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The Basics Of Maintaining Temperature And Humidity In Greenhouses

Sunday, April 8th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

Operating your own greenhouse can be a great way to keep a garden going through the entire year, or at least for an extra month or two as the weather turns cooler. Although the whole point of a greenhouse is to control the heat, you can’t expect to simply make a shed from glass and expect all the work of maintaining temperature and humidity in greenhouses to be done. In fact, maintaining temperature and humidity in greenhouses can involve working with one or several parts of the greenhouse.

It Starts With The Glass

Of course, the main feature in a greenhouse, and one of the most essential parts for maintaining temperature and humidity in greenhouses is the glass that it’s made of. Ideally, the glass lets solar energy pass through to help create heat energy when it hits the inside of the greenhouse, and then also helps prevent heat energy from escaping. This is often accomplished through different glazings on the glass, so of course it’s important to take care of both the glass on the greenhouse glass and to replace any places where the glazings have worn through.

With modern technology at our fingers, there are now new plastics and glazings that will better trap the heat inside a greenhouse while still letting essential light in. Once new materials come into use, maintaining temperature and humidity in greenhouses will get easier. In addition, some glazings are designed to help block some of the solar energy, which sounds odd, but in fact can be necessary to keep greenhouses from getting too hot in summer. Keep in mind that maintaining temperature and humidity in greenhouses also means keeping it from getting too warm.

Additional Heating

Sometimes good glass just isn’t enough for maintaining temperature and humidity in greenhouses. In the winter months, even a greenhouse might need an extra boost. Supplemental heating exists in a lot of forms, such as having a pipe in the greenhouse that pumps hot water, which then conducts and radiates out to provide extra heat. You can also warm a greenhouse like you would a home, with various sorts of stoves and furnaces to help beat the cold.

The Water In The Air

Of course, the second half in the equation of maintaining temperature and humidity in greenhouses is to somehow maintain your desired humidity, since too much or too little can be bad for plants. This is probably accomplished more easily than working with the heat. In order to keep the greenhouse from becoming too humid, water early in the day, so plants absorb most of the water before the place heats up and becomes more like a jungle, and use venting in the greenhouse to help maintain the humidity. If your greenhouse is too dry, then misting the plants can help remedy the problem, or you can wet the floor so when it evaporates, it’ll add to the humidity. Maintaining temperature and humidity in greenhouses can sometimes require a little work, but you will be rewarded for your efforts with healthy, beautiful plants.