The Build Of Acorn Forest Greenhouse's UPDATED 5/11/2013

Do-it-yourself projects such as greenhouse or shadehouse builds and related topics.
peterb
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Post by peterb »

Hi- an amazing project! Really looking forward to seeing it all unfold.

Just curious why you want to have the temps up around 60? The vast majority of cacti actually prefer much cooler, more like freezing overnight or near freezing to the 40's during the day. Many succulents as well.

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Harriet
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Post by Harriet »

I wonder about the 60 degree goal also. Even Epis will do OK down to 50, and most other cactus much cooler than that.
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*Barracuda_52*
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Post by *Barracuda_52* »

Ok moving on, im not even gona get into the temp discussion at this time. Anyways painting the frame sections is taking me alittle longer than i was hoping for, have to put 2 coats on each side, im using Krylon outdoor wood furniture paint, so far i have 3 wall frame sections done and am working on the frame molding strips, im not going to coat the molding strips twice as it has a pretty dark cherryish wood color to it with one coat and has nice wood grain, only doing the one coat of paint on those then coat them with the poly. I picked up brushed brass color door hinges, door handles and slidding bolt locks. Will look AWSOME with the frame color. Will post pics once all is painted and ready to go back to the garage for plasticing and molding put on. Will update this soon... :D
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*Barracuda_52*
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Post by *Barracuda_52* »

Well i need to kick hubby in the arse :x he put the dutch door on the wrong side of the front wall section today, so tomarrow he has to turn the front wall section around and redo the dutch door. #-o Never fails without my supervison he dont get things done the way I TELL HIM TO.. [-X

I should have some pics to post by late late tomarrow night, all thats left for me to do is coat all the frame wall sections and frame molding strips with poly.. Time to start moving all wall sections back out to the garage tomarrow afternoon, gota run to town and get more screws, just when we think we got enough of everything we didnt.. DOH!!! And to think this is only one of the GH's we are working on, its gona be real fun working on the bigger GH come spring. 8)

I know everyone is waitting for pics. :P
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*Barracuda_52*
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Post by *Barracuda_52* »

Front wall section done and we have the end wall section 90% completed, will get more pics posted tonight..

Heres the front door wall section done.. I sure amd glad to have high ceilings and massive rooms for us to work on this in the house.. :P
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Gona add a arm rest board to the top of the bottom door and a drop down bolt inside the doors so they can be opened like one or seperately. Also will pull the plastic alittle tighter come spring, i cant stand wrinkles in plastic.. LOL!!! :P The lighting dont show how nice this color is since i painted it. The molding strips make it easy to remove and replace the doubled 4 mil plastic if we need to.
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Post by *Barracuda_52* »

8) OK heres pics of the rest of the wall sectons now completed.
First the back end wall.
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and working on the 8ft side wall sections, putting the molding in place, we had to move the dinning table to have better space to work in. Its to cold outside in the garage and its snowing out.. :P
Hubby and Cassie placing the molding to be screw'd down.
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and now done and ready for the plastic sticking out to be trimmed.
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now all wall sections are stacked in the garage, hubby is gona work on the roof after ThanksGiving and also work on my benches, then its stacked with the rest and wait till spring to be put up along with the bigger 8x12 GH. Will post pics when we do the roof and also the benches. :D
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daiv
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Post by daiv »

Cool. Of course, this is going to make winter seem that much longer now... :lol:

I notice that the 4mil plastic (I suppose any plastic sheeting) expands and contracts quite a bit depending on temperature. In cold weather, the covering is tight as a drum, but in the heat of summer it is a bit loose.
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A. Dean Stock
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Post by A. Dean Stock »

I can't tell from the photos, but are you making the plastic double layered. A double layer will do much to hold in heat and make the GH workable. I saw that you didn't want to get into temps but just a note here: I maintain a 1500sqft greenhouse full of Phalaenopsis and Catt orchids for hybridization work. I maintain the house at about 60F minimum in the winter and that works well for me. Phal seedlings would like it a little warmer to keep growing in the winter so I installed an under pot hotwater heating system which keept their roots warm to 62F and everybody is happy. The catts could take down to 55 to 58 at night and do ok. I don't know what types of orchids you grow but this might give you some ideas. The cacti and succ. of course, can be much lower during the winter.
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Post by *Barracuda_52* »

Dean im not gona be heating 2 seperate GH's durring the winter i simply cant afford to at this time, all my tropicals will be in the house down in my grow room durring the winter months. Yes we double layerd the 4 mil plastic.

Daiv thats right this plastic tightens in the cold and gets lose durring the warm temps.

We have desided not to go with roof air vents, we are going with end wall roof peak vent with a double fan exhaust and then a fan up front to push fresh air in.

The top of my beanch frames are gona be coverd with this
http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Fenci ... ogId=10053

the one we found at our Home Depot has some kinda thick coating over the mesh. Will look nice when done. We are gona install one strip light down the middle of the roof peak inside for lighting. Im not gona be going all out crazy on this smaller GH, its the bigger one i have to start concentrating on as i have alot of things to do with that one and my budget is dwindling quickly.. :oops: :(
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Harriet
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Post by Harriet »

I imagine it will be hard to wait for the spring to get here!

I used wire bench tops when we rebuilt the shelves for my cactus. I found that they needed more support than I expected, even though they were designed as greenhouse shelving ... don't be surprised if you run into the same problem.
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Post by *Barracuda_52* »

Progress is slow due to lack of funds and also stinkin weather, so far we got several trees cut now and have only 2 more to cut down, no more worrying about those falling down on the GHs once there built and then hubby started working on the roof for the tropicals GH, we still need to put in 2 more full length cross braces and few other braces in and build the fan box, sat my fan out there to get a idea of where we want the fan box to go. Once we get the roof completed i will update this again, probably another week, mushroom season is now under way and hopefully funds from that will complete my GH building project.

Trees now down.. :P
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and the tropicals GH roof under construction..
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I will get the non painted boards painted later on to match everything else.
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daiv
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Post by daiv »

At long last, you can work on your greenhouse again!

That is a good steep roof you made - I certainly can understand that!
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
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Post by iann »

I haven't checked in here for a while. I didn't realise how far you've got.
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Post by Tony »

Lookin good Tracey! :)
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Post by *Barracuda_52* »

well this is what we got done today..

more cross braces, exhuast fan screwed and boxed in and one side coverd, we ran outa screws, outa cover molding, as you can see i have alot to paint once i can get more, hopefully tomarrow we can barrow some screws from the neighbors.. :roll:

This is gona take FOREVER without the funds.. :( This months bills has us so broke it aint funny anymore.. :(

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yes i have ALOT of painting to do.. :P
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once this is all done we then add polycarb pannels over the top and to have overhang on all sides then on the peak we are using a gutter turned over to cover the peak. Hubbys doing what he can with what we have, not bad i do say.. :D
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