DIY Greenhouse!

[tyler1503]

Wasn't really sure if I should have put this in the lounge or the DIY section. It's a DIY project, but not reef related. Anyways...
I got a 2nd hand two man tent for free a few weeks ago from someone at work. With the crazy weather we've been having around here I needed somewhere I can grow seedlings where they get sun and warmth during the day but are protected from the rain and wind at night and my windowsill is far too small for a few dozen plants to chill! I had the idea I could turn the tent into a greenhouse.

I simply set the tent up as normal (excuse the mess :P)


I cut away a wall leaving about 2 inches of the original tent wall around the edges.


Glued in some plastic sheeting to the 2 inch edge.


Trimmed the plastic sheet and repeated it on the back wall and it was good to go!


I left the original front entrance on so I could easily unzip the door to get in and out and I can open the door, but leave the fly screen closed for some extra air flow if I need it. I only made 2 walls clear plastic as the front is the door I wanted to keep and the other side doesn't get enough sun to really worry about. I may end up doing that side anyway.

So far my seedlings seem to like it. They've only been in there for a couple of days though. I'm exited to see how they do over the next few months! I'm hoping some of the seeds I planted last night will germinate quickly in there too!

 

[tyler1503]

Chilli anyone?!
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In the coming weeks I'll have quite a few more chilli varieties and a bunch more other good stuff. Herbs, veggies and fruit!
I just have to decide what first lol.

 

[DFW]

Great idea! Thanks for passing it along! What type of adhesive did you use?

 

[tyler1503]

Great idea! Thanks for passing it along! What type of adhesive did you use?

Thanks! :) I was pretty impressed with myself on this one lol.
At the moment it's just our good old friend cyanoacrylate superglue. I needed the greenhouse up quickly as I'm a bit of an impulse chilli buyer so I needed the extra space as soon as I could get it. Plus it's just starting to warm up so I wanted to get my seeds in early for the warm season.
When the weather settles down a bit and my seedlings are a bit stronger I'm going to take all the plants out and use a better glue. Maybe a spray adhesive of some sort, I haven't quite decided yet.
The superglue holds up well enough to fight some wind and rain, but I can tear the plastic sheet off the tent with little to no effort.

 

[DFW]

I just put in some spinach, and a little collard greens for the winter back in September. I do this in raised beds. It does not grow much, if any, on the real cold days, but we get some fair days in our winters, too. I am thinking about making a small cold frame for them to maybe keep them warmer, and increase growth. I am thinking 1 X 2 frame with stretch wrap. I have a roll of it.

 

[tyler1503]

Nice! I was going to get a friend to weld me a 2x3x4 foot frame and use stretch wrap on it until I got the tent :)
A friend of mine uses an old 3foot tank as a greenhouse. I guess if you have an old tank laying around why not!
What are collard greens? We don't have them in aus. Or they're known by a different name here perhaps.

I just did a quick temperature test and the outdoor temperature (in the sun) is about 30•C (86•F) and the temperature inside the greenhouse is 43+•C (109.4+•F). I'm using an old aquarium thermometer so the range doesn't exceed 43•C but the red liquid was right up the top so it's very possible it's even hotter inside.
They say hotter weather produces hotter chillies. 43•+ bhut jolokia will be INSANE!!!!
I wonder if too much heat can kill a chilli plant though. Our summers can get over 40• so the inside temperature of the greenhouse I imagine would far exceed 50•C possibly even 60•C (140•F)

Edit; air temperature is actually closer to 26•C. I had the thermometer laying on the ground so I got a bad reading. That's almost a 20 degree difference. That's far more than I was expecting lol. I may have to leave the front open slightly during the day.

 

[DFW]

Collards are a leafy green in the cabbage family. They grow year round here. They must be covered when temperatures drop below 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Very nutritious! I eat them boiled with a little butter, and a little tabasco sauce. It's kind of like boiled spinach, but it takes longer to boil it down because it's leaves are like cabbage. It grows fast, and can get 20 inches tall.

 

[tyler1503]

Ah nice! Sounds like they'd go well in a pasty :)
I still have no idea what else I want to plant. Except strawberries. Strawberries are awesome!

 

[tyler1503]

I planted some garlic 2 days ago and it's already sprouting :)
I think this greenhouse is working!

 

[tyler1503]

Not even 10 days in and my garlic is a good 6 inches or so tall. I've never grown garlic before so I don't know how fast it's expected to grow though. I assume that's quick :)
A few spring onions have sprouted already (after about a week or so) but nothing else has yet. I'll give them a couple more weeks before I assume they won't sprout.
My jolokia, scorpion, jalapeño and amigo chillies are all growing well!

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

That is really awesome tyler!

Sounds like you got some nice chiles going!

Maybe you can do tomatoes too?

 

[tyler1503]

Thanks! :)
Yea I've got a pretty wide range of chilli at the moment which I'm stoked about! I'm hoping the chillies start flowering soon, I had a single flower on my habanero but it dropped off after I missed a couple of waterings. It dries out sooo quickly in the greenhouse lol.
I've got tomatoes in, but the seeds haven't sprouted just yet.
So far my chilli list consists of;
Black pearls.
Red scorpions.
Elf shoes.
Purple cayennes.
Birds eyes.
Jalapeños.
Red bhut jolokia/ghost chillies.
Amigos.
Orange habaneros.
Peach scorpion/ghost hybrid.

My other plants are;
Garlic.
Spring onion.
Tomato.
Capsicum (I believe you guys call them bell peppers? :) )
Tomorrow I'm going to plant sweet basil, peppermint, strawberries and eventually a few others I haven't decided on yet :)

 

[redfishbluefish]

............
Capsicum (I believe you guys call them bell peppers? :) ).....

Interesting! Here in the USA, capsicum (also noted as oleoresin of capsicum), is the "heat" component in hot peppers. Bell peppers have virtually no heat to them....while other peppers, like jalapeno or chilli peppers are loaded.


Actually I just looked up peppers and see that the genus for peppers is Capsicum.....so I now understand why you "down under" folks call them capsium.

Oh, and I like your DIY greenhouse.....ingenious.

 

[tyler1503]

Interesting! Here in the USA, capsicum (also noted as oleoresin of capsicum), is the "heat" component in hot peppers. Bell peppers have virtually no heat to them....while other peppers, like jalapeno or chilli peppers are loaded.


Actually I just looked up peppers and see that the genus for peppers is Capsicum.....so I now understand why you "down under" folks call them capsium.

Oh, and I like your DIY greenhouse.....ingenious.

Thank you! Im glad, and a little surprised, it turned out so well :)
Actually the chemical in a chilli that gives us that burning feeling is called capsaicin. The very close spelling and pronunciation of the two related words is confusing as heck lol. I've often seen the word capsaicin (the heat producing chemical) written as capsicum (the Australian name of the fruit). Here in aus only the fruits lacking in capsaicin (the fruits Americans call bell peppers and a small selection of similar fruits) are called capsicums. The ones containing capsaicin are called chillies :)

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Interesting. Never knew that about bell peppers... never been a fan! I like my chiles spicy :) jalapenos and habaneros are the best.

Funny that in Mexico where I grew up we never really see bell peppers (probably not as popular down there).

 

[tyler1503]

Interesting. Never knew that about bell peppers... never been a fan! I like my chiles spicy :) jalapenos and habaneros are the best.

Funny that in Mexico where I grew up we never really see bell peppers (probably not as popular down there).

They are probably my favourite two types as well. Jalapeños because you can just eat them with anything and habaneros have that awesome heat! I don't feel the heat from jalapeños at all anymore unfortunately. Have you eaten bhut jolokia before?
Really? I assumed they would be popular as the climate is perfect and in all Mexican food I've eaten, there's been some in there somewhere!

 

[tyler1503]

I've just gotten home from work and checked on everything. It seems the jalapeño is starting to produce fruit :) The flower has mostly died off and there's a small green bulb coming through the centre.
I didn't think my plants would get pollinated while in the greenhouse. I'm hoping there's been no hybrids produced! :S
Anyway, it's still exciting!

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

They are probably my favourite two types as well. Jalapeños because you can just eat them with anything and habaneros have that awesome heat! I don't feel the heat from jalapeños at all anymore unfortunately. Have you eaten bhut jolokia before?
Really? I assumed they would be popular as the climate is perfect and in all Mexican food I've eaten, there's been some in there somewhere!

Well keep in mind Mexico is a big country. And I am from Sonora, which is north. I know they also love grilling these white chiles too say with tacos... I forget the name. I'll ask.

Never heard of bhut jolokia? what is it?

I had some friends from Laos a few years back. They had me try some of their spicy stuff... it was just too much! wish I remember the name too!

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

That's really awesome you growing your own garden. Once I have a bigger place I'll definitely do that.

I heard nice things about Australia by the way. One of my Mexican friends has contemplated immigrating there :cool:

 

[tyler1503]

Well keep in mind Mexico is a big country. And I am from Sonora, which is north. I know they also love grilling these white chiles too say with tacos... I forget the name. I'll ask.

Never heard of bhut jolokia? what is it?

I had some friends from Laos a few years back. They had me try some of their spicy stuff... it was just too much! wish I remember the name too!

The bhut jolokias are immensely hot chillies. They're roughly 200 times hotter than a jalapeño and about 7 times hotter than a habanero. They go by a common name too but I'm not sure what it is. It's either ghost chilli or viper chilli. You literally only need about 1/3 in a family size batch of food to spice it up and that's still hot for the average person. A couple of years ago they were the hottest chilli in the world.
I love Mexican food! Bring on the chimichangas :)
I hope to visit there one day and go to the smaller villages away from the cities and eat all the authentic local foods. Same as Italy and Spain.

That's really awesome you growing your own garden. Once I have a bigger place I'll definitely do that.

I heard nice things about Australia by the way. One of my Mexican friends has contemplated immigrating there :cool:

I would definitely recommend owning a veggie garden! It's like reef keepings younger brother :) It's really satisfying knowing that you grew that vegetable and if you buy organic seeds/seedlings you can really taste the difference compared to store bought.
Australia is amazing. I could go on for ages about why I love it here but I won't clog up my own thread lol. I would 110% recommend at least visiting Australia and doing all the nature type stuff. Diving, bush walking, the daintree rainforest, Uluru, apparently our snowy season is great in the right places too! If your into that sort of thing :)