greenhouse basic starting point? sticky?

My mind is full of ideas I’ve read here or witnessed elsewhere, but then I remember reasons why I shouldn’t even both with some of those ideas.

For instance, my Colorado hoop house at 7,500’ could use a way to store heat, but it’s covered in plastic which from what I understand won’t hold in the long wave infrared as well as other glazings. A guy I bought my IBC tote for tried doing exactly this but realized all the heat he successfully stored was immediately lost as soon as the sun went down.

I know there’s IR plastic but I’m not sure how well it compares to hard panels and I’m not even sure if I currently have that or not (I bought my hoop house used with the poly).

If plastic doesn’t hold infrared then I imagine a climate battery isn’t worth the trouble.

Is there a thread we could sticky that has these simple FAQs to reference?  

Funny, as much as my hoop house struggles with cold night temperature, on a clear day (which is most of the time here in Colorado) it still gets over 120 degrees. I have the paradox wax window openers but this year I need to add fans.  So much trial and error could be helped by a database of similar attempts.  

We don't tend to sticky threads on permies.   The internet has trained people to ignore sticky threads. We do have links at the top of each forum, so that's a possibility.


It's a bit tricky because plastics are a bit like recycling.   Better than the regular alternative,  but there are even better options for the environment.

Like how my glass greenhouse is now on the third generation and has only broken two pains in neigh 70 years.

But, why not make the thread you are looking for and we'll see what we can do.

r ranson wrote: ... why not make the thread you are looking for and we'll see what we can do.

I agree -- this forum spans continents, and there are no 'one size fits all' solutions.

S. Marshall, post your question in a new thread! The people here are voracious problem solvers. Some will have direct experience and will offer suggestions. Others will search this vast database for similar information that may be helpful. Cheers!

Hi, yeah, I guess you're right about people ignoring stickies.  Guess I was thinking about how useful it could be to have a flow chart for people curious about greenhouse design, but of course I wouldn't be knowledgeable to create one myself.

I'm not sure if I have any specific enough questions at this point for my situation.  My issues are so dynamic.  If I can flush it out I'll start a new thread.  For what it's worth I don't have much money to combat my issue most appropriately.  It's not warm enough here until May to even consider putting anything in the ground (and that's inside the greenhouse!), and then immediately the issue was I was getting 50 degree nights and 120 degree day temps, and that lasts until July.  Mid-July ground temps are prob 65 at night but day temps are scorching.  I'm going to try a white 50% shade cloth over the top of my hoop house this summer.

I would love to have a glass greenhouse, I just can't afford it.  If there were a way to convert a hoop house to glass I would start scouring for windows to repurpose.  I help onto my windows after a renovation long ago only to have them all break after years of sitting in the elements.

At least I bought my greenhouse used to reuse the plastic.