How to build a greenhouse with your own hands: instructions from A to Z. How to build a winter greenhouse with your own hands Do-it-yourself greenhouse manufacturing options

A greenhouse is a section of a garden that is not affected by the vagaries of the weather and environmental factors. Here you can create the microclimate necessary for plants. The greenhouse allows you to grow vegetables even in winter. In addition, it makes it possible to equip a greenhouse and a winter garden, where you can admire greenery and flowers all year round.

Making a greenhouse is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. It is enough to know what the structure consists of, as well as the general laws of its functioning. Many gardeners and owners of summer cottages build such structures on their own. In this article we will talk about how to make a greenhouse with your own hands, show photo and video instructions.

Design basis

The greenhouse consists of several parts. The basis of the entire structure is the frame. When choosing a frame, it must be borne in mind that the strength of the entire building depends on its strength. Today you can find three main types of frames: wood, PVC and steel.

• The wooden frame is easy to assemble. However, it is unstable to various environmental factors.

Such a design has to be specially processed additionally, but this does not guarantee strength.

The advantage of wood is that it is a natural, environmentally friendly material.

• Steel structures are very durable, wear-resistant and strong. They can withstand high loads. By installing such a frame, you can not worry that the greenhouse will suffer from snow, wind or hail. Steel is the most popular greenhouse material. Very often, gardeners choose a galvanized steel profile.

The metal must be treated for corrosion protection.

Some gardeners believe that metal will negatively affect the growth of vegetables and other plants. However, the assumption that plants develop worse in steel greenhouses is nothing more than a myth.

• Polyvinyl chloride structures are environmentally friendly, durable, and safe. Their strength depends, however, on the strength and thickness of the profile. The advantage of this material is that it allows you to create sealed systems in which the microclimate is fully controlled by the owner. The disadvantage of PVC greenhouses is the relatively high cost. In PVC structures, winter gardens are often arranged, which serve as recreation areas for owners.

Before you build a greenhouse in the country, you must carefully select the material for the frame.

Greenhouse coating materials

To protect plants from adverse environmental conditions, it is necessary to choose a good cover for the greenhouse. Today on the market you can find several solutions to this issue. There are three main types of coatings: glass, several types of special films and PVC materials.

Glass as a coating is better to choose durable. For greenhouses, triplex or tempered glass is suitable. If it is not possible to install any of these types, then you will have to install several glasses. The best option is an unbreakable coating that can withstand the load from snow, hail, wind.

Glass transmits sunlight well, however, along with useful infrared radiation, ultraviolet also enters the greenhouse.

Film is the most popular material for building a greenhouse. It is strong, durable and can last for many years with proper care. Recently, several types of film have been produced specifically for greenhouses and greenhouses.

1. Light-converting film is useful in that it converts ultraviolet radiation into infrared. This stimulates the growth of vegetation and allows you to get a good crop from greenhouses.
2. Reinforced film has increased strength. In addition, it protects against frost. This is the type of coating that most owners of such structures choose.

Polyvinyl chloride materials have also found their supporters, monolithic and cellular polycarbonate, as well as transparent acrylic plastic, are widely used in the construction of greenhouses.

Cellular polycarbonate is especially in demand.

The plates of this material do not fade, look very aesthetically pleasing and serve for many years. Possessing excellent heat-insulating properties, cellular polycarbonate is resistant to all natural factors. He is not afraid of frost or heat.

It is necessary to use cellular polycarbonate depending on the thickness:

• 3.5 mm - used in the construction of greenhouses and greenhouses;
• 4 mm - used in the construction of greenhouses and sheds;
• 6 mm - for peaks, greenhouses and stained-glass windows;
• 8 mm - material of wide application.

The average price for cellular polycarbonate varies depending on the thickness: from 80 to 850 rubles. m 2

Choosing a place to install a greenhouse on the site

For the greenhouse, you need to choose the right location.

1. It is better if the greenhouse is, at least one of the sides is located closer to the house. This will facilitate the conduction of electricity into the room. Light in the greenhouse is necessary, especially in the winter season. In addition, electricity will be needed to install other appliances in the greenhouse.
2. It is necessary to decide whether the greenhouse will function in the winter. If you plan to use it all year round, then to provide the necessary conditions for plants, the structure is installed from west to east. The long sides of the structure will be located to the north and south, respectively.
3. To install the greenhouse you need the right place. It should not be located in a lowland where moisture flows. The area under the greenhouse must be flat. Also, the place for the future greenhouse should not be located among the trees, in the shade. Plants will need a lot of light.
4. The soil should not be clay. Ideally, it should be suitable for the type of crops that are planned to be grown.

Greenhouse types

Modern materials, especially PVC, allow you to create real masterpieces. Designs can take forms that were previously considered impossible.

Among the most common types are single-pitched, arched, gable, hipped greenhouses. Also, the design itself can be collapsible or non-collapsible. It is convenient to have a collapsible one when it is not planned to use the greenhouse all year round. For permanent, year-round use, it is better to install a non-separable one.

Depending on the operation, the type of foundation for the future greenhouse is also established.

The foundation for the greenhouse: which one to choose and how to do it right

In order to install a temporary greenhouse, you do not need a particularly strong foundation. You can use plastic bottles for this. But for a permanent non-separable structure, a foundation is necessary. It will guarantee the strength of the structure and allow it to serve for many years in any conditions.

It is noted that a monolithic strip foundation would be ideal for such a case. The base of such a foundation should be located below the freezing level of the soil. The lower part is covered with rubble. The depth of the ditch is about 80 cm.

The base can be reinforced with rebar or reinforced mesh embedded in concrete.

The whole structure depends on the strength of the foundation. This is especially important for glass greenhouses: violations in the base can cause it to crack.

Installing the greenhouse frame on the foundation - basic rules

Greenhouses are often produced ready-made, it remains only to assemble them, having previously made the foundation.

It is noted that it is better to assemble galvanized steel structures using fasteners: nuts and bolts. Welds may corrode.

When installing a polycarbonate greenhouse, you should remember the peculiarity of this material. It expands at high temperatures and shrinks at cold temperatures. Therefore, in the work it is necessary to use sealants and silicone putties.

When installing polycarbonate sheets, you must always leave a small gap between them, a few millimeters.

In greenhouses, window openings are often installed. They are essential for ventilation. It is advisable to plan such design details in advance.

Modern greenhouses are very complex systems, they are equipped with various devices, the simplest of which is an automatic irrigation system. However, even such units can be installed independently.

Polygonal greenhouses typically contain eight faces. Such designs have several advantages at once.

1. The polygonal design collects light rays well. At least one of its faces always faces the sun.
2. Such greenhouses are very aesthetic. They are perfect for arranging a winter garden. The building decorates the site, and does not spoil it.
3. The design is very stable and can withstand strong winds and even hail.

The only difficulty that the owner of such a structure may face is the glass. Glasses of a polygonal greenhouse will have to be ordered if necessary. Because they have a specific shape. Another disadvantage of the polyhedron is the difficulty with uniform heating of the air. However, by applying the latest technological systems, this problem can be easily solved.

Video: greenhouse construction

We bring to your attention a series of videos about the construction of a greenhouse.

And this video will tell you about the construction of a year-round greenhouse.

If you are looking for where to buy a greenhouse, we recommend that you look in specialized online stores, since prices in them are often lower than in ordinary stores and markets.

Many summer residents would like to grow fresh vegetables all year round. It is possible to come to the country house even in winter. The building is heated, with all communications. For vegetables, if you want to grow them in winter and spring, you will also need a warm house. A year-round heated greenhouse can be equipped with your own hands.

This is the most important thing to start - to choose the right place. At 30%, the location will determine the efficiency of the greenhouse.

Table. Options for choosing a place for a greenhouse

Parameter	Description
Daylight	Of course, in a stationary year-round greenhouse, additional artificial lighting will have to be provided, but why not use the possibilities of nature 100%. Plants should be provided with the maximum amount of daylight. By placing the greenhouse structure in a west to east direction in an open area, you will get maximum sun for the plants.
Wind	Cold winds can not only penetrate inside the structure through any even small cracks, but also, acting from the outside, reduce the temperature in it by 2-5 degrees. For young seedlings, such a difference can be fatal. Therefore, when installing a greenhouse, take care of its additional protection from the wind.
Water	Ideally, a year-round greenhouse has an automatic watering system. But if there is none, hydrocommunications should be located close, for convenient and efficient water intake and irrigation. Water temperature, especially in winter, also matters. Watering seedlings with cold water is unacceptable.
Approaches	Few people pay attention to this parameter. However, the approach to the greenhouse should be wide and comfortable. This will not only facilitate its construction, but also make comfortable and efficient operation.

Material selection

What to build from? There are many options. You need to choose such a material so that the building lasts a long time, is durable, airtight, economical. In this regard, the old film and glass classical buildings, equipped with frame structures using wood, have finally become a thing of the past.

Why film, glass and wood are not suitable?

Greenhouse made of wood and glass - photo

1. Even a heavy-duty film can tear - heat leakage will occur.
2. In the frames and between them, cracks will necessarily form over time, through which heat will also leave.
3. Glass breaks and in one layer has a low heat transfer.

What materials to choose for a year-round greenhouse?

• The frame structure can be used when installing metal-plastic frames, provided they are double-glazed.
• The walls of the greenhouse can be made of polycarbonate on a metal basis.
• For a year-round greenhouse, a brick building is suitable.

Reliability, long service life, protection for growing crops - these are the main parameters by which greenhouse building material is selected.

Assembling a greenhouse from cellular polycarbonate

Consider the polycarbonate structure, the features of its assembly and the tools and additional materials necessary for this.

What is good polycarbonate

This modern material has many positive performance qualities.

• It has excellent thermal insulation properties.
• It has a surprisingly flexible structure - it bends easily without breaking, which allows for the installation of even arched structures.
• This new material is 16 times lighter than the thinnest glass.

In polycarbonate structures, shaped pipes act as a frame. In addition to them, you will need:

• welding machine;
• polycarbonate sheets;
• bolts and sealant.

Assembly can be done in a few hours, according to the instructions that come with the finished greenhouse.

Advice! Not all ready-made designs provide transoms, but it is better to provide them, the possibility of ventilation will protect the plants from overheating.

The frame is assembled with bolts. Sheets are inserted into the frame. Don't forget to make the roof sloped (a 35-degree angle is enough) to keep snow from accumulating. Places of strips with open honeycombs on polycarbonate are treated with sealant to minimize heat loss.

Features of a metal-plastic greenhouse

Do-it-yourself metal-plastic structures are not the easiest thing to do. It will be the most durable for specialists, so it is better to make a custom-made greenhouse frame in a construction company that specializes in the manufacture of such products. Plus, the frame will need double glazing, which is also better to entrust to specialists.

As a result, the full cost of such a year-round greenhouse will not come cheap. But this is the most real opportunity to grow greens and vegetables all year round.

Advice! When installing a metal-plastic glazed greenhouse, it is recommended that one wall (north) be made not of glass and insulated.

The roof of such a greenhouse tilts 30 degrees. It is preferable to choose a single-slope configuration.

Features of a brick greenhouse

A brick greenhouse, or as it is also called capital, is a real “home” for plants, where life is possible all year round. This is not even a greenhouse anymore, but a real greenhouse in which you can grow not only vegetables, but also various exotic plants. Until now, despite new modern materials, such as metal-plastic and cellular polycarbonate, the option of a brick greenhouse is considered the most reliable, proven, optimal, and effective.

How to build a brick greenhouse

The construction can be done with your own hands, if you have at least minimal skills in brickwork and other construction work. But even without labor costs, a greenhouse will require a solid financial investment.

You will need:

• brick;
• mineral wool;
• cement, sand;
• roofing material;
• boards, timber for rafters;
• windows, doors, gutters.

The features of the building are that, unlike all other types of greenhouses, a brick one is a “two-room apartment” for green pets. The first room is the vestibule. Usually it occupies an area of ​​2x2 m or 2x2.5 m. Garden accessories, fertilizers, soil and other necessary things are stored in the vestibule, and a heating system (boiler, stove) is also installed.

The main greenhouse room can be any area that you are able to master.

The partition between the two rooms is made capital. It has a door installed. The second door from the vestibule leads outside. In the greenhouse, not only windows are made, but also transoms.

Another feature - for a capital greenhouse, you will have to fill in the foundation, preferably tape.

Table. The main stages of the construction of a brick greenhouse

Heating system

You can heat a greenhouse in different ways. From the simplest and most ancient - furnace, to new and modern infrared equipment and heat guns. Each system has its own disadvantages and advantages.

Table. Characteristics of greenhouse heating systems

Heating type	Characteristics
	Used in capital buildings. The simplest and least expensive method. Does not require complex structures. The oven is installed in the vestibule. Chimney - around the perimeter of the greenhouse. For the arrangement of stove heating, ventilation is necessary. Among the disadvantages are uneven heat supply, the need for constant monitoring, strong heating of the furnace surface, fire hazard. The walls of a gas-generating solid fuel furnace do not heat up.
	It can be installed in a greenhouse from any material. Considered the safest. You will need a tank with a boiler, a pump, pipes, water, electricity. Water is heated by electricity, distributed through the system with the help of a pump, cooling down and returned to the boiler. This method provides not only an optimal uniform thermal regime, but also the necessary humidity. But only specialists can install such a system. Operation will also require serious material costs.
	Alternative to water. You will need gas heaters and burners, as well as pipes evenly distributed throughout the greenhouse. Gas is burned, heat is distributed in the room. There are several drawbacks, the main one being the need for constant monitoring to avoid gas leakage. Additional ventilation will also be required. This option is more economical than water, heating is carried out evenly, the room heats up faster.
	The most popular and demanded type. Can be used in all greenhouses. There are many devices, including: convector batteries, cables, guns, heating mats. Most systems are equipped with sensors, it is possible to adjust the modes.
	You should not even try to install the system with your own hands - it is mounted only by professionals at the time of assembling the greenhouse structure. Heating is excellent, uniform, fast. Condensation does not accumulate (which happens in winter with all other systems). But there is a possibility of overdrying the air, so it is recommended to install humidifiers in parallel.

What vegetables are grown in a greenhouse all year round

In a heated greenhouse, you can grow absolutely any vegetables, herbs, berries, flowers, and even exotic plants. But if there is only one greenhouse on the site, and you give preference to vegetables, you will have to choose up to three vegetable crops and the same number of greens.

Vegetables

From traditional vegetables for year-round cultivation, they usually choose:

• cucumbers;
• tomatoes;
• pepper;
• Chinese cabbage;
• radish;
• salads.

Greenery

From spicy green crops are grown:

• dill;
• parsley;
• cilantro;
• basil;
• green onion.

Pepper - can be sown and grown with any crops.

Tomatoes - grow well with onions and radishes.

Cucumbers - prefer radishes, lettuce and all green crops.

Greens - Can grow with all crops.

Advice! It is undesirable to combine cucumbers with tomatoes and cabbage with parsley in neighboring crops.

Planting seedlings in a greenhouse

The time for planting seedlings that have grown in rooms to a permanent place of growth in a capital heated greenhouse depends on the time you have chosen for sowing. For the successful planting of seedlings, there are certain rules.

1. Seedlings are ready for planting when they have at least 7-8 true leaves (peppers have at least 12). The bushes are strong, stable, not elongated, flower buds may begin to form in peppers and tomatoes. Leaf color is intense green.

   

2. Before planting, seedlings need to be hardened off two weeks in advance - they should be taken outside for several hours, gradually increasing the time.
3. Greenhouse soil is prepared in advance - it is filled with humus, a bucket of 1 m² (not manure!) And minerals (potassium and phosphorus - 40 g each, nitrogen - 30 g / m²). The soil is dug up, loosened, broken into holes.

   

   

   

4. The wells are watered with water, two liters each. Seedlings are also well watered two hours before planting.

   

5. The seedling is carefully removed from the seedling container with the help of a planting scoop, along with the root soil. If too long a root sticks out of the soil clod, it is allowed to pinch it by a third.
6. The seedling falls into the hole, holds with one hand, the second fills the space between the walls and the lump.
7. The soil is compacted near the stem, watered again. For plants that will be tied up (tomatoes, cucumbers, some varieties of pepper), it is immediately recommended to install pegs or plank trellises.

   

Plant care in the greenhouse

In a greenhouse that works all year round for the “production” of fresh vegetable products, plants need especially careful care.

The first important condition is soil preparation. Vegetables grown out of season in a greenhouse will place increased demands, primarily on the soil. It should be light, fertile, with a high concentration of substances needed by plants.

The following components are required in the composition of greenhouse soil:

• manure;
• turf;
• peat;
• straw (sawdust);
• sand;
• carbohydrate-containing and nitrogen-containing fertilizers.

The second condition is feeding. Vegetables and herbs need to be fed regularly throughout the entire growth and fruiting cycle.

The third important component of care is watering and humidity regime. Drip irrigation is preferred, or a fine shower (for some crops). If it is not possible to install an automatic irrigation system with temperature control of the supplied water, make sure that its temperature is not lower than the ambient temperature.

Heating is described in detail above. One has only to note that in the conditions of the middle lane it will be necessary to heat a year-round greenhouse with different intensity for at least seven months a year.

An important care measure is weed control and soil loosening. The earthen crust is dangerous for all garden plants, but it is especially harmful to seedlings and seedlings in a greenhouse, where plants get less air than in open ground.

The loosening of greenhouse soil, depending on the composition of the soil, often begins even before germination (when sowing crops with seeds). If the seeds have not yet sprouted, but the crust has already formed, of course, it must be destroyed in order to make it easier for the seedlings to reach the surface. Loosening before germination is carried out between rows, to a depth of not more than 5 cm, with a light ripper.

When the main crops sprout, or after planting seedlings in the greenhouse, all loosening is combined with weeding and is carried out after watering. The soil is loosened closer to the stem of the plant, but so as not to destroy the lateral roots.

Advice! Vegetable crops, such as tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, loosen immediately after planting seedlings deep, up to 7 cm. As the lateral roots grow, the loosening depth decreases, and the distance from the stem increases.

Also, in a year-round greenhouse, it is necessary to pay special attention to the prevention of diseases of vegetable crops, to take measures to treat diseases that have arisen, to remove vegetation residues, obsolete lashes, stems, leaves in a timely manner, and after harvesting, while preparing the greenhouse for a new sowing cycle, disinfect it.

Growing vegetables in a greenhouse will certainly bring excellent results if you follow all the rules for caring for seedlings and planting them in protected ground. The reward will be juicy and healthy fruits, vegetables and herbs from your own site all year round.

Video - How to build a large winter greenhouse

Standard greenhouses offered by manufacturers are not always suitable for the conditions of a particular site. Engineer Vladimir Blagodatskikh told how he built a capital “house for plants” according to an individual project:

Not so long ago I had a chance to build a greenhouse for good friends. The "Green House" on their site had to fit strictly in the gap between the garage and the barn. True, such a combination implied a convenient passage to the plants from two sides in the complete absence of the end walls of the greenhouse. But I had to think about the design myself.

Having designed the frame, I purchased metal pipes of rectangular and square sections (60 × 30 and 20 × 20 mm), as well as corners and strips of different widths. To make all the arches the same, I made a special template for assembling them. The parts were connected by electric arc welding. I installed the finished arches vertically on a pre-poured concrete foundation, and then welded longitudinal pipes to them - runs. The size of the foundation turned out to be 5.3 × 9.5 m (area - 50 m²), and the height of the greenhouse in the ridge was approximately 3.6 m. .05 m

I made a transparent cover of the greenhouse from different materials (photo 1). Basically, these are polycarbonate sheets 10 mm thick, but glazed wooden window frames go along one wall (this step was taken for reasons of economy). So that the plastic does not overheat on dark metal and last longer, I did not attach it directly to the frame. First, I welded additional corners and strips to the racks, screwed wooden slats to them, and already fixed the polycarbonate on them with self-tapping screws through plastic washers.

Photo 1.

The ventilation system turned out to be interesting (photo 2). It consists of two independent parts: side (in one of the vertical walls of the greenhouse) and tent (in the roof along the entire length of the greenhouse on both sides of the ridge). The transoms are opened manually, but all together with the help of a cunningly designed system of cables and rails. The levers for opening the frames are located on the wall at the entrance to the greenhouse.

Photo 2.

In conclusion, I equipped the greenhouse with reliable trellises for tying plants (photo 3). They are made of a steel cable in a plastic sheath, stretched between the end walls of the greenhouse using a tensioning device (lanyard). To prevent the cable from sagging, it rests on horizontal frame ties located at a height of approximately 2.2 m from the ground.

6 signs of a good greenhouse

Many summer residents do not build greenhouses themselves, but purchase ready-made ones. The most popular products are arched, with a metal frame and a polycarbonate coating. And they only look the same at first glance.

1. Dimensions

The larger (and taller) the greenhouse, the better! It will be easier to maintain the desired temperature and humidity without sudden changes. On the other hand, low-cost greenhouses are usually limited in size by material standards (eg, length and width of polycarbonate sheet, length of rolled metal products, etc.). A compromise, quite a working option is a greenhouse 3 × 4 or 3 × 6 m. “Tunnels” of greater length will require additional vents in the roof or walls, and not just at the ends.

2. Coating

Polycarbonate with a thickness of at least 6 mm significantly enhances the strength of the greenhouse, and its thermal insulation properties are much better. Thin, 4 mm, will have to be changed more often. Saving immediately on both the frame and the coating is not the best idea: the greenhouse will be flimsy. Good plastic necessarily has protection from ultraviolet radiation - it will help the greenhouse coating not become cloudy and not lose strength over time. Information about the presence of a protective layer is printed on the packaging of polycarbonate. In addition, the side of the sheet that will be facing outward on the finished greenhouse is necessarily marked.

And of course, a reliable manufacturer does not save on trifles - self-tapping screws and sealing washers, with which the coating is attached to the frame.

3. Frame

Professionals agree that a frame made of a square or rectangular metal pipe is stronger and more durable than a frame made of a profile or a corner. It is even better if the supporting arcs of the greenhouse are made double. But if a double frame is too expensive, you can put supports in the greenhouse every autumn, and after heavy snowfalls, come and throw off the snow from it. In any case, the thickness of the metal must be at least 1 mm, and elements reinforcing the structure must be provided in the greenhouse.

A galvanized frame is more durable than a painted one, but more expensive, and, unfortunately, the most durable versions of “galvanized” metal structures are rare on sale.

4. Doors

Convenient greenhouse entry and tight closing doors are something the greenhouse owner will have to deal with all season long. On the contrary, an ill-fitting door with sharp corners and metal burrs can not only spoil the whole impression, but also become a source of drafts.

5. Air vents

For high-quality ventilation of plants, there should be at least two vents in the greenhouse, and according to the rules, their area should be at least 15% of the area of ​​​​the entire coverage (for growing tomatoes). Simply put, a good greenhouse has a lot of them and they are big!

6. Automation

Greenhouse ventilation systems without human intervention are an excellent solution: they are quite inexpensive, and they save time and labor noticeably. It is better to take them immediately complete with a greenhouse: the manufacturer usually knows which system is more convenient to put on the doors and vents of his brainchild.

Automatic drip irrigation allows you to leave your favorite plants unattended for a week or more. The thing is necessary, but its acquisition and installation can be postponed until spring.

The greenhouse is as much a symbol of the modern age as space flights, computers with the Internet, robots and nuclear energy. This is not an exaggeration. According to WHO data for 1975, then 3/4 of the world's population lacked animal protein (without which, roughly speaking, a person becomes dumb and stupid), half were chronically malnourished, and a third, in addition, had never tasted either meat or fish, no eggs.

We still feel the consequences of malnutrition and malnutrition on a global scale today, but if the situation is not improving radically, then at least it is not significantly worsening, although less than 0.5 hectares of agricultural land per person remain on Earth. It is greenhouse farming that helps to hold out until better times (while still alive - hopefully!) the yield of fruit and vegetable crops in a greenhouse can be several times higher than in open ground(see fig.), and they harvest not in one gulp on a market day, but gradually all year round; this allows us to consistently meet demand and free up land for livestock farming.

Note: from the UN stuff. In the same 1975, UN experts zealously promoted vegetarianism. And last year they also recognized him as a mental disorder.

In turn, greenhouse agricultural technology was completely transformed quantitatively and qualitatively by a polycarbonate greenhouse. It is simple, cheap, durable and technologically advanced. In addition, if in the same 1975 expert tasters accurately separated greenhouse fruits and vegetables from ground fruits and vegetables, now they confuse them in about 50% of cases. This means that they do not feel a noticeable difference and speak at random. Under an indispensable condition: the test samples were grown in modern greenhouses using modern agricultural technologies. Which, in turn, in old greenhouses are either inefficient or simply not applicable. For example, a greenhouse made of wood and glass from drip-fog irrigation in it becomes completely unusable in 2-3 years.

Polycarbonate is a type of organic glass that reflects infrared (IR) rays well and thus can create a strong greenhouse effect. But he did not transform greenhouses on his own, but only after they learned how to produce it in the form of sheets of a honeycomb structure. This made it possible to create strong and resistant prestressed greenhouse structures on a lightweight frame; You can build a polycarbonate greenhouse in almost any climate, from the Sahara to the Putorana Mountains and from the Mojave Desert to Northern Labrador. Thanks to this, greenhouse farming has also become a public help: a greenhouse on a piece of land of a quarter of a hundred square meters is able to provide a family with fruits and herbs all year round and even provide a marketable surplus for sale.

Polycarbonate is easy to process, and the technology for creating structures with working skin from it is simple. With the widespread use of pipes made of engineering plastics and methods for their quick and durable connection, the construction of the frame has ceased to be a serious problem. Currently, there is a wide range of kits for assembling small garden greenhouses on sale, but - demand dictates prices! Therefore, everyone who wants to build a greenhouse with their own hands arrives: in the Penza region alone. number of self-made private greenhouses for 2009-2014 increased by more than 20 (!) times.

Note: engineering plastics - those that are able to bear mechanical operational loads for a long time. PVC, for example, with all its advantages, is not structural plastic, although it can be very useful in greenhouse business, which will be discussed later. Of the engineering plastics, polyisopropylene (PP) is most commonly used: it is not expensive, and its mechanical properties are comparable to steel. Further, unless otherwise specified, plastic will always be understood as PP.

There are different ways to build a greenhouse from PP, at least this:

Video: greenhouse made of polypropylene pipes

But we will further try to tell not only how to make a greenhouse yourself, but also how to design it, and without complicated calculations, and when building to avoid excessive costs and labor costs. Ready-made sets of parts are calculated for all occasions and therefore are not cheap, a design well developed by others in these specific circumstances may turn out to be unsuitable for any reason, and we will create our own greenhouse for our own local conditions, getting by with the minimum necessary.

We will focus primarily on polycarbonate greenhouses on a tubular plastic frame, as the most versatile. But there are a number of garden crops that can vegetate and bear fruit all year round at a relatively low above-zero temperature and relatively low light. These are people from the tropics who have taken root in temperate latitudes: cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, sweet peppers, zucchini, squash. We cultivate them as annuals, but in general they are evergreen and, with minimal heating costs, can produce marketable products for 9-10 months a year, and the demand for them is always good.

Such crops do not require high agricultural technologies, but they are afraid of overheating in summer; Here they need more fresh air and coolness. Therefore, and also for a number of other reasons, for their small-scale production and cultivation for their own consumption, the good old greenhouse made of wood is better suited, so we will also deal with them. We will not ignore the mini-greenhouses for table greens, flowers and seedlings, especially since you can arrange one in a city apartment.

Finally, greenhouse business is being improved not only by venerable specialists in large research centers. Craftsmen sometimes come up with designs that are surprisingly effective and promising; some of them will also be discussed.

Greenhouse or greenhouse?

Greenhouses with greenhouses are usually distinguished by size. Like, the greenhouse is large, you can enter it and work there like in a garden. And the greenhouse is small, you can only climb into it with your hands, and then squatting, so do pruning, hilling, etc. uncomfortable. But this is only a visible difference, and the essence is much deeper: a large building can be a greenhouse, and a small box can be a greenhouse.

Note: about appearance and essence. The famous ancient Greek philosopher-sophist was once asked: "What is a man?" He, after thinking, answered: "A biped without feathers." The next day, the students shook out of the bag in front of him ... a plucked chicken.

The greenhouse creates the so-called. spring awakening effect. To do this, the soil in it is deeply mulched with manure; the best is horse. As biofuels decompose, they heat the earth from within. Root heating of plants at a lower air temperature than on the soil surface, in combination with an excess of nitrogen, stimulates, first of all, the rapid growth of vegetation of its nutrient factory - green mass. If plants have their own depots of supplies (bulbs, rhizomes), then they are primarily used for this, and the root system is still lagging behind in development. Figuratively speaking, plants do not yet think about fruiting under such conditions.

Greenhouses are used mainly for forcing and growing seedlings. Forcing is a process of controlled acceleration of vegetation; in some species - up to flowering. By distillation, for example, you can get onion feathers, fresh watercress and lilies of the valley by a predetermined date: New Year, March 8th. Plants are so exhausted from forcing that they either die or require a long rest in the vegetative phase. Distillation of table greens gives products of excellent quality if the planting material was environmentally friendly, because. plants take very little from the soil.

Note: the simplest full-fledged greenhouse for seedlings and forcing onions on greens can be built in half an hour or an hour, see fig. The fertile layer of soil is removed on a bayonet, folded into a pile. Another half bayonet is selected and a layer of manure is laid. The soil is laid back on top, a shelter is made of a film - and you're done! In central Russia, such a greenhouse produces products from about the end of March to mid-October or early November.

In the greenhouse, root heating takes place, but moderate. The main thing here is that the plants should feel the influx of warm, warmer than the soil, air from above and / or from the side. This creates a “mid-spring effect” whereby plants tend to produce as quickly as possible in order to start accumulating nutrients for the winter or dry season. Well, if a paradise with eternal spring is arranged for them, then you can “fatten” as much as you like without exhausting yourself, as long as there is enough soil nutrition: the root system is now working with might and main. This is the basis for the high productivity of the greenhouse economy.

Note: a greenhouse cannot be a greenhouse, but any greenhouse can become a greenhouse. In general, for this it is necessary to strengthen the soil heating and weaken the air. But the subtleties of handling distilled crops are already a topic from agricultural technology, and not the construction of greenhouses.

About refraction

Polycarbonate and silicate glass have a refractive index of light significantly more than 1. That is, the slopes of the greenhouse, the rays of the Sun falling on them, are directed inward at a steeper angle. On the one hand, this is good: in winter, the ramp works as a light concentrator - it collects oblique winter light over a larger area and directs it inward to a smaller one, see Fig.:

On the other hand, with a decrease in the slope of the slope, the degree of reflection of direct rays also increases. If the angle of their incidence decreases to a critical one, the so-called. angle of total reflection, then only half of the scattered light will pass inward, and the direct light will be completely reflected. Based on this:

• In mid-latitudes, the angle of inclination of the slopes must be chosen within 30-45 degrees from the horizontal.
• The further north the greenhouse is located, the steeper the slopes should be.
• Greenhouses of a conventional design must be made gable and oriented with a roof ridge from north to south, i.e. slopes to the east and west. In this case, the angle of incidence of most of the light that has passed inward onto the surface of the shadow slope will be less than the critical one and it will be reflected back inward.

Note: cellular polycarbonate has an additional advantage over glass in this respect - light refracts each of the layers of its structure and the degree of light concentration is higher. But the layers of polycarbonate are thinner than the thinnest glass, so its light transmission is almost the same as that of a single layer of glass.

How do plants sense light?

Radiation refraction in the coating of the greenhouse has another important role: it smooths out fluctuations in lighting and temperature in it during the day and season. Most horticultural crops are quite hardy to the amount of light and temperature, if they are kept more or less stable or change smoothly. But a sharp jump in any of these parameters of the plant is understood as a signal that unfavorable conditions are approaching. At the same time, their physiology switches from growth and fruiting algorithms to survival and accumulation of their own reserves: productivity drops, product quality deteriorates. A classic example is cucumbers. Let it not be for long, but it suddenly became colder or breathed with heat - everything became smaller and went bitter.

Own greenhouse

The first thing to start with is why do we need a greenhouse? What do we, speaking in Odessa, want to have from her? According to marketability, greenhouses are divided as follows:

1. Winter, or year-round - allow you to grow any crops all year round. To date, only durian and cherimoya are not physiologically amenable to greenhouse farming.
2. Seasonal capital, or semi-winter - give marketable products from Central Russia for 8-10 months. in a year. In these, either annuals or plants with physiology that require / endure a dormant period at sub-zero temperatures are cultivated.
3. Seasonal lightweight - the active phase of the production cycle for 2-3 months. shorter than semi-winter ones; usually they are meant by seasonal greenhouses. Cultivated in them, as a rule, early / late ordinary vegetables and herbs.
4. Temporary - used for growing seedlings in natural soil, forcing or for a one-two-three-fold crop of crops that greatly deplete the soil: root crops, strawberries, etc. When the site is developed, the greenhouse is dismantled, transferred to a new location, and the land is left to rest under fallow or sown with nitrogen-fixing crops, legumes, etc.
5. Greenhouses - they are put (it is difficult to call it a building) once for seedlings and forcing. How to make a greenhouse as such, said above. It is more difficult to arrange greenhouses for exotic flowers, for example. orchids or Gesneriaceae, but this topic is already from floriculture, and not gardening.

Note: phalaenopsis common in flower shops - only a few representatives of about 800 genera and more than 35,000 species of orchids, suitable for mass culture for cutting. The flowers of all orchids are long-lived and stand-up cut. Among them there are many such that in Hollywood there is not enough cocaine to purposely invent, on the left in fig. There are cases when rich connoisseurs paid $5,000 and even $20,000 for just 1 flower of a rare species. In countries where all sorts of rarities are loved, renting live flowering orchids in pots is a lucrative form of small business; rare orchids need to be groomed and nurtured until flowering for 7-8 years. Many orchids exude a delicate fragrance; vanilla is an orchid. Orchids grow up to the tundra, but in our area they are either small and do not catch the eye (for example, orchis), or very rare, like venus's shoes - cypripediums, in the center in fig. The Gesnerian culture is simpler, and they are also very showy and simply luxurious, on the right in fig. True, they are not suitable for cutting.

The purpose of the greenhouse determines the initial and operating costs for it. In winter, a capital foundation is needed with complete concreting of the underground part and insulation, as well as full lighting and heating. The cost of their heating is the lion's share of the current, so winter greenhouses are most cost-effective large size (from about 200 cubic meters) in large farms. The own heat reserve of a large greenhouse is enough to maintain the vital activity of plants, taking into account the greenhouse effect, for several days, up to 2 weeks. Therefore, heating systems for them do not rely on peak frosts, but on the average seasonal temperature, which is much higher.

The original version of the winter greenhouse is a greenhouse-greenhouse; it does not require constant heating in the middle latitudes at all. The mulch that decomposes under the soil layer heats the greenhouse. But its production cycle is difficult to vary, it is necessary to extract manure in large quantities 1-2 times a year, and food crops from it most often do not pass according to modern sanitary requirements, because. are oversaturated with nitrates. In the greenhouse phase of the cycle, only chives are more or less edible. Large hotbeds are used mainly as greenhouses, and small home gardens are used for cut flowers.

Note: in certain climatic conditions, it is possible to build a completely non-volatile winter greenhouse, the so-called. thermos greenhouses; a separate section will be dedicated to them. But the complexity of construction and the cost of it for a thermos greenhouse turn out to be much higher than for a conventional one. True, exceptions are possible, see later in the same section.

Semi-winter greenhouses- also quite solid structures; the foundation is most often tape monolithic or from ready-made blocks of lightweight type, tk. the upper structure is light and is not afraid of uneven shrinkage. But the working area is illuminated and heated here only at the beginning and end of the season of use, and 6-7 months. The greenhouse operates on natural light and the greenhouse effect. The light lantern of a semi-winter greenhouse made of polycarbonate on a PP frame will be inexpensive and can last more than 15 years, and with minimal illumination and heating in such a one from Moscow and to the south, you can grow perennial subtropical crops up to citrus fruits; they still have a dormant period. Harvesting will be seasonal, and heating in the very cold to a slight plus will help the plants endure the winter.

seasonal greenhouses Most of all, they build themselves. Ordinary table crops, with skillful management in the Moscow region, give up to 10 months. per year, and to the south of Rostov-on-Don, they are able to function year-round. In both cases, the cost of light and heat will not exceed more than 2 times those for a city apartment of equal area. With a reduction in the time of use in the cold season, heat costs fall rapidly, so most of these greenhouses live up to their name. The profitability of seasonal greenhouses increases significantly if inexpensive solid fuel for stoves is available to the owners; see the section on heating greenhouses for more details.

Light lanterns of seasonal greenhouses are generally the same as those of semi-winter greenhouses, but the foundation is made light columnar. Most often, rolled metal is used for it (pipes, corners, channels), but it will last a period on a par with a greenhouse and very cheap wood, if pieces of timber or logs for it are boiled in bitumen for 10-20 minutes (scalded with bitumen) and before being installed in pits, their ends wrap with ruberoid. If the life of the greenhouse does not exceed 5-7 years, and the lantern is plastic, then it can be built without a foundation.

Temporary greenhouses and greenhouses use in the middle lane from about April to October. They grow fast-ripening crops in them; predominantly bulbous and root vegetables, as well as table greens. Make temporary greenhouses most often ground (see below) and cover with a film. Lighting and heating are not done, because. natural light is already / still enough for photosynthesis, and the greenhouse effect gives an increase of 7-12 degrees to the seasonal temperature.

Note: the degree of the greenhouse effect depends on the strength of the lighting, because. Plants release carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. Therefore, behind the light in the greenhouse you need an eye and an eye - less light, less carbon dioxide, it became colder, photosynthesis weakened, the greenhouse effect also weakened, it got colder, and so very quickly until freezing.

Greenhouse and soil

The next factor to keep in mind when, so to speak, preliminary consideration of the greenhouse is the nature of the use of the soil. According to it, greenhouses are divided into soil, box and trench or bulk.

Ground, as the name implies, are built directly on the ground. They are temporary and seasonal. The basis of such a greenhouse is simple: wooden formwork 200-300 mm high on a flat area, see fig. Outside, the formwork is supported with pins made of reinforcing bars, on which the ends of the arcs of the lantern from pipes are put on. The frame of the lantern is lightweight, designed for more or less favorable weather conditions. Cover it mainly with a film.

Fertile soil is poured into the formwork; mulch if necessary. As the soil is depleted, its top layer is selected and changed. Such agriculture will last no more than 5-7 years: the smaller the plot of land, the more difficult and expensive it is to maintain its fertility for a long time. But by that time, the formwork will rot, the film, if it is not disposable (see below), will wear out, and the frame of the greenhouse is made collapsible or, if it is made of PP pipes, completely transferred by two or three to a new place.

The box greenhouse is suitable for all greenhouse crops for at least 10 years; theoretically - forever. This is achieved by the fact that the reinforced formwork is covered with crushed stone along the waterproofing, on which boxes are placed filled with earth, with perforated bottoms. The depleted earth from the boxes is simply thrown away and a new one is poured. Excess irrigation water flows into the rubble and then into the drainage. Thus, the scourge of non-professional greenhouse farms is excluded - acidification of the soil from the cold from below. If there is no drainage system on the site, then the drain of the greenhouse is taken out into a cesspool attached to it. It is impossible to reuse wastewater for irrigation, harmful micro-animals are teeming with them!

Most highly profitable home-made greenhouses are box-type. The production of formwork and foundation for a box greenhouse is also possible from wood (see Fig.), because. in this case, it almost does not contact the soil and is less exposed to harmful effects. If lumber, in addition to being treated with biocides, is also soaked twice with hot bitumen, then the formwork will last 12-15 years. For a longer estimated service life, it is better with a blind area (for a semi-winter greenhouse - with insulation) and build a brick base on it.

Note: for plants with a superficial root system (onions, radishes, carrots, melons, watermelons), the boxes can be on stands. Then the greenhouse can be multi-storey, in whole or in part.

A trench greenhouse is, roughly speaking, a series of concrete gutters (trenches) with technological passages between them. They are cast together with the foundation and covered with a common lantern. In each trench, crushed stone drainage is made with access to a cesspool or a collector common to the site, and earth is poured over it. Plots for different crops in trenches are separated by removable partitions reaching the drainage layer.

It is more difficult to care for a trench greenhouse than for a box greenhouse, and the likelihood of the spread of diseases in it is greater, which requires quite skillful agricultural technology. But with proper construction, soil cooling from below is completely excluded even on permafrost. In addition, it is possible to cultivate plants with a powerful deep root system, up to woody ones. Therefore, most of all winter and semi-winter greenhouses are built with trenches in places with a harsh climate.

Note: the author knows a resident of the Kola Peninsula, who, on income from potatoes, onions, garlic and tomatoes from a makeshift trench greenhouse, built himself a mansion of 230 residential squares in 5 years. When asked: “Mortgage?”, He asked in response: “What is it?”

When Form Matters

The most important factor determining the functionality of a greenhouse is the configuration of its lantern. In terms of the variety of architectural forms, greenhouses can compete with public buildings, but they most often build frame greenhouses-houses on their own, pos. 1 in the figure, tunnel faceted, pos. 2, and tunnel arches with semicircular (pos. 3) and lancet (pos. 4) arcs of arches.

small house

In the greenhouse-house, the entire operational load is carried by the frame, so the glazing can be of any kind. With the required strength for a backyard greenhouse, the simplest technologically and cheapest is a wooden frame. Modern methods of processing commercial wood make it possible to achieve its durability in greenhouse conditions up to 30-40 years. The best type of wood for construction is larch.

The easiest way to make a wooden greenhouse-house is fully ventilated; this is important for summer greenhouse cultivation, see above. The roof at a high standing of the Sun slightly shade the plants and cuts off the ultraviolet, which protects them from burns. In the southern regions, sometimes the roof slopes in the very heat are also covered with gauze or old washed sheets.

The roof of a wide-open greenhouse-house plays another role: an excess of carbon dioxide is formed in the greenhouse, because. it is heavier than air, and when heated, it cannot go up. For plants, this is like caviar for cognac: the harvest is rampant, and the fruits are one to one.

In regions with a sharply continental climate, a wooden greenhouse-house will be the best choice, especially if local lumber is cheap. In Yakutia (Republic of Sakha), for example, it is very hot in summer and watermelons have time to ripen on a layer of soil 20-30 cm above the permafrost. Small, with a large apple or orange, but it tastes like watermelon like watermelon.

Note: Yakut watermelons may seem incredible, but we, without limiting ourselves to verbal assurances, refer the reader to Yu. Yuri Konstantinovich is not related.

Watermelons and melons come from deserts, they are able to develop as semi-ephemera, quickly. However, it is useless to experiment with tomatoes, cucumbers and radishes in the open ground of Yakutia: the warm season is not enough for ripening, the roots either reach the permafrost and the plant withers, or the sun burns it - the air is clean, transparent, UV burns. A fully hinged greenhouse-house allows you to create a suitable microclimate at the right time for early ripening varieties. True, with heating at the beginning / end of the season, but here the fuel is inexpensive, and the sale of products is ensured.

A drawing with a frame specification for a winter-semi-winter wooden greenhouse suitable for installation on permafrost in a harsh climate is shown in fig. In European Russia, a greenhouse-house can be significantly lightened and its frame can be made from improvised materials, for example. old window frames, see below.

Note: a wooden greenhouse with polycarbonate is by no means at enmity. On the contrary, lightweight but durable polycarbonate takes on some of the operational loads, which silicate glass is not capable of. At current prices, polycarbonate coating will cost less than glazing, and the entire wooden greenhouse under polycarbonate will be stronger and cheaper.

faceted tunnel

Greenhouse houses have a significant drawback, which manifests itself in places with low insolation: when the Sun is low, the angle of incidence of its rays on the slopes is close to optimal once a day for a short time. Simply put, the greenhouse-house does not concentrate the light well and turns out to be a bit dark in winter. In an attempt to solve this problem, a faceted tunnel greenhouse appeared.

It is impractical to make the frame of a faceted tunnel from plastic, because The mechanical properties of PP turn out to be the best in the case when the cross-links of the frame are prestressed, i.e. if the frame arcs are curvilinear. Therefore, a faceted tunnel is, as a rule, a metal greenhouse made of pipes, sheathed with polycarbonate; pipes can be round, but profile pipes are more often used. However, here the problem of the joints of the frame elements arises.

Welds under greenhouse conditions are intensively corroded, especially external ones, sandwiched between the pipe and the casing. Non-destructive visual inspection in such places is not possible, so the frame is prone to sudden failure.

Note: don't try to make steel frames prestressed - regular rolled steel is completely unsuitable for this use! Have you heard of metal fatigue and fluidity?

In the industrial production of metal greenhouses, welding is generally abandoned, and frames are assembled on shaped plastic connectors, on the left in Fig. These are sold separately, but they are expensive and require an additional large amount of fasteners, so home-made steel frames of greenhouses are still welded, but without external seams: the workpiece is cut at an angle, bent and cooked from the inside, on the right in Fig. This requires special accuracy and accuracy in the calculation of the frame and the marking of the workpieces, but the weakened joints are immediately visible, because. the weld seam rusts faster than solid metal.

Speaking of connections

In greenhouse frames, except for wooden ones, it is impossible to drill holes and drive fasteners into them: a sharp difference in environmental conditions inside and outside will give centers of corrosion and / or dangerous mechanical stresses in such places. Non-wood frames are assembled by welding or special connecting nodes. In plastic branded kits for self-assembly, the parts in the connectors are still fixed with self-tapping screws, because. a set that requires special tools for assembly, few will buy. But serious manufacturers carefully calculate the location of the fasteners, the entire design is modeled on computers, and the prototype is run through full-scale tests before the series. And frivolous locals, not bothering themselves with painful thoughts about copyrights, simply copy the worked models.

arched tunnels

The greenhouse-tunnel of semicircular arches is the easiest to manufacture, the most wind-resistant and best of all concentrates the light. Pay attention again to pos.3 fig. with greenhouse shapes: most of the semi-circular sides seem darkish. This means that most of the light went inward and did its useful work there. And in the summer, in the heat with a high Sun, an almost flat roof gives the same effect as that of a greenhouse-house.

The material consumption of a semi-circular greenhouse and the cost of its construction are also minimal, however, snow resistance is low, and in places with a large snow load, incidents like the one in Fig. are possible, even if the structure is structurally completely correct. Therefore, in regions with heavy snow, it would be more correct to build an lancet greenhouse. It will cost 3-5% more, but it is easy to make several large windows for summer ventilation, which is important east of the Urals, mountains and rivers.

Any arch shows all its advantages only when it is tense, operational load as part of the structure or previously. For a greenhouse, as a light one-story structure, only the second option is possible. At the same time, the excellent mechanical qualities of PP are fully manifested in parts made of prestressed pipes. In combination with a working polycarbonate cladding, this brings greenhouses from it on a plastic tubular frame to a record ratio of strength, resistance and durability to cost. This implies another record - the popularity of structures of this type. Therefore, a little lower we will deal with them in more detail, but for now we will briefly consider one more arch.

Profile arch

In thin-walled three-dimensional parts, with bending radii characteristic of arched greenhouses, stresses in ordinary steel turn out to be far from its yield strength, on the one hand. On the other hand, galvanized C- and U-profiles for drywall are inexpensive, lightweight, and assembling a greenhouse frame from a profile of this type (see Fig.) seems to be elementary: a Phillips screwdriver and metal scissors are enough. When hardened with struts and crossbars, the “fresh” design comes out quite strong, even stronger than from PP pipes. And the skin can be attached to it not with clamps (see below), but somehow simpler and easier.

However, the first disappointments await the profile enthusiast already during assembly. Firstly, you have to twist a lot of screws and they are expensive. And the fingers cramped into a claw and bleeding calluses simply scream: “Well, buy, finally, you, the owner of such a screwdriver!” Secondly, the blanks marked manually and cut without a profile cutter (and there are a lot of them!) Do not connect exactly and the whole frame goes, as they say, sideways. In production, it’s easier, where the computer will calculate, transfer the data to the robot stamp, and the robot will cut it perfectly, it simply doesn’t know how badly.

But the most important disappointment awaits even before the end of the first season: the frame is rusting before our eyes. What, it would seem, should be read immediately in the specification for the profiles - they are not intended, like drywall, for outdoor use ...

plastic arches

Snow and wind...

Correctly arranging and assembling the plastic greenhouse itself is possible only if you know the wind and snow loads on it at the place of construction. The maps in fig. With the numerical values ​​of the loads, as they say, do not bother and do not expect complex formulas in the future: everything has already been reduced to the numbers of the load zones. If one of them is indicated in the text, it means the largest in this place. For example, the greenhouse will be in the 2nd wind and 6th snow zone, or vice versa. Then you need to do it for the 6th zone; features in snow and wind, if in this case they are, are negotiated.

frame

Branded greenhouse frames are assembled from special pipes on shaped connectors (see, for example, Fig.): glasses, flat and three-coordinate crosses, straight and oblique tees, splitters for several angles. They are on sale, but they are expensive and, as a rule, are designed for a specific design. Pushing around in an attempt to adapt it for yourself, you still have to buy the rest to complete the set. Which immediately and entirely would be half the price.

We will go the other way. We will get by with 3/4 inch PP water pipes and cheap connectors for them sold everywhere: straight couplings, flat tees and right angles. We will connect the details, as well as. Renting a soldering iron (more precisely, a welding machine) for propylene is inexpensive, it consumes little electricity (plugs into a regular outlet), and you can learn how to weld PP in half an hour. The finished frame of this design will come out no worse than the branded one, but much cheaper. A novice master will be able to assemble it over the weekend. Since aerodynamics and icing are more important for the greenhouse than the weight of the upper floors, the frame is designed according to aeronautical rather than building principles. Good planes fly, sometimes longer than an ordinary house costs.

Zero cycle

The main thing about preparing the base of the greenhouse has already been said earlier. It is only necessary to add that the site for the greenhouse must be planned with an accuracy of 5 cm / m, otherwise the probability of soil acidification increases. If the greenhouse is not ground, after planning, a soil slope of 6-8 cm / m is formed towards the drain into the drainage. For lightweight greenhouses, the slope is formed before the gravel formwork is installed, and for capital greenhouses, after the strip foundation is poured. The slopes of the drains of winter trench greenhouses and thermos greenhouses are formed by a screed of their floors. Don't forget about slope waterproofing!

The arcs of the arches of the considered design are tightly put on the pins of reinforcing bars protruding upwards by 40-50 cm. It is not necessary to make a ledge less, the arcs will not hold well. More - also not necessary, bent incorrectly. Under the lightweight greenhouse, the rebars are driven into the ground close to the formwork by 1 m or more, and under the capital they are walled up in the foundation for the same 40-50 cm. in the thickness of the formwork boards.

Note: in zones 1-3, the thresholds of the door and window frames are also attached to the formwork with clamps and self-tapping screws. In the upper zones, frames are made without thresholds, and their racks are put on pins from reinforcement, like arcs.

How to make a frame?

Dimensions

The standard lengths of water pipes are 6, 5 and 4 m. They form semicircular arches with a span of 3.6, 3 and 2.3 m, taking into account cutting waste and shrinkage of welding joints. These values ​​should guide the calculation of the overall dimensions of the greenhouse. Lancet arches are more reliable if the snow zone is 4th and higher. Then they go, on the contrary, from the size: the arch is drawn to scale on a graph paper (the upper corner is always straight in this case!), The length of its wing is measured with a curvimeter, a flexible ruler or laying out along the contour of a thick thread, followed by measurement, and transferred to the length of the workpiece. 20 cm are added for trimming-shrinkage. You can do the opposite: measure a piece of soft wire (for example, a copper winding wire with a diameter of 0.8-1.2 mm) on a scale, bend it as it should on a graph paper and beat off the arc wing profile on it .

Assembly

The arcs of the arches are assembled straight on a flat surface. They are put in place one by one; during the assembly process, a ridge and longitudinal load-bearing beams are mounted - stringers, pos. 1 in fig. Door and window frames, pos. 2 are assembled separately on corners, tees and straight couplings. Couplings - the basis of hinges and latches; sections of frame racks are welded into the nozzles of the couplings. Then, hinges and latches from pipe segments of a larger diameter are attached to the coupling bodies with self-tapping screws. In this case, it is possible, because there will be no permanent loads in these places, and malfunctions of hinges with latches do not affect the strength of the frame and are easily eliminated. The assembly of door panels and vents begins by threading their rear pillars into the hinge holders, then the rest is added by weight. They are sheathed with anything, on self-tapping screws in the frames of the paintings, because and these nodes are not load-bearing.

The lightest frame of this type is shown in pos. 3. Pay attention - the ridge beam, like the stepped stringers, is assembled from pipe sections on tees. In this case, the door and window frames are also fastened on tees flush with the gables.

How often to put arcs?

The installation step of the arcs is determined as follows:

• If zones 1 and 1, take a step of 1100 mm.
• In other cases, put the zone numbers and get the summary number of the load zone N.
• With the largest zone up to the 3rd inclusive, 4800 is divided by N, and the resulting value is rounded to the nearest smaller integer multiple of 50, and the step is obtained in millimeters; e.g. for 2 and 3 zones it will be 950 mm, and for 3 and 3 - 800 mm.
• If the largest zone is 4 or 5, 5600 is divided by N; further - similarly to 2 and 3 zones.
• In the largest 6 and 7 zones, 5500 is divided by N.

The dependence of the arc step on the zone, as we see, is non-linear. This is explained by the fact that as the zone number increases, stringers take on an increasing load, see below. So the design comes out a little more material-intensive, but significantly less labor-intensive.

Note 15: The 8th zone, both of which, generally speaking, is problematic. Here, it happens that snow breaks concrete floors, and the wind shifts houses from foundations. Any independent construction here is carried out at your own peril and risk, and this applies to greenhouses in full. How to get out, with a certain degree of risk, will be said later in the course of the presentation.

Gain

You can rely on the lightest frame with some apprehension in 1-2 zones, but even here it is desirable to reinforce it with at least a couple of stringers. The schemes of their location for different zones are shown in pos. A-V. Do not forget only that the coordinates are given for the longitudinal axes of the ties, and the beams themselves are stepped, like the ridge beam. With this in mind (and shrinkage for welding), it is necessary to mark the workpieces.

Attention! Pairs of stringers of the same level are always made in mirror image, pos. E!

In the 6th zone, the upper pairs of stringers are connected with crossbars (pos. E), in the 7th, the ends of the tunnel on both sides are reinforced at the bottom with braces according to the 2-1 scheme (see Fig.) In the 8th, you need to reinforce according to the 3-2 scheme -1 (see ibid), but, again, without any guarantee. It is useless to increase the number of stringers in the upper zones: figuratively speaking, they begin to push loads away from each other and, in general, the structure weakens.

How to put braces without a gusset? Moreover, the angles are fractional? Using homemade galvanized clamps 0.5-0.7 mm, see fig. on right. The workpiece is bent in a U-shape, mandrels are inserted into it from segments of a steel pipe and the ears are pressed with a vise. It is convenient to use 2 pairs of vices: in stationary desktops, they squeeze a long ear, and with smaller adjustable ones, a short one.

After crimping, the mandrel is removed, the clamp is cut to size and shape, and holes are drilled for M6 bolts. Such handicraft crimping is obtained with a shortage, but here it is only for the better: compressed by bolts in place, the clamp and pipes will grab tightly, and it will acquire monstrous rigidity for such a thin metal.

Arrows and legs

The location of the stringers on the lancet arcs is determined based on the basic semicircular with the same span, as shown in pos. E. Please note that this method is only valid for arrows with a 90 degree tip angle! You can’t make the arrowhead single without a gusset, well, you don’t need to. An additional pipe, corners and tees for a two-beam ridge, pos. I. Its halves are performed, like stringers, in a mirror. The offset from the top is the maximum; beams need to be moved as close to it as possible, according to the size of the available tees and the skills of PP welding. By the way, it is easiest to bring out both the chimney and the semicircular arch through the double ridge, it will make it stronger.

If the arches rest on vertical legs no higher than 60 cm, counting from the top of the reinforcement, then an additional stringer is placed at the junction of their wings with legs, pos D. Reinforcement in zones 7 and 8 is performed according to the same schemes, shifting one cell down, those. there should not be empty cells under reinforced ones. If the legs are higher than 0.6 m - alas! - must be considered especially, because the bottom of the frame will no longer work as a continuation of the arches, but as a separate box.

Door and window

In zones starting from the 3rd, it is necessary, and in the lower ones it is highly desirable to fasten the door and window frames not directly to the arc (slightly beveled tees create undesirable stresses in the frame), but hang them in it on half-bars and short longitudinal holders, pos. K, K1, K2. Such a mount, to an inexperienced eye, seems rather weak, but remember: a still working sheathing made of durable polycarbonate will fall on the gables. Ultimately, the frame will be no weaker and will last no less than the DC-3 or An-2 fuselage.

And under the film?

The current film greenhouses are not at all the flimsy disposable "polyethylene" of the past. A greenhouse cover made of modern reinforced film will last 5-7 years and will cost several times cheaper than a hard polycarbonate one. The special greenhouse film has another valuable property: hydrophilicity. It retains a layer of moisture up to 2 mm on its surface, which improves the transparency of the coating and enhances the greenhouse effect. Thanks to this, a modern film greenhouse can be seasonal and even semi-winter. It does not cause problems and airing film greenhouses in the heat: it is enough to tuck the edges of the canopy; they do not need a door with a window. In general, for places with a mild and temperate climate, a greenhouse under a film is the best option, but in others it makes no sense to build it.

The frame described above will go perfectly under the film. It has quite an aircraft margin of safety, and when calculating for a film, it is enough to take the zone numbers 1 higher. The pillars of the door and window frames must be left, see Fig., because they take part of the load. You can fasten the Velcro to the racks not with self-tapping screws, as in the figure, but with clamps made of thin soft wire. Not so aesthetically pleasing, but simpler, cheaper and no less reliable. If with self-tapping screws, then it is better to install direct couplings under the Velcro and wrap the self-tapping screws into their thickened cases.

Rigid roof

Film greenhouses justify themselves mainly in cases where they are temporarily installed for a relatively short period of time. For example, someone bought a plot for a forest plantation or pasture for livestock. As now with loans - everyone knows. In order to raise funds for its development, I decided to wait 3-4 years, and for the time being, rent out the land inexpensively. This is where subtenants and a farmer colleague can help out, and it’s not bad to profit from it yourself.

For long-term use, greenhouses with a rigid polycarbonate coating are more profitable. With an estimated service life of 20 years (and this is not the limit), it will cost less than 2-3-fold replacement of the film cover. In addition, you do not need to mess with its washing, removal and installation twice a year and allocate space for its winter storage. So let's take a closer look at polycarbonate.

It has already been said above that the greenhouse, in terms of its coverage, differs from other structures in a sharp difference in environmental conditions inside and outside. A coating up to several cm thick has to withstand the same loads as a half-meter stone wall. Therefore, the methods of working with polycarbonate for a greenhouse are somewhat different from them for and. How to cut polycarbonate for a greenhouse, gives an idea of ​​the video:

How do you attach it to the frame?

We will consider only individual points that are insufficiently covered in well-known sources.

Structure

Cellular polycarbonate slabs are produced in different thicknesses and structures. Plates of the same thickness can be of different structure, and vice versa. The 2R structure (see Fig.) is unsuitable for greenhouses either in terms of heat-insulating or mechanical qualities.

Structures of type R (without diagonal connections in cells) are more transparent than type RX, but they hold dynamic loads worse, therefore they are suitable for places where the wind zone is not higher than the 4th one. 3R is used where the average winter temperature is above -15 degrees or frost is below -20 for more than a day no more than once every 3 years. In other cases, you need to take 5R.

The temperature ranges for 3RX and 6RX are the same, but in cases where the wind zone is 5th and higher. For any 8th zone, the only acceptable option is 6RX. 5RX does not need to be taken, it is not very transparent. 6RX and was designed to replace the 5RX in greenhouses.

The thickness of the plates is determined as follows:

• If both zones are not higher than the 2nd, we take 6 mm.
• For other cases, we find the summary number N, as for the frame.
• For the 3rd and 4th largest zones, N is left as is.
• For the largest 5 and 6 zones, we take N + 1.
• If there is a 7 or 8 zone, we take N + 2.
• The resulting value is multiplied by 2.
• The result is rounded up to the nearest higher standard slab thickness.

Thus, for example, for 4 and 4 zones, a thickness of 16 mm is obtained, and for 8 and 8 - 40 mm. However, there are no both 8 zones in the Russian Federation.

sheathing

The standard dimensions of polycarbonate slabs are 6x2.1 m and 12x2.1 m. The general dimensions of the greenhouse are chosen such that an overhang of at least 10 cm is formed above the gables of the arched and faceted houses and along the entire perimeter of the roof of the houses. According to SNiP, the overhang should be at least 15 cm. If the greenhouse is commercial and you intend to obtain a sanitary certificate for the products, please note that the inspectors and the greenhouse will check the entire form.

The radii of curvature of the greenhouse arches allow the slabs of the most commonly used structures 3R and 5R to be laid on the frame both along and across. How would be more correct? And so, and so. It all depends on what loads in a given place are greater, static from snow or dynamic from wind. If the number of the snow zone is greater than the wind zone, it is better to lay it across, on the left in Fig. Otherwise - along, on the right there.

Note: RX structures are only laid lengthwise, otherwise sudden failure of the coating due to material fatigue is possible.

Longitudinal joints are assembled on standard FP (straight) and RP (ridge) connectors, depending on the bending radius in a given place. It is desirable to seal the upper gaps of the joints with building silicone, marked with yellow circles. It is better to take one-piece connectors, they are cheaper and there is nothing to rust in them. In extreme cases, it is still possible to separate the joint by dripping it with brake fluid and pulling the plates along in different directions.

When sheathing across, some of the seams between the plates may be hanging. In this case, the plates are connected in a known amateur way (shown in the inset): strips of flexible plastic 3-6 mm thick with sealing gaskets made of rubber or silicone and self-tapping screws. It is better to take strips and an overlay for a joint from PVC. It is strong enough, reliable and resistant for such a case. But its main advantage is in the junction - PVC quite quickly sticks tightly to the gasket and it never squeezes out from under the lining.

Mounts

Methods for attaching polycarbonate to the frame with thermal washers (pos. 1-3 in the figure) have been described many times and we will not dwell on the details. We only note that if the sheathing is longitudinal, then both ends of the plates must be pasted over with perforated self-adhesive tape and framed with an end profile.

The frame of the greenhouse, as indicated above, is highly undesirable to weaken with holes and fasteners. The skin is attached to it with clamps made of steel 1.5-3 mm thick, pos. 4 and 5. A strip 40-60 mm wide is bent along the mandrel in a U-shape, clamped together with the mandrel in a vice and the mustache is bent. The bend must be done taking into account the thickness of the rubber gaskets, and they, in turn, according to the wall thickness of the cage connectors of the frame. The thermal gap between the plates 3-5 mm wide is filled with silicone sealant.

Hut from the windows

The greenhouse from the frames of unusable windows appeared during the mass construction of Khrushchev. Firstly, then the carpentry for new buildings was of the most vile quality: “Come on with the plan! Val come on! The current generation of people will live under communism!” Therefore, many new settlers immediately changed the windows-doors to custom ones, since the materials and work then cost a penny. Secondly, the workers, i.e. officially permanently employed, summer cottages were then distributed to everyone right and left. Thirdly, penny state prices and availability are by no means and by no means friends. It is appropriate here to recall an old Soviet political anecdote. The chairman of the collective farm "Light of Ilyich" opens the general meeting: "Comrades! We have two issues on the agenda: the repair of the cowshed and the construction of communism. On the first question: there are no boards, no nails, no bricks, no cement, no lime. Let's move on to the second question.

We will move on to technical issues, they are of some use. Now, too, many windows are being replaced with metal-plastic with double-glazed windows, but the frames are still strong. Of these, you can assemble a completely reliable and durable house, if you help the frames a little to carry the load. It’s not worth covering such a structure in Khrushchev’s style with a disposable film, it’s better to spend money on a couple of sheets of inexpensive 3R 6 mm polycarbonate, which, with a greenhouse size of about 6x3 m, will make it possible to do for the roof, except for the gables, with just one roof truss. We will get a completely seasonal and commercial greenhouse for zones up to the 4th inclusive, i.e. for most of the territory of the Russian Federation suitable for agricultural use.

The design of the frame of the greenhouse under the frame is shown in fig. for clarity, the proportions of parts are given arbitrarily. Dimensions in plan - 5.7x2.7 m; internal space - 5.4x2.4 m. It will be needed for it, in addition to polycarbonate and frames, 15-16 boards 150x40 mm 6 m long and 1 beam 150x150 mm of the same length; only 0.675 cu. m of softwood, and about 5 kg of nails 70, 100 and 150 mm.

The foundation is a wooden columnar, of 6 pillars in 2 rows 1 m long. A beam is needed just for the foundation. The protrusion of the pillar at the highest point of the site above the ground is 30 cm; the rest are aligned with it by the hydraulic level. It is not necessary to deepen the pillars according to the calculation of freezing, the structure will play along with the ground for many years, it was checked on Khrushchev's "polyethylene".

The beams of the lower support frame - grillage - and the upper - strapping - are sewn on nails from boards as usual, in a zigzag, pos 1. The driving step in a row is 250-400 mm. The grillage is assembled into a prefabricated spike, and the harness into the prefabricated quarter (pos. 2) is also on nails, 5 envelopes per corner. Trimmings of boards measuring 150x150 dissolve into three, these sticks will come in handy later.

Next, the grillage is mounted on the foundation and 2 boards are spread in three lengths. Here, from the new tree, you will have to go to the old one, sort the frames. 8 solid highest ones (and preferably 10, if there is one), set aside immediately (on the left in the figure), they will go to the corners and, if there are 2 more, to frame the doorway. The rest are scattered over the estimated area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe walls somehow, if only there were fewer holes, on the right in fig.

Now, from the 50x40 rail, 4 racks are cut into the height of the tallest frame plus 10 mm and nailed to the grillage vertically at the corners flush with their outer sides. The corners are sheathed on the outside with boards with a height of now racks plus 220 mm (grillage height + strapping height). The strapping is laid in the nest that has turned out at the top and the entire box is finally sewn with nails.

Frames are installed starting from the corners. How to fasten them to the box and to each other is shown in pos. 3-5. Approaching from 2 sides to the places of the future door and swing window, they put the racks of the door and window frames from solid boards. They are fastened to the grillage, strapping and adjacent frames with nails using the same scrap bars. On them, if necessary, you can dissolve another 1-2 boards.

Now it's time for the roof. Rafter trusses are made according to pos. 6. Polycarbonate is laid on the roof along. A longitudinal strip 40 cm wide is cut from each slab. In this case, roof overhangs of about 15 cm are formed, and the strips will go to the sheathing of the gables.

The penultimate stages of work, firstly, close the gaping openings in the walls with foam plastic, and foam all the gaps. Foam in this case is not only a sealant and insulation; it will give the whole structure additional connectivity and strength. Secondly, they measure the dimensions of the door and vents in place and make their frames according to fig. on right.

Before the drainage device and the launch of the greenhouse, it remains to arrange the base. In Khrushchev's times, slate or roofing material was put on it, sprinkled with earth on the outside. It is easier for us: now there is such a wonderful (without irony) material as empty plastic bottles. From they are simply stuffed under the grillage with the necks inside, only the plugs do not need to be removed. You will get excellent thermal insulation with ventilation, absolute manufacturability with maintainability and long-term durability; environmentalists all over the world are ready to howl, what should they do with these bottles. And we are free.

Note: this type of box will also go under a disposable plastic film, only it needs to be reinforced with the same 50x40 rails, see fig:

Bottled

Plastic bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Among the remarkable qualities of this material, there is a unique one: it transmits UV almost without loss. This allows you to enhance the greenhouse effect and thereby reduce heating costs and extend the operating cycle of the greenhouse. Therefore, if it is possible to get at least 400 PET containers, it makes complete sense to make a greenhouse entirely from bottles.

There are 3 options here. The first is to dissolve the bottles into sheets on long winter evenings and sew them on a typewriter with nylon or, better, propylene threads into panels of a suitable size, pos. 1 in fig. Stitching with a furniture stapler, as is sometimes advised, is not worth it: staples will cost more than threads and rust pretty quickly. You can also find tips to sew not with a thread, but with a fishing line. If their authors know where to get a machine that sews with a fishing line, or they themselves know how to sew with their hands at the same speed, then it doesn’t matter - the fishing line both in length and in weight will cost many times more than threads, and the seam will not drag out, because. the line is solid, not twisted.

The second option is to assemble something like sausages from bottles (fig. on the right), string them on steel bars and fill the frame frame with such “kebabs” vertically, with their necks down, so that condensate drains, or horizontally, pos. 2 and 3 in fig. with types of bottle greenhouses. If the street is below +10, there will be no sense from such a greenhouse without sealing the gaps between the bottles, but with spring warmth it will give a greater concentration of light, which will accelerate the development of plants.

The third option - the bottles are stacked horizontally with their necks inside, pos. 4. Thermal insulation and light concentration are maximized (even houses are built this way), but you need not hundreds, but thousands of bottles. They are connected with glue or cement, which is laborious and expensive, so bottle greenhouses, so to speak, horizontal, are rare.

Is it possible in winter without heating?

The greenhouse loses a lot of heat, and its heating costs a pretty penny. The marketability of self-heating greenhouses is very limited by an excess of nitrates in the soil. In order to obtain products that meet modern sanitary standards without winter heating, a thermos greenhouse was invented.

It was invented not at all by Ukrainian craftsmen today, as ukrnet is broadcasting with might and main, but in Israel more than half a century ago. By the way, it was for thermos greenhouses that we had to come up with the same cellular polycarbonate and special thermal blocks that combine good insulating and mechanical properties. From a bare idea to a workable design, most often it takes a very long time ...

Israel is the world leader in greenhouses. Greenhouses are built there in deserts and mountains. In summer, the ground surface heats up to +60, and in winter it can be -20 for a short time. And the idea itself is that in the soil at a certain depth a constant temperature is maintained, equal to the average annual temperature in this place; in the subtropics it is about + 18-20. With an increase of 7-12 degrees from the greenhouse effect, we get just the optimum for plants up to pineapples.

The thermos is only the upper belt of the underground structure of the greenhouse, see fig. Lower, ordinary concrete, in essence air conditioning. In winter, mother earth warms it, and in summer, hot light will not flow into the pit with cool dense air. As a result, the temperature in the greenhouse can be regulated only by vents without the cost of heating and air conditioning. To enhance lighting in winter, we orient one roof slope to the south, and cover the other from the inside with aluminum foil.

In the temperate zone, the situation is different. Firstly, although the average annual here is about +15, however, heating depends not only on temperature, but also on the incoming heat flow. In order to get to the “air conditioner” of the required power, you have to go down beyond the freezing depth by at least 2 m. Already in the Rostov region, this requires a pit of 2.5 m. Secondly, peak colds do not last hours, but days . Therefore, the volume of the greenhouse needs a large one. In the same Rostov region. the minimum dimensions of the pit in terms of - 5x10 m.

With such fifty, indeed, in our area you can harvest 400-600 kg of pineapples and up to 1.5 tons of bananas per year. How to sell them? Okay, let's say we live in some distant kingdom, where consumer control for a moderate bribe in the national currency is always ready to willingly and joyfully sell heroin as a food additive, and weapons-grade plutonium as children's toys.

But half a ton of even small pineapples per piece will give about 1000 fruits. How much is 1 (one) pineapple? In a supermarket, with a branded sticker and a quality certificate for the batch? How often and how many pineapples are bought? When, in this scenario, will only the excavation of 120-130 cubic meters of soil pay off? In general, a backyard thermos greenhouse in the boreal zone can be classified as a project in which common sense and sober calculation are completely replaced by an indefatigable desire to achieve something uterine, contrary to the obvious.

Of much greater interest is a small ground-based thermos greenhouse with its own heat accumulator in the form of a heater, operating on the principle of a solar oven with a heat storage device, see fig. on right. At -5 outside, its interior near Moscow can warm up to +45. Therefore, in the arch there is a sliding hatch-temperature regulator with a clapper valve and a deflector that diverts a cold stream from plants to the zone of greatest heating.

The upper clapperboard should be triggered by the slightest breath back and forth, so its sash is made extremely light, freely moving and spring-loaded to zero balance in the closed position with a thin, 0.15-0.25 mm, steel wire. The cracker still does not save from frost, so the hatch-regulator must be closed manually at night.

The indicated dimensions are minimum; the greenhouse can be made bigger. If it is made in the form of a ridge, but for every full and incomplete 1.5 m of length along the front, you need your own hood with an air duct so that the heater warms up evenly. So, a greenhouse 2 m long should have 2 air ducts and 2 hoods. You don’t need to pull the hood high up, it’s still not a stove; the thrust here is minimal, if only the heated air seeps through the heater.

When to Minimize

The mini-greenhouse is used firstly in city apartments. Here, a part of the insulated balcony or loggia is taken under it. It is better to make a partition from the same polycarbonate. Boxes with earth are hung on the wall; at the same time, it is possible to grow exotic flowers and supply the family with radishes, strawberries, and greens in winter.

In crop production, mini-greenhouses are used to create special conditions for a certain group of plants. In an ordinary box greenhouse, for this it is enough to nail arcs from a metal-plastic pipe to the boxes and cover everything with a film, on the left in fig. For potted crops, you have to make small copies of large greenhouses, in the center there.

In the country garden economy, a mini-greenhouse made of bottles will be an excellent help, on the right in fig. higher. Due to the high concentration of light, it can be transparent, and fresh air has a beneficial effect on plants in the early phases of development. In addition, with such no hassle: he took it out and put it.

There are also types of highly productive mini-greenhouses available for self-production. Here, for example, in Fig. on the right is a greenhouse made of tires. Despite the clumsy appearance, it is high-tech: a two-stage greenhouse effect and drip irrigation are used. With skillful selection of varieties, one rack of "auto-greenhouses" can produce up to half a bucket of tomatoes or 700-800 g of strawberries per day.

So what about in winter?

A small winter greenhouse can pay off either north of approximately the parallel of Kotlas, or in the very south, in the Krasnodar Territory and Stavropol Territory. In the first case, the matter is decided by rather high prices and demand, in the second - a mild winter. Both there and there, for a small private trader, in general, 2 designs are possible.

The first is a classic trench greenhouse-greenhouse, only covered with polycarbonate, see fig. below. Because the frame is fully load-bearing, when calculating the coverage, the zone number is taken 1 less. In winter, flowers and onions are grown. By the end of February, when the mulch is almost overgrown, tomatoes and cucumbers are sown and harvested at the end of April. In the summer they “greenhouse” as usual, and in the fall, when the soil crop is cheap, the trenches are refilled; this is not a matter of one day, because fresh biofuel warms up very strongly at first. Then the cycle repeats.

The second is a box greenhouse-dugout without drainage; next diagram. rice. Dugout is a relative name, because. concrete floor screed will not hurt her in any way. Excess water flows into the trays, where, under the influence of heat from the heating registers, it evaporates and humidifies the air.

It is advisable to insulate the basement and blind area of ​​the dugout greenhouse, but the foundation does not need to be insulated. In the positive belt around it, the soil will not fall asleep for the winter, which will provide additional heating in low light. In this regard, the dugout can be considered a semi-thermos greenhouse.

How to get warm?

Heating, as already mentioned, accounts for the majority of winter greenhouse costs. If the heating is water from the boiler, then the optimal system layout will be. It was specially designed for industrial premises, therefore it does not fit well into residential premises, but it is simple, inexpensive and very economical at the required temperature up to +16 degrees, and in the greenhouse the greenhouse effect will add heat to the optimum.

However, the best option for heating a greenhouse is a stove from a heater-heater such as Buleryan or Buller. Its convector nozzles placed obliquely upward direct hot air onto the roof slopes; here he does not let them freeze, and he cools down to a comfortable temperature and falls on the plants with a warm veil, creating the effect of the height of spring. You can learn more about the features of furnace heating of greenhouses from the video below.

Video: furnace heating of the greenhouse

For a greenhouse with an area of ​​​​less than 10 square meters. m, the smallest buller turns out to be powerful, because. at a very low fuel load, the efficiency of bullers drops sharply. In this case, a potbelly stove will help out from a gas cylinder of 12 or 27 liters, the efficiency of potbelly stoves is just quite high with a weak firebox. As for long-burning stoves, they are unsuitable for greenhouses: they create a weak convection center and a strong heat radiation that burns plants. Spring is like a desert.

About lighting

Greenhouse lighting requires a separate detailed discussion. Let's share a little secret here: 1 special phytolamp for 24 W can be replaced by 3 ordinary housekeepers of 13-15 W with spectra at 2700K, 4100K and 6400K. Power consumption doubles, but is still three times lower than that of incandescent lamps.

One such triad under flat conical reflectors provides sufficient illumination of an area of ​​4-6 square meters. m. Lamps should be hung in such a way that the same spectra do not coexist either in a row or between rows.

Finally

To summarize - what kind of greenhouse to build? For starters, bottles. It will quickly, simply and cheaply allow you to learn how to run a greenhouse business and feel its benefits.

Further, in a temperate climate, greenhouses made of polycarbonate on a frame made of PP pipes definitely dominate. In harsh places, a wooden roof is also preferred with polycarbonate. It is also good in that it itself has a minimal impact on the environment. On permafrost, this is vital.

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Unfortunately, not the entire territory of Russia is conducive to growing their own vegetables and fruits for many months. In most climatic zones of the country, the summer season is extremely short, while many people strive to grow as many crops as possible on their site for their subsequent harvesting. In this connection, gardeners and gardeners willingly use greenhouses, with the help of which the growing season is extended, which makes it possible to harvest early and more plentiful. In some cases, if you have a well-built greenhouse, your own grown crops can be consumed all year round.

Of course, for these purposes, it is necessary to take into account a number of features, which we will discuss in detail in this article.

Peculiarities

A self-built greenhouse always warms the gardener's soul. The design can be of various sizes and shapes, and homemade greenhouses are no worse in use and functionality. The device can be easily seen on the diagrams and drawings, the materials for manufacturing can be different. Often, fiberglass reinforcement is used as a frame, there are also no problems with a removable covering material - basically, it is a plastic film, glass or polycarbonate. Given all these features, it is possible to build such a structure on the site in one weekend, and home-made buildings are in no way inferior in quality to those purchased in the store.

Advantages and disadvantages

Convenient home-made greenhouses are very popular among summer residents. The undoubted advantages include the fact that a self-made greenhouse in the country will cost relatively cheaply. A budget greenhouse can be made from different materials, the most important thing is to equip it with an opening roof and take care of the quality of lighting for plants. Speaking of the cons, of course, it should be taken into account that you will have to spend time studying the types and structures, as well as familiarizing yourself with the drawings and plans for building in the country.

Kinds

Greenhouses are designed taking into account the botanical characteristics of those plant species for the needs of which the greenhouse is built. These also include the amount of light transmitted and the temperature inside. The greenhouse can be both year-round and used in a certain season. In general, all types of greenhouses are suitable for growing a variety of crops - be it Chinese cabbage or flowers.

As a first approximation, greenhouses can be divided into the following categories:

• lean-to;
• gable;
• drop-shaped;

• domed;
• polygonal;
• Dutch.

• In most cases, shed roofs are used in the construction of greenhouses or winter gardens, since this type of building has a passage. As a result, it is easy to enter the premises without regard to weather conditions. This type of greenhouse is best installed on the south side of a residential building.
• Greenhouses with gable roofs are very popular in our country and are currently the most common design.
• A drop-shaped greenhouse is a very durable structure, perfectly transmits sunlight, does not retain precipitation in the form of snow on the surface, but it is quite difficult to mount it, so such greenhouses are rarely made independently.
• The domed greenhouse has a spectacular appearance and does not require a large consumption of materials, but its main advantage is that, due to the design features, it can be installed in areas with seismic hazard. The main tasks during construction are good sealing and high-quality insulation.

• Polygonal greenhouses are pleasing to the eye, perfectly transmit light and are not afraid of gusty winds. The difficulty during installation lies in the fact that it is necessary to carefully organize the space in order to evenly distribute heat inside.
• The Dutch version of greenhouses is reliable and durable. Due to the sloping walls, sunlight penetrates inside, which allows you to significantly increase the yield. Among other things, this option is also quite budgetary.
• Recently, the so-called "booths" - a greenhouse that looks like a tunnel - have become widespread among summer residents. Most often it is erected for growing tomatoes and peppers. This type of greenhouse is functional, convenient, does not require large expenses, allows you to consistently get a good harvest, which allows you to call it the best type of self-built on the site.

Also, greenhouses are divided according to the principle of the possibility of movement:

• folding;
• stationary.

Folding greenhouses began to gain popularity relatively recently. Their advantage is that the lightweight frame is easy to fold and move to another place in the backyard if necessary. At the same time, the greenhouse itself is very ergonomic and has a low cost, which deserves the attention of summer residents.

Stationary greenhouses, on the contrary, have long become classics of the genre. To install a structure of this type, an underground foundation and a metal frame are required. Many people have long preferred this type of greenhouse, because over the years of operation in a variety of conditions, these designs have gained fame as strong and durable devices. There are no particular difficulties in installing such a greenhouse, and it is also quite easy to maintain it.

Also, greenhouses can be divided according to the type of initial characteristics - these types of greenhouses are named after their creator:

• greenhouse according to Kurdyumov;
• greenhouse according to "Mitlider".

Greenhouse Kurdyumov is an autonomous unit, otherwise it is called "smart". This design is distinguished by the possibility of automatically maintaining the temperature inside itself, a special plus is the presence of drip irrigation of plants, which does not require human intervention. This type of structure supports the possibility of natural restoration of the soil in the beds or in containers with plants. Mitlider's greenhouses are considered a special subspecies of greenhouses. Its distinguishing features are know-how in indoor air ventilation systems, a special arrangement of the frame - beams and struts create a solid structure for the covering material. Typically, such greenhouses are located from east to west, which opens up wide opportunities for the plants to perceive sunlight.

Natural boards are usually used as the main material for the Mitlider greenhouse., which makes it possible to "breathe" and prevents the formation of condensate. As a rule, such greenhouses are large, which gives an additional opportunity to create a special microclimate for the plants inside. Usually a greenhouse looks like a low structure with a gable roof with a difference in height. Another possible option is an arched building with a roof of two levels.

Another option for greenhouses is a three-row greenhouse. As a rule, such buildings occupy a medium or large area, the beds in them are located in three levels, two passages are located between them.

The farm greenhouse consists of a metal frame, over which a film coating is stretched. This type of greenhouse is very loved by the population, because it has a low cost, moisture-proof and resistant to environmental influences.

Many summer residents fell in love with a spherical greenhouse for its unusual appearance and excellent transmission of sunlight.

Characteristics

When choosing consumables for future construction, be sure to pay attention to what time of the year the greenhouse will be mainly used.

Winter greenhouses must be equipped with a heating system, it is better to install them near the heating system of the house. In another case, as an additional equipment, you can put a stove in the greenhouse room, but this will create additional difficulties - the stove requires additional attention, it needs to be heated and, most importantly, make sure that it does not overheat, which is fraught with temperature fluctuations. A winter greenhouse must be installed on a solid foundation, among other things, this type of construction requires additional strengthening of the frame and roof in order to avoid possible damage due to heavy snowfalls.

It is also possible to build a so-called "thermos greenhouse" on the site - this structure can boast of a particularly strong characteristic, since its foundation goes into the ground by two meters. However, the installation of such a design has a number of additional difficulties - it is necessary to dig a pit for it, the foundation must be separately strengthened to avoid deformation, thermal blocks are usually used as the material for the walls, which will subsequently need to be insulated. All this is quite expensive, therefore, such greenhouses are rarely found on personal plots.

Summer greenhouses in the vast majority of cases are a frame on which a plastic film is stretched. This version of the outer skin is the most budgetary, and with careful use, the film is quite capable of lasting two seasons.

Creating the simplest greenhouse with your own hands at a summer cottage requires certain preparatory work.

The first thing to take care of is the preparation of the site for construction. Try to choose a site as flat as possible, it is also highly desirable that there are no obstacles to sunlight on it. Next, the site is properly compacted. If a tree is chosen as the base, then the prepared boards are treated with an antiseptic solution and knocked down around the perimeter. Reinforcement is installed in the corners of the boxes as an additional reinforcement. If for some reason it is not possible to allocate a separate place for the construction of a greenhouse, an alternative option would be to adjoin one wall of the greenhouse to any building - it can be a residential building or some kind of utility room.

When choosing a material for the frame, it is necessary to take into account all their characteristics. We must not forget that the frame itself and the doors must have special strength so that the structure cannot be damaged by winds, temperature fluctuations and snow masses during the winter period. None of the frame elements should be massive and prevent the penetration of light. If a collapsible design is intended, it should be made of lightweight materials and be able to be dismantled without additional effort.

Frames for greenhouses can be made of the following materials.

• Wood- the most environmentally friendly and easy-to-use material that does not require the use of any professional equipment and does not require specialized skills during the work. Since the tree tends to rot, special attention should be paid to its pre-treatment.
• aluminum profiles involve the creation of a rigid, but lightweight frame, while it is durable. This material has a higher cost, its use requires the use of equipment for fastening parts together.
• Plastic(as well as metal-plastic) parts have a low specific weight, are strong enough, and are not subject to external influences such as rotting or corrosive changes. Due to the flexibility, it is possible to change the shape of the parts, which provides ample opportunities for creating greenhouses with arches or two slopes. But it must be borne in mind that plastic elements require mandatory attachment to the foundation or ground.

• Steel frames are also quite widespread, but they require a strip fundamental foundation. If the elements are galvanized, they will last longer, as they are not subject to rust and corrosion.
• Drywall is a successful combination of low weight of the material and ease of work. Practice shows that a frame made of this type of material is inexpensive, easy to use, serves for a long time and is easy to disassemble. Gable, arched greenhouses, as well as Mitlider's greenhouses, are perfectly created from it.

Sometimes window frames are used as frames - which are characterized by excellent thermal insulation and relative ease of installation. However, it is worth considering their relative fragility - even with careful care, the service life is unlikely to exceed five years.

The next step in the greenhouse construction process after choosing a suitable location is choosing a suitable foundation. Its type directly depends on the weight of the planned structure, since in most cases the greenhouse frame weighs a little, and the covering material additionally adds windage to the building, which often causes destruction due to strong gusts of wind.

• The brick foundation is easy to install, reliable and quite suitable for most greenhouses. But it must be taken into account that laying a brick foundation requires specific skills and is quite a costly affair.
• Stone foundations are rightfully the most durable and strong. Heavy metal frames can be installed on it. This option cannot be called a budget option, as a rule, foundations for capital greenhouses are created from stone.

• Concrete is inexpensive and hardens quite quickly, but requires the creation of formwork and frame fasteners.
• A tree is often used as a foundation, but it should be borne in mind that a wooden base is not suitable for capital construction, since it is unlikely to last longer than five years even with the most careful care.
• In some cases, when building a greenhouse, it is quite possible to do without a foundation. These are portable greenhouses of small size, the windage of which is reduced by fastening directly to the ground with small pegs.

When choosing a coating material, it is necessary to take into account all the advantages and disadvantages of different types of materials.

Basically, the following options are used:

• polyethylene film;
• glass;
• polycarbonate.

The most affordable type of covering material is a stretch film. However, it cannot boast of durability and even the highest quality coatings require replacement every three years. A greenhouse with arches or arcs, as a rule, is covered with two layers of film, which creates excellent conditions for plants inside the building. The material perfectly transmits the sun's rays, but for the same reason it is subject to rapid wear and, as a result, a decrease in light transmission. In addition, very often condensation forms on the inner surface, which can also be attributed to the disadvantages of this type of coating. There are also options for a polyethylene film, additionally equipped with reinforcement. This option is stronger, more resistant to gusts of wind and will last longer.

Glass can be safely attributed to the traditionally used materials in the manufacture of greenhouses with their own hands. Glass coatings are durable and have excellent thermal insulation, however, it should be remembered that glass heats up very quickly and at the same time weighs quite a lot. A separate challenge is the replacement of broken glass.

Polycarbonate is a type of hard transparent plastic., which in structure is a material with large cells. It has sufficient impact resistance and light transmission, it is very flexible, therefore it is suitable for the construction of greenhouses with an arched vault or in the form of a tunnel. Since this type of coating consists of air-filled cells, it can be argued that it is the most thermally insulating among all possible options.

When considering this type of coating for a potential greenhouse, also consider the following disadvantages:

• when exposed to sunlight, the material will inevitably collapse;
• when carrying out installation work, do not forget that polycarbonate tends to expand greatly when heated;
• in the absence of protective elements at the attachment points, the honeycombs of the material will quickly fill with dust or mold, which will render the coating unusable.

When attaching, also consider the following features:

• mount the material in such a way that water can drain along the longitudinal strips from the inside;
• on one side of the material there is an ultraviolet filter - this side must be outside the greenhouse;
• fasten polycarbonate on specialized self-tapping screws with a thermal washer on them, pre-drill holes in the sheets.

Also note the following rules:

• Only transparent polycarbonate is suitable as a covering material. Despite the great aesthetic appeal of the color, it transmits the sun's rays much worse, this is fraught with the failure of the greenhouse to fulfill its intended purpose.
• Be sure to check the presence of a layer with a UV filter.
• Choose the thickness of the layer depending on the season in which the greenhouse will be used. In summer and autumn, the thickness of the sheets should be approximately 10-15 mm, in winter - at least 15 mm. Also, this value directly correlates with the strength of the frame - the greater the thickness, the stronger the supporting structure should be.
• When connecting sheets, use special profiles; the use of nails is strictly unacceptable.
• Sheets must not be overlapped.
• Pay attention to the accessories and do not try to save on them - the use of an end profile and end tapes will significantly extend the life of the greenhouse.

When choosing, pay attention to the manufacturer. Do not forget that the miser pays twice, so it is better not to purchase Chinese materials, despite their attractive cost. Among the well-established in the market in recent years, we can note the domestic company "Kinplast". This Firm offers a range of different coatings - from inexpensive to premium options.

Sheets of the Russian company "Actual" will last about 8 years.

This is an inexpensive option, has a fairly soft structure, is well mounted.

• The Russian-Israeli production "Polygal Vostok" offers a material that is characterized by rigidity, flexibility, ease of installation, but also has a high price tag.
• "Winpool" is made in China, very soft, fragile, inexpensive, you can count on a service life of 3 years.
• "Sanex" is also a representative of the Chinese market, rather hard in work, not very convenient for installation, will last about 4 years.
• "Marlon" is brought to Russia from the UK, the material is quite expensive, but it will last at least 10 years subject to the rules of operation.

Since the market at the moment has a huge number of options, you can get confused and choose among them not very high quality.

To prevent this from happening, pay attention to the following points:

• The surface of the sheets must be uniform and smooth, without any protrusions, irregularities and chips. Also, it should not fall into layers.
• The ribs should be at a 90 degree angle and in no case should there be any waviness.
• Try to find out from the seller under what conditions the material was stored. Improper storage conditions will quickly reduce its life. Sheets should be laid flat, but if they are stored upright on edge or rolled up, the quality of the material may be reduced.
• Some summer residents prefer a mixed type of covering materials. With this option, the side walls are usually glazed, and the ceiling is covered with a film. Some farmers prefer to cover the frame with spunbond sheets.

Separately, it is worth paying attention that it is not recommended to grow different types of crops at the same time in the same greenhouse - in other words, the same room is not suitable for seedlings and fruit and berry crops at home. This aspect must be taken into account when choosing the type of greenhouse. Arched greenhouses occupying a wide area will not bring much benefit. He considers the optimal size of a simple greenhouse to be 3 by 6 meters - it does not take up much space, in such a greenhouse you can easily grow enough strawberries, cucumbers or tomatoes for a family.

Preparation of materials

Before starting work, carefully study the best designs and drawings from the resources provided in the public domain - this will allow you to see the most complete picture of the opportunities provided. Of course, you can create a scheme yourself, but remember that this will require not only the investment of additional time and energy resources. In addition, an error may creep in during the calculations, which can lead to the loss of the quality characteristics of the greenhouse.

If we present the work execution scheme point by point, a general description of the construction stages will look like this:

• determining the type of building required;
• preparation of the scheme;
• creating a framework;
• carrying out preparatory work on the site of soil where it is planned to install a greenhouse;
• laying the foundation;
• mounting the supporting frame;
• fastening of a translucent coating.

When designing on your own or choosing among ready-made options, start from the requirements for the finished structure, as well as from the available materials and preferences in choosing crops. Most often, arched structures with a frame made of PVC pipes are located on personal plots - this is an inexpensive type of greenhouse, quite simple in execution. If a flat area is chosen for construction, it is best to stop at a model with two slopes. In the case when it is planned to put a greenhouse adjacent to the wall, it is more logical to make it single-sided. The base can be a geometric figure of various shapes - a square or a rectangle, a trapezoid.

Before purchasing the materials needed for construction, it is necessary to make a calculation. This will help prevent unnecessary costs in the future.

When the design is completed and the greenhouse manufacturing scheme is selected, it is necessary to start preparing the necessary components for future construction.

If we take the simplest option, which can be built in a couple of days, the set of materials will be as follows:

• Soaked with an antiseptic, treated with drying oil or burnt with a blowtorch boards. Please note that if you want to save money, you can not buy specialized tools, but use time-tested old-fashioned methods for processing wood and timber. If funds allow, of course, you can purchase factory chemicals.
• Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes. Before making a frame, calculate the required amount of material for construction. After making the calculation, add 10% in reserve, especially if you have to make a pipe bender.
• Durable polyethylene film - the more wear-resistant the material is, the longer it will not require replacement with a new one. You can also use polycarbonate sheets if desired.

• Metal rods or pieces of reinforcement one meter long.
• Self-tapping screws and nails.
• Hinges for fastening vents and doors.
• Fittings - handles for doors and windows.
• Special loops for fastening pipes.

If a decision is made to use HDPE pipes to form a frame, consider the following features:

• Pipes contribute to the creation of tightness inside the building, which creates favorable conditions for the ripening of crops.
• This material is easy to use and does not require special skills.
• With the help of pipe fasteners, it is easy to mount and dismantle if necessary. Thus, the frame is easy to assemble for a warm climate period and remove again when the greenhouse is not in use.
• There is no need to use additional reinforcement. The pipes themselves have good characteristics and are self-sufficient in use.

• Plastic, unlike wood or metal, is much less affected by the environment. Finished products do not have to be treated with anti-corrosion and other protective substances.
• The building may well last at least a decade.
• Since the material has a low specific gravity, the greenhouse can pump with strong gusts of wind. In this case, it is necessary to install additional metal elements in the ground to strengthen the structure.

Please note that metal corners can be used to strengthen the foundation., they will give the structure strength. This element is attached from the inside at the junction between the boards. If the base is made of timber, it is better to use metal brackets for fastening, which are mounted on the outside. The finished foundation should fit snugly into the soil. In case of cracks, sprinkle them with earth.

Assembly and installation

When mounting the frame into the finished foundation, metal reinforcement is driven into the ground from the outside at a distance of no more than a meter. Parts of plastic pipes pre-cut to the required length are placed on these blanks. To fasten them together, as well as to mount them on a wooden base, use screws or nails, self-tapping screws. To install the elements horizontally, as a rule, pre-drilled plastic sleeves, angles and crosses are used, which enable the pipes to cross the connecting elements.

When polycarbonate sheets are used as a covering material, the steps will be as follows:

• The protective film is removed from the sheets, the upper side is marked with a marker. For convenience in carrying out work, it is better to make several marks on each sheet.
• Make blanks for the end walls - for this purpose, a sheet of standard size is cut into three equal parts 2 by 2 meters. One of the parts is applied to the end in such a way that all cavities are located vertically. The left side of the sheet is aligned to the left edge, the contour of the required arc is outlined with a marker. A similar manipulation is done with the right edge, as a result of which the sheet acquires the contours of two semi-arches. After that, they are cut out with a jigsaw, leaving a tolerance of 3-5 cm, and the right end of the building is cut out in the same way.
• The cut parts are attached to self-tapping screws at a distance of 30-50 cm from each other. Try not to pinch the material too much. The excess is cut off with a knife.

• The third part of the sheet is used for the door and vents. The sheet is vertically applied to the doorway. The contour of the door is outlined with a margin, blanks are cut out and attached. The remains are used to close the space above the door. Joints are best fastened with special profiles.
• To cover the top of the greenhouse, the sheets are laid on arcs, aligned with the bottom edges and trimmed. The sheets should protrude slightly above the end of the building, then they are fixed in the corners.
• The second sheet is overlapped on the first one at the junction, the corners are fixed and put on self-tapping screws from the bottom edge at a distance of 40-60 cm from each other.

In the event that it is decided to cover the greenhouse with plastic wrap, the stages of the work will be as follows:

• The film is attached to the frame with staples or wooden slats. Fasten it in such a way that there are no tears in the canvas.
• It is necessary to cover the front and back of the frame with a film. In the part where it is planned to make a door, the film is bent inward.
• Re-measure the doorway, then you need to assemble the frame from the tubes. A film is attached to the resulting frame, the excess is cut off and the door is hung with hinges, the vents are designed according to the same principle. If glass doors are planned, carefully study the fasteners of glass to metal.
• This version of the greenhouse is suitable only for the summer. The next and final stage after the construction of the greenhouse is the preparation of the soil and the planting of seedlings.

As mentioned above, for the winter version of the greenhouse, it must be equipped with a heating system. Despite the apparent complexity, it is not so difficult.

The types of heating include:

• solar;
• technical;
• biological.

Technical, in turn, is divided into the following subspecies:

• water;
• gas;
• furnace;
• electric.

The solar type is based on the greenhouse effect, which is formed when natural light enters the greenhouse space. This heating option is used only in summer when the sun is active. In the cold season, to achieve the best result, a mixed type is used - a biological and technological option.

The biological species is used both in winter and in summer to heat the soil. The soil is removed from the racks, after which manure is laid on the bottom, horse manure is best suited, since during its decomposition a large amount of heat is released. Soil containers are filled with manure by a third. In addition to manure, you can also use compost - one of its components is also a waste product of horses. Pour all the earth back into the racks. When the decomposition process begins, the roots of the plants will begin to warm up. In addition, it will serve as an excellent fertilizer, since manure and compost contain many minerals for plant growth.

The electric heating method is also easy to use. For these purposes, a heating cable laid in a special way is used. Read the instructions first. Please note that the heating cable can be purchased with a temperature controller, so it will be quite simple to create the optimal temperature for seedlings.

Water heating is arranged as follows: the entire perimeter of the greenhouse is laid with a double row of pipes, which are looped into an electric boiler. To connect the boiler, it is necessary to lay an electrical cable. Please note that the boiler can stand inside the greenhouse or can be taken out to its limits. Experts insist that the boiler must be taken outside and pre-insulated. These manipulations are done with the aim of more uniform heating. You can also heat the room with a heat generator. The boiler is directly purchased in the store or you can make it yourself, but keep in mind that in the second case you cannot do without special knowledge and skills. Further, the procedure is similar - pipes are laid from the boiler under the racks, which are looped. Any solid fuel can be used as a fuel: coal, firewood, woodworking waste.

If gasification is present on your personal plot, heating can be arranged by means of gas burners or heaters, for this purpose they must be placed around the entire perimeter of the building. With a small greenhouse area, it is quite possible to use gas cylinders. If the greenhouse occupies a large area, then it is necessary to connect to the general gas system of the house. Gas burners create carbon dioxide, which plants need. To distribute heat evenly, fans are installed in the building. Burners can also be replaced with a gas factory boiler, but be sure to look at its country of manufacture.

As a heat source for electric heating of a room, aluminum radiators or electric convectors are used, which are installed at an equal distance around the entire perimeter of the building or located on both sides if the greenhouse area has the shape of a rectangle. This type of system is connected directly to the power supply or heating system.

You can also make a stove in the greenhouse, which is best located at the end of the building. A horizontal chimney is laid from the stove around the entire perimeter of the greenhouse. For these purposes, metal pipes or brickwork are suitable. When connecting the chimney and the vertical riser of the furnace, you need to make a small rise at the junction. The higher the riser, the better, because the stove will have good draft. With this type of heating, do not forget to prepare fuel in advance. You can put the stove in a pre-made recess in the ground.

In addition, a water oven can be made from a conventional oven. For this purpose, a boiler for water heating is installed on it, from which the pipes will go to the water tank. The pipes and the boiler are looped using wiring around the entire perimeter of the room. There is also another option - to collect pipes along each of the racks, thereby providing wiring for four different pipes.

We must not forget that plants require the creation of a special microclimate for their successful development and growth, special equipment will help to improve these indicators inside the greenhouse, with which you can increase the productivity and yield of grown crops. Additional equipment involves not only additional heating, but also the possibility of ventilation, irrigation and lighting. As you know, watering plants is a rather laborious process. An automatic system will help relieve the owner of a summer cottage from this hard work, while saving time and water.

Good room ventilation is extremely important in a greenhouse., as it prevents the formation of condensate and improves the overall microclimate, which undoubtedly benefits plants. Properly created air exchange will protect crops from overheating. For the natural movement of air, it is enough to open the doors and vents, an additionally installed fan or extractor hood will increase air circulation.

With a short daylight hours, additional lighting sources are indispensable. Special lamps will help seedlings get enough light in early spring or late autumn.

Best projects

Be sure to check out the best and most common options, you may have your own ideas.

For cucumbers

Separately, I would like to consider making a greenhouse for cucumbers as one of the most beloved vegetables. Any summer resident knows that cucumbers need warmth and high humidity. With the proper organization of protected ground, this vegetable is less susceptible to diseases and is able to produce a larger crop.

To get a rich harvest, the following requirements are necessary:

• daytime air temperature - no more than 30 degrees, night - no less than 16;
• soil temperature - about 23 degrees;
• calm air without drafts;
• humidity about 80%;
• high degree of illumination;
• insect access, if the variety involves bee pollination;
• strong structures for vertical movement of seedlings.

Due to the large number of details, the necessary climate is difficult to create in one room. Consider the general disadvantages and advantages of each type of greenhouse for a specific purpose - growing cucumbers.

The advantages include simplicity of design, ease of creation from improvised and existing materials. A small area and internal volume will provide good warming, it is well lit and easily accessible to insects for pollination. Among the minuses, one can note such characteristics as a low planting density - you can place a maximum of three pieces per square meter, inconvenience when cultivating the soil and harvesting. If you water the plants with a watering can, the water reaches the leaves, which can lead to a burn. The greenhouse needs constant opening and closing, otherwise the crops will overheat and die.

arch type with foil

The advantages of this type of greenhouse are that it is easy to build and does not require expensive materials, it has enough internal space for growing vertical bushes. The film coating retains moisture well, promotes rapid heating of the soil and air, and perfectly transmits light. Disadvantages: the film is a short-lived material and requires regular replacement, it has poor thermal insulation performance, therefore, in the event of early frosts, the greenhouse will have to be covered additionally. When building a greenhouse of this type, it is necessary to have vents, since drafts will inevitably occur when the doors are opened.

Coated with polycarbonate

Pros: high structural strength of the frame, high ceilings and ample interior space. Polycarbonate perfectly transmits sunlight, has an excellent ability to scatter it. Provides convenient conditions for watering plants and tillage, easy to harvest. The provided window openings provide good ventilation and absence of drafts.

Cons: high financial costs for the purchase of materials or finished products. Polycarbonate strongly reflects light, which causes energy loss. The coating and frame require constant maintenance; in winter, snow must be removed from the greenhouse. Difficult access to pollinating insects.

Gable with glazed wooden frames

The advantages are as follows: noteworthy design, which has already become a classic, demonstrates high thermal insulation properties. Good heating of the entire interior space of the room. Glass has excellent light transmission ability, when placing windows on the roof, the possibility of drafts is excluded. The ability to plant a large number of plants, the availability of convenient access to them. Among the shortcomings, it can be noted that the severity of the frame requires preliminary laying of the foundation. The tree requires mandatory preliminary and regular post-treatment, otherwise the frames will quickly begin to rot. It is also worth considering that glass is a fragile and traumatic material, and also does not have scattering properties at all, which can lead to burns of plant leaves.

With one slope

Positive characteristics: it is always attached to the house or barn on the north side, which ensures that the ramp faces south to receive the maximum amount of sun rays. The room assumes rapid heating and long-term retention of heat, and also gives scope for the choice of materials for construction. Negative characteristics: if the sun is active, it will be difficult to avoid overheating, curtains and a high-quality ventilation system are necessary. If a greenhouse is built next to the house, a prerequisite is good waterproofing and protection of the greenhouse from snow and ice.

Mitlider

The undoubted advantage lies in the special arrangement of the vents - they are located in the roof and facing south, which leaves no possibility of drafts and helps to maintain an optimal microclimate. The greenhouse is large, has high ceilings and plenty of space inside.

The disadvantages are related to the complexity of the design and the inability to build it yourself, without accurate drawings and installation skills. If the doors are closed, insects will not be able to get inside, either self-pollinating varieties are suitable for such a greenhouse, or you will have to additionally plant bait varieties. Among other things, the greenhouse requires close care.

in the shape of a pyramid

Pros: The center section is ideal for growing cucumbers vertically. It is well lit, easy to install, only budget materials are needed.

Cons: small area, inconvenient to care for plants. Insect access is difficult. The structure is unstable and can easily be blown away by the wind.

For tomatoes

Polycarbonate greenhouses create ideal conditions for the harmonious ripening of fruits. Tomato belongs to crops that love sunlight and heat, the optimal temperature regime for their cultivation is 22-25 degrees. If the soil has a high clay content, then humus, sawdust or peat must be added to the soil at the rate of one bucket per square meter.

Planted seedlings must be watered frequently until they are fully developed. If the nights are cool enough, it is better not to water the plants after sunset, so as not to overcool the soil. Watering from a watering can makes sense during the hottest time of the season. Next, the seedlings need to be cut and tied up, thereby ensuring uniform lighting and ventilation of the beds. With this growing option, tomatoes ripen much faster and it is possible to harvest a good harvest. After that, the plants are attached to wire gratings or pegs, giving them space for further development.

For greenery

In the cold winter period, there is nothing better than a bunch of fresh herbs, especially if it is grown by yourself. What is especially nice, greenhouse greenery is not too whimsical to care for and gives several crops a year. It is quite possible to choose the type of greenery based on your own preferences.

Most people who use winter greenhouses to grow herbs prefer dill, celery, and parsley.

• When growing dill, it is necessary to strictly observe the temperature regime - the thermometer should not fall below 15 degrees. In addition, dill needs constant spraying and does not tolerate drafts and cold winds, so be extremely careful when ventilating the greenhouse. The first harvest can be obtained in two months with appropriate care.
• When growing parsley, there are a few more nuances - firstly, this type of plant can be grown in the form of root crops or seeds. In the first variant, the root crop must first be kept in sand, the temperature of which does not exceed two degrees, after which it is planted in highly moist soil. If it is planned to grow parsley from seeds, the seeds previously aged in a damp cloth are planted in the soil. As a rule, germination takes no more than ten days. The harvest is about one and a half kilograms of greenery per square meter.

• Celery loves well-fertilized soft soil; cow or chicken manure is perfect as fertilizer. The temperature in the greenhouse should be between 15 and 20 degrees. Watering for plants requires infrequent, but as plentiful as possible, and it is necessary to ensure that the water does not touch the leaves of the seedlings. Pay special attention to lighting, since the amount of harvest directly depends on the length of daylight hours.
• Many people are very fond of mint and are happy to use it in cooking. This type of plant tolerates frosts up to eight degrees below zero, while giving sprouts at the lowest temperatures above zero. Experts recommend using hydroponics or biological heating of the soil with peat as a soil. Carefully monitor the soil moisture, its drying is strictly unacceptable. If you plan to grow mint, it is best to equip the greenhouse with a drip irrigation system.
• Mint, like most crops, does not tolerate temperature changes, not only because sudden jumps can destroy plants, such moments can lead to a dangerous disease - powdery mildew. Also, for mint, extremely dangerous pests are spider mites and greenhouse whiteflies. You can defeat them by spraying the culture with industrial means or time-tested folk recipes.

For better engraftment of seeds in the soil, you must first dry them in a draft. If it is not possible to plant seeds directly, it is quite possible to grow seedlings at home and then plant them in the ground for 10-14 days.

Not all summer residents have the time and desire to understand the intricacies of the technology of building a greenhouse on the site with their own hands. At the moment, the market is filled with ready-made greenhouses of various options. The first thing to do is to decide for what purposes the greenhouse is being purchased. If we are talking about growing crops for family consumption, this is one thing, but if a summer resident considers a greenhouse as a way to increase his income and wants to put up the resulting crop for sale, the situation will be different. In the first case, you can get by with an inexpensive option, in the second, of course, financial investments will be much higher and the cost of maintaining a greenhouse will also increase.