The unavoidable is upon us; heating season! As unpleasant as it may be for all growers, winter is a fact of life and it must be considered. Heating costs during the cold winter months are of prime concern - here is a quick checklist to maximize the efficiency of your greenhouse heating system:
Whether you are building a single hoop house or building a ten hectare greenhouse range, new greenhouse construction is part of building your growing business. For many growers the construction process is exciting full of anticipation as you watch your dreams becoming a reality. For other growers, greenhouse construction brings on a feeling of anxiety as personal and corporate resources must be directed to an area of the business they are less familiar with.
If you could go back and re-design your existing greenhouse, how many changes would you make? How many of those changes would be minor ones and how many would involve major structural, heating or other mechanical changes? Avoiding this in your future expansion is easy; have a checklist of things you should have in your greenhouse now and incorporate them into the next build.
There are many reasons to make improvements in a commercial greenhouse, modernizing your greenhouse can reduce maintenance costs, or make productivity improvements, or improve the greenhouse environment for better growing, or maybe you want to add some extra growing space. Whatever the reason it is important to understand what the goal is before you talk to your greenhouse manufacturer.
When it comes to adding energy curtains (sometimes referred to as thermal blankets) to a greenhouse, everyone focuses on energy savings. And certainly, energy savings should be a major factor in any greenhouse grower’s decision to purchase greenhouse energy curtains. In northern climates, winter growing adds expensive heating costs to the most diligent greenhouse operation. A well-designed and properly installed energy curtain can reduce winter heating bills by up to 50% and, in some cases, more.
As summer begins to heat up and the possibility that temperatures can rise to an unbearable 111°F or more as we've seen recently in Arizona, we're lucky to have air conditioning in our offices. But using air conditioning in a large space like a commercial greenhouse is simply not practical. While we can step away from the greenhouse into air conditioned lunch rooms, cars or homes, your crop doesn’t have that luxury. Keeping your greenhouse cool is vital to your crop and therefore your bottom line. So if you’re planning a new build or trying to figure out how to get your greenhouse cooler, the question arises – do I go natural ventilation (roof and side vents, rollup sides) or fan/shutter system?
Structure maintenance and planning involves more than just new construction projects and a focus on expansion. Often the best dollar value for a grower is in retrofitting and modernizing existing greenhouse structures.
Here is a list of potential solutions to common problems that greenhouse growers can resolve by improving existing structures:
There are many things to think about when managing a greenhouse construction project. Your business relies on factors such as crop deadlines and financing – make sure your project stays on course and you are making the proper considerations. You can always hire expert project managers like GGS if you don’t want to be involved in all the details, but if you decide to be your own General Contractor here are some tips to help you through the process.
As with any business decision, planning is essential. Measure twice, cut once. During my three decades in the greenhouse industry I have helped countless growers design and build greenhouses for efficient and profitable growing. One thing you learn very early in the greenhouse business is that no two operations are the same. The greenhouse environment needs to be tailored to the plants’ ideal environmental conditions, and the growers preferred growing methods and operating processes.
Choosing the right bench for your crop is vital to plant quality and further reducing labor costs. GGS has been designing, improving, manufacturing, and building quality benches for growers for over 35 years. Here are a few options: