Possessing a greenhouse is the best way to garden year by tilting the seasons, especially in cooler climates. Enjoying homegrown tomatoes in winter and beginning bedding plants early permit you to garden outside inland limits. The controlled environment of a greenhouse does bring disadvantages through upkeep costs and pest management. Considering these and other challenges helps you determine if it’s the greenhouse is the perfect fit for your gardening needs.
Location
Careful consideration of a proper site for your greenhouse often reveals this primary downside of constructing one. A greenhouse should be put where it catches full sunlight, especially in winter. The Clemson Cooperative Extension notes that places on the east side of the property receive maximum sunlight from November to February. Deciduous trees shade greenhouse plants out of intense sunlight during hot seasons, and they also allow more sunlight to reach plants in cool seasons after they shed their leaves. You’ll need sources for water and electricity, that add to your start-up and upkeep costs.
Temperature and Ventilation Management
Designed to hold in heat during cold periods, a greenhouse also becomes a heat trap through hot weather. If temperatures exceed healthy levels, plants may be cooked to death. In cold periods, plants freeze to death if temperatures fall too low. This delicate balance of fever management requires heating and ventilating systems, which are the most expensive operating costs of a greenhouse, according to the University of California’s Vegetable Research and Information Center. Although most greenhouse plants need night temperatures between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit, ideal growing temperatures are plant-specific. As a consequence, that you may not have the ability to develop a variety of plants in exactly the exact same greenhouse.
Pests and Disorders
The identical barrier that a greenhouse provides to keep out undesirable weather also keeps in diseases and insects. Greenhouse whiteflies (Trialeurodes vaporariorum) are primary pests that feed on sap and attack more than 250 plant sorts. They are sometimes difficult to control because of their resistance to the majority of pesticides. Before reaching maturity, whiteflies progress throughout seven life stages. Eggs and pupae don’t succumb to insecticides, which kill nymphs and adults. Neem and horticultural oils operate immature stages and pyrethroid insecticides control adults. The humid greenhouse states that many plants favor also encourage diseases, which is another reason for installing an adequate ventilation system.
Pollination
Some greenhouse plants, such as tomatoes, need to be pollinated before they can set fruit. Greenhouse enthusiasts, which circulate air and keep foliage dry, do not generally create sufficient wind for pollination. Manually tapping flowers to release pollen grains is a problem if you can’t fit it in your schedule. You can use battery-operated pollinating tools to accelerate this endeavor, but they still need an operator. Several bumblebees are especially bred as greenhouse pollinators. Prices for using these bees incorporate the box or hive of bees and prepackaged nectar as a supplementary food source for them. Pesticides that control other insects and diseases may kill rodents, so consider that when deciding how to control pests.