green1

The greenhouse is a project we started last year. After looking at the budget I determined that the cost for bedding plants each year was close to $6,000.00. After some research I located a quonset style greenhouse we could be put together for about $4,000.00. This included the house, the heat, the lights, the benches, everything we needed to get up and running. While our system is not as sophisticated as a commercial grower would use, it works well and we are able to grow our own bedding plants at a cost of just over $1900.00 for seed, cell packs, flats, pots, fertilizer, and potting soil. With a very limited budget ,we improvised most of the equipment we needed to put the house in operation. Although, not all of the equipment is commercially purchased, I hope you can find some ideas here to help you.

For lighting we installed four 48" flouresent shop lights over one set of benches. These lights were designed for wet conditions and have two tubes each one cool white and the other a hot white to provide a fuller light spectrum. The lights are attached by hooks and chains and can be lowered and raised as needed to provide light on the benches. Down the center of the green house are four 400 watt HID lights ( high intensity discharge) which provide supplemental light and were chosen because the light spectrum they provide is closest to daylight. The cost of the light fixtures and bulbs was $728.00. The HID lights were expensive and the replacement bulbs cost about $45.00 each but the extra light is well worth the cost especially in late winter and early spring when the supplemental light really pays off.




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