outside on average with days being less than that. Also, what size would make it able to hold the appropriate heat in it? Is smaller or bigger better? IS there any way I can get some sort of solar panel heating to make it warmer inside the greenhouse?

I know these are a lot of questions but please help if you can!

Click to expand...

There is a cold front moving through the area and A LOT of cold Canadian air building behind it. As an example, almost the entire Northeast is looking at frost/freeze conditions tonight into tomorrow morning. The pattern into next week is looking about the same. Cooler air coming into the northern plains as the jet stream is starting to shift now. We may still get a few days here and there where the conditions would be alright for an outdoor grow, but they won't last long.

Suffice to say, you may want to reconsider starting a grow this late in the season if all you have is an outdoor area with no electricity. Without some kind of heater in there and lights that you can keep a better check on in terms of cycle, I can't see this turning out well. Don't just focus on the next 3 weeks getting this all setup and the operation started...think about 2 months from now.

Solar heating may work for the day...but it's the nights you have to worry about more.

Best of luck, hopefully everything works out in the end.

Hey yeah I understand what you're saying, but what if I was actually able to get electricity out there, then what would you suppose about the plan? Please help, I really am looking for thorough design ideas. Thanks!

I started my grow in a small 12x8 greenhouse in late May/early June. That time of the year, it's still cold with daytime temps getting to maybe 15C at a stretch. Frost occurs at night until June 15. I ran an outdoor extension cord out to the house and used a small 1500W space heater at night (on a timer) to try and keep the nighttime temp up.

I also had a wireless thermometer in the house. There were many evenings where the temp at ~6:00am where the temp was 2-3C. Fucking COLD. The greenhouse will drop to ambient temperature at night without a a heater. 6mil plastic just isn't an insulator. It stops the wind, that's all.

SO... if you want to keep the greenhouse 'warm' at night (ie, keep it above zero), you'll need a small space heater OR a couple of plastic garbage containers filled with tap water during the day. The water will release enough heat overnight (hopefully) to keep the temperature above zero.

The problem you're going to have is the sunlight. There's not going to be enough daytime light to give a good vegetation cycle that late in the year. You're going to need electricity out there to keep the plants lit. By the end of September you're only going to have 11.5 hours of sunlight at that latitude; by December you'll have 9.5 hours.

Thanks for the response. I like your ideas. I have a few questions tho. Did you really use a 1500w space heater at night? If the 6 mil plastic wont act as an insulator, what will? I do want to keep the greenhouse warm at night, so if you have any specific space heaters you could recommend to me that would be great. I would be able to have light in the greenhouse out there because I have an outlet on the side of my house that I can just have going all the way out to the greenhouse secretly hidden from everyone. Please just tell me what lights to get.

I'd love to say what lights to use, but my advice wouldn't be very good. There's a lot of mention of CFL light bulbs (the curly ones) on this website that's probably applicable.

As for keeping heat in with the space heater, I had these quilted mats that moving companies use to keep floors clean when they're walking over carpets. I rolled them up and stapled an edge to the greenhouse frame so I could roll them down over the inside walls at night. I thought it would work great, but it wasn't terribly successful; even with the heater.

In my case, though, as time went on, the nights got warmer (it was early June when I started). Unfortunately, in your case, it's going to get cooler.

I do have a background in botany and gardening, so I can offer general advice, but this is my first grow. I wish you the best in what you're trying to do, but it's definitely a tough gig.

EDIT: The 1500W heater I used was just a generic one from Wal-Mart that had a fan in it. I tried a few other ones too, but they weren't any better.

shit so are my dreams of growing outside in a greenhouse this fall/winter season falling short? maybe i should just cut my losses and grow shrooms until spring comes around or i move into my own place. but please if anyone else out there has any ideas of how this could work well please post here and let us kno

Very private stealth grow cabinet might work,make it look like some other furnature,or rent a room with a closet,good luck

yeah well good news...my friend is going to let me grow a couple plants in her apartment so I'm excited. Now i just need to save up a few hundred dollars to make the grow-op work right yah dig!