Building Mini Greenhouses for winter Fodder growing

Sprouts and fodder are a magnificent way to feed hogs (as well as poultry!). But how do you do it at scale in the winter, when its too cold to sprout grains outside? One option is to move indoors, but that takes a lot of space and expensive climate control.  Another option is to invest tens of thousands of dollars in expensive commercial fodder systems. They work great but.. what small farm can afford to pay those prices? Our answer is much simpler and very cheap.  I only hope it works!

During the fall we developed an inexpensive fodder system based on hard plastic kiddie pools.  It has served us very well, performing perfectly (except for one fixable minor detail).  What you see here is the fall version of this setup... pools under draped plastic sitting on pallets, holes in the bottom for drainage and water timers set to fill the pool once a day quickly, then drain out.

The fall fodder system

For the curious, the one change we need to make is to place the holes around the outside edge, not across the bottom. If the bottom holes plug up for any reason, its a mess! you cant get to the holes to clear them.  This happened once. Our upgraded answer is to place the holes around the outside edge at the bottom so that they are accessible for cleaning.

Back on point... what to do for winter. As the rains come here in southern oregon... the draped plastic just creates a nifty duck pond over the grain!  The cooler weather is made worse by the rain water cooling the grain and blocking the suns heat.  So now we need a way to heat the grain from the sun and keep the rain out. a mini greenhouse! Modeled after the hoops often placed over garden boxes, this seemed a great approach.

Version 1 didnt work out so well... I tried to use regular 1/2 inch PVC, with Ts placed around it to allow for uprights, then bent into a 5 foot circle. This would have fit right inside the pool while allowing easy uprights for hoops.

First attempt didnt work out well at all... broke on bending into a circle.

The problem was that while the pip would bend into a circle... the Ts were not strong enough and popped in two. Other than a great math lessons on circles, this one didnt serve for anything other than a straight line. 

On to version 2... CPVC! Much thinner and flexible. Hopefully overcoming the stiffness of half inch PVC.  

Second attempt made it into a circle, barely, with a Tee-Pee over it.

Again.. failure. Yes the pipe bent easier but the CPVC Ts were even weaker and sook split from the constant pressure of the curve.  We switched to a Tee-Pee design instead of hoops to lower the pressure from the bent uprights, but still no go.  Not strong enough. 

Version 3 was back to half inch, but with no Ts... only 2 couplers, and snap on "T"s to hold uprights. Much better! The couplers held fine, and the snap on Ts resolved the need for so many weak spots.  Getting closer, but still didnt like the difficulty building with all the stress, glue, and pressure. 

Third attempt was actually useable, almost.

I had chosen to go with this design, BUT... while in the store collecting supplies, a new idea hit me... flexible pipe! A roll of black plastic utility pip caught my eye. Yes! light, cheap, flexible, yet strong enough for this application.  an hour or so of toying with different connection options and we have a new plan!

Version 4, based on cheap plastic utility pipe rolls, snap on Ts, and hoop tops of the same pipe worked perfectly! Within an hour of building time we produced the first fully functional prototype.  It fits OVER the pool, is strong enough yet light and easy to lift and present a better angle to collect heat from the sun than a Tee-Pee design. Perfect!

Fourth attempt worked well!

The final product worked well. within a couple hours the daytime sun had raised the interior temp by at least 20 degrees! It was a warm steamy tropical sprouting environment on a chilly day. A gust of wind came by later and blew away an empty pool, but the hoop top stayed put. 

Now we will finish the rest of the pools, and hopefully document the final building process as an available E-Book that you can use yourself. 

posted from Bloggeroid

Greenhouse Grain Sprouting in Freezing Weather

We have been struggling with the ability to sprout grain for the animals in this consistently freezing weather.  When the really cold weather hit in December, we had foot long icicles INSIDE the greenhouse! Naturally that was not conducive to sprouting grain... not to mention the constantly frozen pipes and broken valves.

But finally we have arrived at a decent setup that is working. Our average nighttime low is still 25 degrees, and yet the greenhouse has stayed just above freezing at night, and rising to the 60's day times.  THAT is conducive to sprouting :)

Here is a good example of the weather swings... you can see around 5am that the supplemental heat kicked in to give it a needed bump before freezing. (might need to expand the graphic)

The rundown:

Water Line
We insulated the incoming water feed and added an electric heat strip. Yes yes.. i know they are not rated for water hose but... it works. In a pinch you do what is necessary. When things calm down I will remove the water hose entirely and replace with an underground pipe and spigot into the greenhouse itself.

The insulated water hose coming into the greenhouse

Here you can see at the bottom, the electric connection to the pipe heater strip (among the flurry of hoses for the internal sprinkler system)

Thermal Mass
We added six 40 gallon trash cans full of water, spread out in the middle and the sunny side of the greenhouse.  These black cans of water have high thermal mass and the black soaks up heat energy more efficiently. So during the day they soak up whatever heat there may be coming in, then give off that heat slowly through the night. slowing the tempo swings to more of an average. On cold nights you can see the water in these buckets steaming!

Here are some of the full black trash cans for thermal mass. the blue buckets are full of sprouting grain

Backup Heat
As a last resort, there is a propane heater ready to kick in at the edge of freezing. We don't want to heat the greenhouse as that would be too expensive. This is just an emergency measure to prevent freezing.  as you can see from the chart above, it does kick in just a few hours past hitting 32 degrees.  this one was QUITE a challenge! the heater I chose was a non-electric propane model from mr heater. It does not take an external thermostat. It was designed for room temps, so the first night we tried it, with the thermostat set as low as it would go, it ran all night and emptied a bottle of propane.  After dismantling it, and exploratory resetting the thermostat... through hours of trial and error,  i finally got it adjusted down the the range needed.

The modified heater... you cant tell any difference, but the mechanical thermostat is set about 30 degrees colder than it was intended for. 

And of course ... every heater needs a fuel source. This is the old tank from the milking barn. 

Sprouts at the Sprouts

When we say we feed sprouts...  We are talking real sprouts!  Not soaked grain that is almost sprouted  but grain with inch long roots and green sprouts! 

Not every batch turns out this good,  depending on the heat of the sun,  but we try!

Misting System in the Greenhouse

Summer is here is force throughout Southern Oregon, and with it high temps. All the recent rains has lef the humidity higher than normal also, so its hot and a tad muggy. This has caused a bit of stress in the greenhouse. The outside temps reach 100+ during the days (highest so far was 111 degrees). To help counter these extremes we installed a misting system in the greenhouse.

Not wanting to spend more money than necessary I purchased 4 sets of backyard misters from a local store. Each set has about 10 feet of misting from a flexible tube. I hung simply connected thee together and hung it from the top support bars in the greenhouse in a back and forth patter using wire ties. All the misting nozzles pointing down toward shte plants. Then I put a digital timer on the water hose coming in and set it to run about 6 hours a day, through the hottest part of the day.

hopfully this will provide enough evaporation to cool the interior of hte greenhouse for hte plants, but also provide enough moisture to keep them watered.

First thing I noticed is that 4 is too many to string together, After the third one pressure is so low that it's creting a very light and uneven mist. I plan on getting a T connector and using some old drip irrigation pipe to connect the water intake  to both ends of hte mister hose. That should even out the water delivery.

Tonight I installed a remote thermometer and humidity meter to track how its going throughout the day. If the balance between water vapor and ventilation is right, we should be able to drop the temp by 10 to 20 degrees.

Winter Vegetable Crops!

Everyone knows that vegetable gardens are a summer event, right? WRONG! WE have recently discovered that this thought is a uniquely American limitation. Other countries grow vegetables year round with great success! (as long as they do not listen to the "wisdom" of American science and universities)

Let me clarify that not all vegetables will grow in the winter, some are genetically predisposed to summer weather, but many are perfectly suitable for life in winter. Am I referring to heated greenhouses consuming disproportionate amounts of heating fuel? NO! These vegetables can be grown in no more than simple shelter without using any heating at all. All they need is basic protection from the wind and harsh weather, but temperatures themselves are not the problem.

We are going to embark on this journey of growing year round without heat. The principles make perfect sense when applied in a synergistic fashion and carefully managed. This will produce yet another speciality income stream for Little Sprouts _ organic vegetables available in the winter FRESH from a local farm. Think about that.. no more need to fall to foreign raised vegetables in the winter. No more need to rely on canned, frozen, or otherwise preserved. While vegetables themselves do not brings in much income... winter vegetables will be more valuable because they are rare.

We are very excited to be venturing into this new product for our customers. It may take a year or two to get it right, but the process has begun! Stay tuned tor updates on how this is going.

Greenhouse plants continue growing!

The greenhouse is picking up steam so to speak... plants are again taking off after the severe cold spell that paused everything. The broccoli and cauliflower are doing nicely, and the rest are starting to pick up also.

Mixture of broccoli and cauliflower

Left front is radishes, let back is lettuce, right front is basil, right back is cilantro

Newly sprouted tomato seedlings, just off the sprouting heater.

Frostbite in the Greenhouse

Unfortunately we did loose a few plants in the greenhouse last week in that final winter storm. The temp here dropped to 16 a night or two, and that was just a little too cold.

Fortunately it only affected the plants on the lower shelves at the outside edge of the greenhouse. Stored there were the zucchini and cucumbers. It seems that about half of the plants are frost bitten and dying. Since I had left 2 sprouts in each bucket, many of the buckets are still ok with one live plant in it.

If there was more winter to go, it would make sense to buy a propane greenhouse heater to deal with the extra cold nights. As it is though, it doesn't seem wise to buy a heater this late in the season. All we have in there now is a tiny 1500 watt electric heater. It does its best, but 1500 watts is not much for a 1x20 greenhouse in weather below 20 degrees!

Greenhouse crops growing nicely!

We spent some warm and humid time in the greenhouse today. Indoor gardening is definitely the way to go in the winter!

Things are coming along nicely now that the interior has warmed up. It took a couple weeks to warm up the soil enough to get those plants moving. The most impressive growth is the seed starting heat mat. This little gadget takes you from seed to plant in 3 or 4 days! Very impressive!

Cucumbers just a week since planting. I plan to install a trellis of some sort to support the vines here.

These are the soil warming buckets. Potting soil from bags is placed here to allow it to reach warmer temps before using in pots. These hold 4 regular sized bags.

This is the biopod where we are trying to grow grubs. It went dormant on the back porch due to the cold, so I moved it here to get it going again. After a week there are just a few signs of life inside.

t

These are pots filled with soil and waiting for transplanting. This waiting time helps to further increase the soil temp to speed up the tiny plant's growth.

Here are the broccoli and cauliflower we sprouted first. They are finally warm enough to start growing again and most have just recently taken off.

This shelf has basil, cilantro, radishes, and lettuce in trays, behind it is spinach waiting to sprout.

This row is zucchini planted same time as the cucumbers and growing nicely. I'm hoping they are bush and not vines!

Hunter and Kaelyn's potatoes are finally healthy and growing in the two big pots. In the back you can see the newly emerging tomatoes and eggplants resting on the heating pad.

And here is the world's best greenhouse keeper watering a few things, including the plants :)

Watering in the greenhouse

Kaelyn crawls through through the shelves to water the broccoli and cauliflower.

Greenhouse Planting Time!

We finally got hte greenhouse ready enough to start planting. the weather is perfect too, bright sunny days with lots of warmth to heat things up inside and last through the night.  All of our seeds are either heirloom or at least open pollinated. We have completely stopped using hybrids, becasue its not "natural" in that hybrids do nto reproduce properly. That violates the principles of Little Sprouts Farm. Plus, since they dont reproduce properly, you have to buy seed every year. We'd much rather just use our own seeds each year as a sustainable model.

Here's a few pics of what we have going on:

This is the soil warming station.
We bring the bagged potting soil from outside and empty it into these extra large black pots to allow it to slowly come up to temperature before planting.

This shelf is filled with brocolli and cauliflour, each plant in its own pot. The seedlings are already about 3 to 4 inches tall.

In the foreground wide trays are radishes, lettuce, basil, and cilantro.
the background shows some tomatoes on the left far back in sprouting bins, and a flat of spinach just starting.

The two large pots in on the left are Hunter's and Kaelyn's potatoes. they started these as a school project in a glass of water before transplanting here. In the back are sprouting bins with eggplant, sweet peppers, cucumber and zuchini.

These shelves have pots filled with soil and awaiting seeds or plants. They serve to increase the mass to attract and hold heat, plus heating hte soil for planting later.

The large trash cans are filled with fresh water and goldfish. The water is what we use for watering, and also helps to add mass to store heat overnight. The goldfish are there to keep the kids entertained and to provide some natural fertilizer in the water.

This lovely mound.. is our resident gopher mound. Right after we set hte greenhouse here, someone moved into the basement, or they MADE a basement. Soon I will have to evict the residents and fix the flooring!

Planting in the greenhouse today!

We finally got some time to start planting the greenhouse today.  We have baby broccoli, cauliflower, and just planted heirloom tomato's and lettuce.

We are exploring different options  for planting boxes and pots. For now I picked up some 3 foot  trays about 4 inches deep. We put 3 broccoli or cauliflower in each. That seems a bit close to me but we'll see.  The rest are just in starter pots until they sprout.

The greenhouse is amazingly warm! In the afternoon today it was so warm we were sweating with light work. Its also very humid, water dripping from the roof like rain. To help keep it from freezing we placed in 3 plastic trash cans (dark colors and black) filled with water. I also dumped 6 cubic feet of potting soil into large black plastic planters and placed them on the ground. All this should help to hold some heat in its mass to keep from freezing overnight.

The next step is to pick up a bunch of planting pots form somewhere and some seeds.

I have to say, its sure more pleasant working in the greenhouse than struggling in the mud outside in the winter garden!

Greenhouse almost finished!

Over the last week, we managed to get most of the greenhouse completed. The ground is levelled good enough, floor laid, rest of the frame built, covering applied and doors installed.  All we need to do now is strap it down for high winds, install the shelves and vents, and a little last minute cleanup. Then its planting time!

Even today, when the winter storm blew through with frozen rain and hail, the inside of the greenhouse was a toasty warm oasis. I am well pleased with the insulating properties and sunlight transmission properties. Standing inside the whole area seems to glow with a soft white light from all directions. There seems to be no shadows to speak of anywhere. Hopefully with the shelves installed that will continue.

Here is a few shots of the almost completed Solexx greenhouse, size 16x20

A shot of the greenhouse from the chicken coop showing the front doors.

Looking through the front door at the interior without shelves.

A view from the driveway.

Building the Solexx Greenhouse

We are now about 7 hours total into building the new Solexx Greenhouse. There are LOTS of pieces! Its much liking building a full size structure out of lincoln logs!

Overall I am pleased thus far with the construction. Virtually all of the frame is made of a really strong and hard non-bendable composite material. Only the foor frames are PVC to allow them to bend across the top. The connections are very sturdy metal pieces with a thumbcrew to hold each composite pipe in place. As you can see in the pics below the frame is very strong!

It will likely take a couple of weeks until this is ready to use, expeically working only evenings after the "day job".  What we accomplished thus far in two shifts is building hte frame of the front half. We still need to build the duplicate back half and the connecting walkway, four doors, then put it place and add the floor and covering.  Its a lot of work but will be worth it in the end. This thing has lots of room inside and is warranted for 10 years!

Here are some pics of the last 2 evenings of work.


Someone left an extra piece here!




I know this goes in here somewhere!





The supervisor looking over our work.




Almost done!




Weight Testing!





Does this double as a jungle gym?



Whew.. how many pages are left in these instructions?

By the way... While we are working on the greenhouse the PigCam is turned off becasue I need the power cord to run the power screwdriver.

Greenhouse arriving tomorrow!

We finally ordered our greenhouse and will take delivery tomorrow. Our final choice was the Solexx Conservatory greenhouse. The primary reason I ended up with this one is the covering material. I relaly like how it diffuses the light so completely to eliminate hot spots and shadows. This should mean that we can use the entire greenhouse year round for space. This material also serves as better insulation than fiberglass, so heating in the winter is cheaper and easier.

 Our greenhouse is coming from Salem, OR but we are sending a truck to pick it up and bring it back to save on freight. They also gave us a sizeable discount as part of a recent "show special".

Our goal is to use this greenhouse starting thsi winter to provide 4 seasons of additional growing space. It will be great to have fresh veggies for our use and perhaps for sale all year!

Greenhouse Time!

We have decided this year is the time to put in a greenhouse so we can start growing veggies year around, at least for our own use.  the more we learn about plant varieties (a soon coming blog post about hybrid plants) and plant growing methods, the more we see the value in growing our own food. Even organic food in the stores is NOT what we think it is. Changes have been happening behind the scenes of our food supply that none of us (at leat I didnt) understand. 

So, greenhouse year! I "think" we have chosen to go with a single piece fiberglass greenhouse. I like the abiltiy to move it if necessary without dismantling, and I like hte shape options afforded.  The one we are investigating first is :

http://supergreenhouses.info/

these are made near us, and seem to be a well thought out approach to fiberglass greenhouses.  The white top will be a great help in the summer when the sun is directly overhead and too hot to sustain life! The strength and weight are enough to stand up to our wild summer storms and winter snow. And the almost straight sides give much more useable room inside. The material used sounds like it affords the best type of diffused light to allow growing all across the inside. It also has auto openers for ventilation, and.. best of all, its about half the price of comparable fiberglass greenhouses.

We will post our progress as we go down the road of a year round garden!