Comments on: On Choosing Greenhousing Material

By: Nancy

Nancy — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:31:30 +0000

Hi Doug,
Loved you in Seattle, read your wonderful book, etc., etc. ! We made our lean-to greenhouse out of old sliding glass doors, with metal frames removed. We found a window shop that saved the old ones to use as windbreak in-fills in deck rails, and sold them pretty cheap. But I found them on the fifth call in my search. Better quality glass, etc. - and we couldn’t afford the 1/4″ we were considering., anyway. But we did use the ‘celled’ polycarbonate for the roof (we’re too old to heft glass up there

By: OrgoCowboy

OrgoCowboy — Sun, 31 May 2009 14:28:59 +0000

All good comments, and very helpful. Falling into used glass, so to speak, is definitely worth looking out for. And I’m considering some kind of natural material for the superstructure. This is, after all, the Land of Adobe.

By: Shane

Shane — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:09:13 +0000

Have you looked at “harvesting” glass? As in reclaimed from old buildings or looting it from abandon sites? Something has to be getting torn down within a certain raduis to the ranch.

Rammed earth for walls is relatively cheap, but labor intense. rent a pneumatic tamper and some optimistic college students, you could have a respectable greenhouse in no time.

By: Katie

Katie — Sun, 31 May 2009 04:32:31 +0000

I’m with Jen on this one. The major positive of growing your own more than offsets the off gas negative. It’s not in direct contact, so if there is any food contamination it will be minimal. Mangoes bananas, and limes get peeled too, so that should be even less. My theory is to do the best you can with what your wallet allows and to feel good about the choices you made.

By: OrgoCowboy

OrgoCowboy — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:55:37 +0000

Phew. That’s a relief. Though she started a long time ago, and all this leeching info has been coming out of late. I suppose phenol-ignorance can be a kind of mind-over-manner.

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:11:47 +0000

I married into a farming family. My grandmother-in-law has been eating veggies grown in plastic coated greenhouses much of her life, and she going to be 93 this September. She’s sharp as a tack, sometimes a little too sharp!

I think eating non-processed, fresh grown, pesticide-free produce way out benefits the chance that the plants are receiving off-gasses from the plastic. I share your concern for plastic bottles or tubing leaching chemicals directly into the water. There is direct contact between the water and the plastic. I think if chemicals are going to be released from the plastic into the air, it will be during the heat of the day and in the summer. When it’s hot, you’re going to be opening the vents of the greenhouse to let stagnant air out and fresh air in. Air flow is necessary to avoid botrytis, so there will be constant air exchange.

Our greenhouses are covered in plastic. We can’t afford a glass house. Although, that’s the eventual dream.

Good luck!

By: OrgoCowboy

OrgoCowboy — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:30:17 +0000

Gulp. I suspected the comments might trend in that direction. Why did we ever leave the Garden of Eden?

By: Rodney Hampton

Rodney Hampton — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:44:25 +0000

I try to avoid plastics now…but it’s extremely difficult. Good luck Doug.

By: marisa

marisa — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:49:43 +0000

Trust the Canadians. There’s a reason that their country is more beautiful, and they are more mellow. Maybe it’s the phenol……..