Andrew Harris

Hey Jason.... glad to hear I'm not the only one over budget(but money is cheap and I got a sweet business loan if you need a biz plan to copy). We toyed around with various potential substrates for the SHCS as well as which style of vented plastic pipe. We decided on rigid PVC(to prevent any underground pipes from collapsing), crushed rock was used for its thermal mass and we worried about ground moisture causing a finer material to clog piping.
The raised beds are 2x8 rough cut, we chose wood over concrete for price and thermal mass(wood holds more than concrete). We will line the beds with UV stable plastic, fill half way with more stone(testing cobble vs. crushed rock), then about 16 inches of potting mix. this winter will be alot of data collection to gauge how well the SHCS works and how 2' beds compare to 3' beds, etc. If you are interested in following along on FB here is our page.... https://www.facebook.com/WellsvilleNyBiodynamicHenhouse?ref=hl

Active fans, solar powered and thermostat controlled. We decided to do build a few different beds for this year to run tests between different heights and washed/cobblestone. After building two beds 24 inch tall with 2x8x16's its am hesitant to use any more material. Pics attached...

Hey Brian Thanks!!! She is ready to sail the seas any day! A subterranean heating and cooling system is a series of perforated PVC pipes that are buried under many tons of washed stone within insulated beds. Air is blow thru the piping to either warm the stone beds or to blow cool moist air into the greenhouse depending on soil temps and also ambient temp. Utube 'solar greenhouse, SHCS, Earthen Path to see the model we worked from. Now...since I have your attention... each subterranean bed will have a raised grow bed built directly above it so we can actually directly warm our soil during cold months. Being NY/PA border trash, we have more days below 45 than above so we imagine using this focused heating system alot. Here lies my current question....using rough cut 2x8 as the frame we dont' want the beds to short(burn roots, dry soil, lots of bending over) or to tall(too much heat loss, cost of building). We need about 1.5 feet of soil sitting on top of X feet of washed stone. Would like that X to be 2ft for a total of 3.5ft raised bed for ergonomics sake but 2 ft is the most logical from a materials standpoint.

Hello Permies... we are just finishing up the structural work on our solar greenhouse and will begin building our maze of raised grow beds. Each bed is about 4x18 and they sit on top of a subterranean heating and cooling system. Each grow bed has an insulated heatsink consisting of washed stone warmed by buried pipe which circulate air beneath the stone. The south side of the building is glazed with 16mm Lexan. That said my main question is how to build the grow beds, made of rough cut lumber supported by rebar. i'd like 3-3.5ft tall, two feet of washed stone, 1-1.5 feet of potting mix, separated by weed barrier. The foreman says 2.5 feet is the most economical and stable. The primary consideration is being able to keep the rootzone from freezing, the second is ergonomics... we don't want to be bending over all day long. Thanks for any suggestions or help developing the design. Ace

Hello Permies... we are just finishing up the structural work on our solar greenhouse and will begin building our maze of raised grow beds. Each bed is about 4x18 and they sit on top of a subterranean heating and cooling system. Each grow bed has an insulated heatsink consisting of washed stone warmed by buried pipe which circulate air beneath the stone. The south side of the building is glazed with 16mm Lexan. That said my main question is how to build the grow beds, made of rough cut lumber supported by rebar. i'd like 3-3.5ft tall, two feet of washed stone, 1-1.5 feet of potting mix, separated by weed barrier. The foreman says 2.5 feet is the most economical and stable. The primary consideration is being able to keep the rootzone from freezing, the second is ergonomics... we don't want to be bending over all day long. Thanks for any suggestions or help developing the design. Ace