Types and stages of greenhouse construction. How to make a terrarium with your own hands at home How to build a home greenhouse

In summer cottages you can find various forms of greenhouses in which both vegetable and flower plants are grown. Thanks to this, you can grow non-seasonal crops throughout the year. The success of the business will depend not only on the design of the greenhouse, but also on what material was used in its manufacture. Our goal is to tell you what types of greenhouses there are, and what material can be used in their construction, and we will also look at how the process of constructing a greenhouse on a summer cottage occurs.

Depending on the design features, greenhouses can be:

• arched;
• single-pitched;
• gable.

The first type of design is characterized by an arc-shaped roof, which allows plants growing inside the greenhouse to receive more daylight. The big advantage of this form will be the absence of snow in winter, so you will not be in danger of deformation or breakage of the structure.

If you decide to install a greenhouse close to any country house building, then the option with a pitched roof is suitable for you. This model is very economical, since, in addition to reducing the cost of materials, you also save free space on the site. The only drawback of this design will be the accumulation of snow in winter, which will have to be cleared off to protect the structure from deformation.

The most common option is the gable form of the greenhouse, which is very spacious for plants and people. In some cases, summer residents equip a kind of recreation area in such buildings, which allows them to combine business with pleasure.

Types of greenhouses, their advantages and disadvantages

Today, summer residents have several options for materials that can be used to cover greenhouses and greenhouses. They differ in their structure, price and performance characteristics, so you can choose the material according to your capabilities and requirements.

The most popular material for covering greenhouses will be:

• glass;
• polycarbonate;
• film.

If you are not limited on funds, then the best option would be glass and polycarbonate greenhouses, which are distinguished by their strength and performance characteristics. Film is a budget option for greenhouses that has been used for several decades.

You can see what your greenhouse should be like in the video below:

Advantages and disadvantages of greenhouses made of various materials

To figure out which material is better for greenhouses, it is necessary to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.

Glass

This material is considered the most suitable option.

Its advantages include:

• transparency, which allows you to provide the greenhouse with daylight;
• resistance to chemicals, even if they get on glass, they are easily washed off;
• when exposed to sunlight, the material does not emit harmful toxic substances;
• wind resistance.

Its disadvantages include:

Polycarbonate

Polycarbonate is a polymer plastic that is increasingly used in greenhouse coverings.

Its advantages include:

• strength;
• transparency;
• high thermal insulation rates;
• protection of plants from UV rays;
• ease of care.

Its disadvantages are:

Film

This material is distinguished by its ease of use and budget-friendly qualities, especially since the experience of using such material has been confirmed for decades.

Its advantages include:

Its disadvantages include:

• windage;
• poor resistance to frost, which is why it has to be removed after summer use;
• short service life.

DIY greenhouse construction

Summer residents are forced to build greenhouses for growing vegetable or flower crops, firstly, to get a harvest earlier than usual, secondly, to grow crops that are not suitable for a particular climate, and thirdly, to increase the amount of harvest.

Greenhouses allow you to create favorable conditions for the growth of any plant. If it is not possible to purchase a ready-made structure, then you can always build it yourself, using all your skills.

The first question you will have is where to start? So that you don’t have to rack your brains for a long time, we have drawn up an action plan for you, following which you can easily build a greenhouse on your site.

Place for a greenhouse

The first thing you need is to choose a place to locate the greenhouse. To do this correctly, pay attention to the following requirements:

Dimensions and shape of the greenhouse

The second issue you need to decide is the size of the greenhouse. To calculate everything correctly, think about how much and what you will plant in the greenhouse. If you plan to plant tall plants, then the best shape of the greenhouse will be arched or gable, the height of which will provide you with convenient care for your crops. You can calculate the dimensions yourself, or take as a basis the proposed version of a rectangular greenhouse with a gable roof.

The base of the greenhouse can be anything, round, square, rectangular or trapezoidal, it all depends on your capabilities.

Greenhouse frame

The frame is the main part of the greenhouse, so special requirements are imposed on the choice of material. It must be strong and durable, so for its manufacture choose:

• galvanized profile;
• steel profile;
• profile made of galvanized steel, with a square section;
• wooden beams.

The choice of material also depends on your capabilities; even the most budget option - wood - can last quite a long time.

How to make a greenhouse from cellular polycarbonate can be seen in the video:

Greenhouse foundation

In addition to its direct purpose, the foundation plays the role of a pocket in which several high beds are placed. If its construction was carried out incorrectly, this can lead not only to its destruction, but also to cracking of the greenhouse coating. To avoid this, you need to listen to our advice:

It is necessary to install formwork around this trench, lay metal reinforcement bars in it and fill it all with concrete. The height of the foundation must be at least 20 cm.

If you follow these rules, you will create a strong and reliable foundation for the greenhouse, which will not be subject to ground movement.

Frame production and coating

The manufacture of the frame begins with marking the future greenhouse. You have already calculated what size your structure will be and even poured a foundation for it, now you can start assembling the main structure:

Ventilation

Inside the greenhouse, under the influence of sunlight, a greenhouse effect is created. To create an ideal microclimate for plants, greenhouses must be equipped with a ventilation system.

Ventilation can be provided by vents located on the sides of the greenhouse or doors. Ventilation helps plants planted in a greenhouse get sick less after being transplanted into open ground. But drafts must be avoided so as not to harm them.

When placing such vents in the roof of the greenhouse, you can ensure the movement of warm air to the street, and open doors will ensure the passage of cool air. There will be no draft, and the air will change.

If you have a small greenhouse, then for good air exchange two vents located on the roof of the greenhouse will be enough.

To make air exchange faster, instead of roof vents it is better to equip side vents, which will be located above the ground.

Conventional ventilation cannot be used to grow tropical plants, so ventilation can be equipped with vents similar to blinds.

Greenhouse tricks

Summer residents who have been working in greenhouses for several years can tell you a lot of tricks on which the yield of vegetables or other crops depends. But everyone, without exception, will answer that growing plants depends on the crop itself, on the amount of heat supplied, on the length of daylight hours, on ventilation, on proper watering and regular fertilizing.

We will share with you some of these subtleties and tricks:

From all of the above, we can conclude that several types of material can be used to make a greenhouse, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages. If you are planning to make a greenhouse yourself, then by adhering to our action plan, you will accomplish this without much difficulty. Remember that equipping a greenhouse with vents is just as necessary as watering the plants.

Many owners of private houses dream of having a greenhouse on their property. This agricultural structure will help owners provide their family with herbs and some types of vegetables already in late spring or early summer. Well, some greenhouse designs, which include heating and lighting systems, are used for growing crops all year round.

A greenhouse with your own hands can be built from wood and brick in combination with metal elements, or have a frame structure, for example, made of lightweight metal-plastic pipes.

When implementing an idea, the first thing to determine is the location where the greenhouse will be installed. The size of the future structure directly depends on its area.

Next, you need to decide when this structure will be used - only in the spring or throughout the year. If you choose the “winter” option, then you need to know that construction will cost much more, since it will require more materials, and will also require lighting, heating, plumbing and ventilation.

Then, you need to select the material of manufacture and type of greenhouse construction. To focus on one of them, several of the most commonly used options will be considered.

Types of greenhouses

The design of greenhouses, in principle, is not very complicated, so any owner of the site can build it independently. To do this, you just need to prepare the material and tools. Greenhouses can be divided into types, based on various criteria - the material of manufacture, the shape of the structure, whether it will be stationary or temporary.

Greenhouse covering material

Several different types of materials are used to cover greenhouses. They should be transparent and may have shades favorable for plant growth. For example, which has become especially popular recently, sometimes not only a colorless transparent one is chosen, but also a yellowish or green tint.

The KINPLAST company offers high-quality cellular polycarbonate for greenhouses. The material has excellent technical and performance characteristics. KINPLAST is a leading manufacturer of polycarbonate in the domestic market. The line of cellular polycarbonate includes brands such as WOGGEL - a material created in collaboration with foreign colleagues; SKYGLASS – universal polycarbonate with excellent characteristics at an affordable price; as well as specially developed grades of polycarbonate for use in agriculture AgroTITAN.

Glass is often used to cover the walls and roof of a greenhouse. Due to its structural structure and transparency, it is excellent for this room, but to install glazing it is necessary to create a particularly reliable, durable frame structure, since this material has considerable weight. Capital winter greenhouses are sometimes built from metal-plastic frames and double-glazed windows, but such a structure will be extremely expensive.

Another option that is most often used for covering greenhouses is plastic film. It can be used for tensioning on a frame built from any material, since it has a very small mass. Recently, a special reinforced film has appeared on sale, which is more durable and easier to attach to the frame sheathing.

To decide on the choice of material, you need to carefully study its performance characteristics, which are presented in this table:

Having weighed all the “pros” and “cons” of materials, as well as taking into account the design of the planned structure, it will be possible to make a choice of the type of coating.

Greenhouse structures

Greenhouses have different designs - it can be a spacious room or just a large box covered with a glazed frame. Structures are also used that extend half their height into the ground. It will be possible to choose one of the varieties only after the owner understands the features of each.

• The simplest greenhouse design, which can be built from scrap materials, consists of an ordinary box, for example 2000x1500 mm in size, assembled from boards and installed in a favorable area of ​​the local area. For such a greenhouse, old ones are often used as a roof.

Such greenhouses are usually used for growing seedlings or herbs from early spring to late autumn.

• Another option for a simple and affordable greenhouse to build is a simple frame structure made of metal-plastic or polypropylene pipes, fittings, and sometimes even thick steel wire, covered with plastic film.

If plastic pipes are chosen for the greenhouse, then even a woman’s hands can make a frame from them, since this material bends quite easily and holds its shape well.

This type of greenhouse can be used throughout the entire spring-summer season, from spring to late autumn. The convenience of the design is that by planting seeds, for example, tomatoes, under the film, after germination and strengthening, the seedlings do not need to be replanted. It is simply thinned out, and when a stable and comfortable temperature for plants is established outside, the film is removed from the structure, opening the free flow of air and sunlight. In very hot weather, a special mesh can be quickly thrown over the created frame, creating partial shade, but allowing light to penetrate to the plants as needed.

• A more complex structure, which is assembled from wooden beams and covered with film, can also be used throughout the spring-summer season. The size of such a greenhouse can be different - they vary from how many seedlings are planned to be planted, and taking into account the convenience of the gardener’s work.

In this design, it is imperative to provide a hinged lifting of the roof to provide access to the plants from sunlight and air. This is also a seasonal version of the structure, and it is advisable to use it only for growing seedlings, since in stable summer temperatures it is recommended to grow vegetables and herbs in open ground.

Video: homemade greenhouse on a wooden frame with film coating

• If you need to grow a small amount of greenery or seedlings, you can make a greenhouse from a metal barrel, in which slots are made in the form of windows. This design uses a transparent polyethylene film as a roof - it can be removed at any time, opening access to air, and, if necessary, closed so that the night coolness of the off-season does not cause harm to the plants.

• A more complex greenhouse design, in which you can already install moderate heating and start using it in the very early spring. It consists of a wooden or metal-plastic frame. This is already a full-fledged room, and in it not only the plants, but also the gardener will be protected from wind and low temperatures. Such a greenhouse can be covered with a very dense polyethylene film or cellular polycarbonate. When creating a structure from pipes, you need to remember that it will turn out to be quite light, and a strong wind can move it from its place, damaging the seedlings, so to tie it to the place, you need to drive metal corners or reinforcement into the ground.

• The permanent structure of the greenhouse, equipped with heating and irrigation, can be used throughout the year. For such a greenhouse to work effectively, it is usually made of metal-plastic or aluminum structures and double-glazed windows, which are installed on the foundation.

To more easily provide heating and water delivery to the greenhouse premises, quite often such structures are attached to the southern wall of the house. In this case, the building will serve as a kind of winter garden, which at any time of the year will delight the owners not only with fresh vegetables and herbs, but also with the color of ornamental plants.

• Another option for a winter greenhouse, the design of which helps to save on heating costs, is a room that extends half its height into the ground. This structure, due to its high energy-saving qualities, is often called a “thermos greenhouse”. To achieve the desired effect, a pit is dug for this greenhouse, going 1600÷2000 mm deep into the ground. Additionally, walls 500÷700 mm high are erected above the ground surface, and then the entire structure is covered with a frame made of timber or a metal corner.

The work of constructing a building is quite labor-intensive and lengthy, but during its operation it will be possible to save enough on its heating system. One of the important points in the construction of a thermos greenhouse is the arrangement of not only a heating system, but also effective ventilation.

Greenhouse roof shape

The next criterion by which greenhouses are divided is the shape of the roof. Insolation, that is, high-quality lighting of the room, and therefore the creation of optimal conditions for growing plants, largely depends on this.

• Gable roof

Greenhouses with a gable roof can most often be found in suburban areas, since it is this shape that contributes to effective lighting of the room from above. Provided the greenhouse is located correctly, the sun will “work” all day long from sunrise to sunset, promoting plant growth.

Therefore, this design is often used to create winter versions of greenhouses, since at this time of year plants experience a lack of sunlight.

• Arched design

Arched structures are made of metal-plastic pipes or metal elements. The first ones are usually covered with polyethylene film, while the second option most often has a polycarbonate coating. Metal structures can be purchased ready-made, and all that remains is to assemble them on site. Well, a frame made of metal-plastic pipes is quite easy to make yourself.

The convenience of such a greenhouse lies not only in its maximum illumination, but also in the fact that snow and water do not accumulate on the arched roof, which means that the coating will not be subject to deformation due to heavy load. Again, you will not need to climb to a height to remove snow from its surface.

• Shed roof

• Under it, according to the markings, a pit-trench is dug, having a depth and width of 300 mm.
• Since the walls of the greenhouse are not as heavy as those of residential buildings, a foundation depth of 300 mm is sufficient to withstand relatively light loads.
• Above the ground, the base can be raised to a height of 200 to 500 mm, depending on whether the foundation will serve as walls or whether they will be made of brick.
• A sand cushion 50÷70 mm thick is placed and compacted into the finished trench, and crushed stone is poured on top of it with a layer of the same thickness and distributed.
• A formwork made of boards and timber is fixed along the trench, into which roofing material is laid, which will become an excellent waterproofing for the foundation.
• The next step is to fill the formwork with concrete, spread it, and then pierce it with a bayonet shovel and gently tap the formwork to remove air from the solution.
• If the frame is made from a metal corner or it is needed to secure wooden blocks, then sometimes support posts or sections of the corner can be immediately embedded in the foundation.

Basis for greenhouse-thermos

For a thermos greenhouse, it is necessary to dig a fairly deep pit, and if you plan to build an agricultural structure of a large area, you will have to use specialized equipment, since such manual work will take a lot of time.

• After marking the site, it is recommended to remove the top layer of fertile soil from it. After removal, the soil is piled up, because it is perfect for laying the finished greenhouse in the beds.
• When digging a pit, among the layers you can stumble upon clay, which also should not be mixed with the rest of the soil, as it can be useful for waterproofing walls or making adobe blocks for insulating a greenhouse.
• The pit is deepened so much that the gardener working in the greenhouse feels free, and there is quite a lot of free space above it. To ensure that the required temperature is maintained in the greenhouse and the soil does not freeze, it is recommended to deepen the pit by approximately 2000 mm.

If the pit is not deep enough, then you will have to raise the side walls, since it will be ideal when the total height of the pit corresponds to the height of the gardener.

• The width of the greenhouse is usually from two to five meters. If the room is made wider, it will quickly cool down, and lighting and heating will require a large amount of electricity. In addition, the design of a transparent dome would be too complex.
• When digging a pit, a ramp is installed on one side of it, where, along with the construction of the walls, a staircase of several steps and an entrance door to the greenhouse will be installed.
• To begin work on upgrading the walls, a base is made for them. To do this, a trench is dug around the perimeter inside the pit. After this, formwork is installed in it and the strip foundation is poured in the same way as in the case already considered.
• After the foundation is ready, you can proceed to lining the walls with bricks or foam blocks. When masonry is being carried out, one or two ventilation pipes are immediately installed in the wall opposite to the entrance door, at a height of 400÷500 mm from the floor.

The ventilation pipe is brought outside and raised above the ground by 1000÷1500 mm.

• Separately, it is necessary to say about the laying, since in this case it is produced in a special way.

— To save on insulation, instead of bricks or foam blocks, which are not cheap, you can use clay extracted from a pit, which is mixed with chopped straw and adobe bricks are formed from this mixture.

— If you don’t want to waste time, and you have the opportunity to purchase foam blocks, which are called permanent formwork, then you can immediately get “bricks with insulation.” The blocks are hollow, and they are filled as they are installed on top of each other with concrete mortar. Having chosen the latter option, you will need to separate the foam wall from the ground surface of the pit with roofing material or plastic film.

After the solution in the blocks has hardened, a film or roofing felt is hooked onto it, and the gap remaining between the waterproofing material and the ground wall of the pit is filled with clay or a mixture of clay and soil, and while filling, it is periodically compacted.

— If brick is chosen for wall decoration, then it is insulated from the outside using polystyrene foam, which is mounted between the brick and soil wall. Thermal insulation material must also be protected with roofing felt. The resulting gap, just as in the first case, is filled with soil.

• If the walls rise above the ground by 400÷600 mm, then they also need to be insulated and waterproofed. If desired, the wall protruding above the ground can be finished with a decorative coating - this can be clinker tiles or plastic lining for outdoor use.
• If the walls are not high, then after waterproofing they can be sprinkled with a layer of expanded clay, which is covered on top with corrugated sheeting, which is fixed to the top of the wall. The corrugated sheeting will ensure the drainage of water that will drain from the greenhouse cover and keep the walls dry.

Wooden foundation

Another material for the foundation can be wood, or rather, a wooden beam with a cross-sectional size of 100×150 or 150×150 mm. This foundation is suitable for a greenhouse that is used seasonally - from spring to autumn.

In order for such a foundation to serve for a long time, the wood must be treated with antiseptic and water-repellent compounds and installed on a sandy, well-compacted cushion. Another option is to raise it above the ground using concrete slabs.

Construction of a thermos greenhouse

The installation of all greenhouses takes place differently, depending on the type of structure and the period of use of the structure, since “winter” options require a more careful approach and additional functions. It’s probably worth considering this, the most difficult option.

• After the walls are ready, you can proceed to installing the frame under the greenhouse cover.
• The frame is mounted from a metal profile or wooden beam.

• The first step is to attach a frame made of 100x150 mm timber to the walls of the greenhouse. Fixation is carried out with anchors or using embedded embedded elements.
• The rafter system must be assembled from timber of the same cross-section as the harness. To install the rafter legs, markings are carried out on the harness, since the rafter pairs must be distributed at the same distance from each other.
• The rafters are secured to the frame with metal corners, and in the upper part they are connected to each other using metal plates or using a ridge board.
• Wooden sheathing bars are fixed to the rafters, but with a fairly large step. There should be no more than two or three of them on each slope so that they do not block the sunlight.
• Polycarbonate sheets are laid on the sheathing, which are secured to it using special fasteners with bushings and rubber gaskets to prevent the possibility of leakage.

• Having completed the fastening of the covering material to the slopes, it is installed in the same way on the gable parts of the roof.
• After this, the door frame and the door itself are installed. It is desirable that the door leaf is also equipped with a transparent insert.

Creating optimal conditions for plants in the greenhouse

Greenhouse thermal insulation

In a greenhouse with a gable roof, one of its slopes must face the south side. It is recommended to finish the second side inside the greenhouse. Such a system will help not only retain heat, but even increase illumination inside the structure, since the sun, hitting the insulation foil, will be reflected into the room.

The insulation is fixed to the rafters with self-tapping screws, then it is folded onto the wall and glued to its surface using liquid nails. All the walls of the greenhouse are insulated in the same way, only the transparent southern slope is left uninsulated, and the western end transparent side of the structure can be left.

It should be noted that foil foamed polyethylene is an excellent vapor barrier membrane, and can not only enhance the lighting of the greenhouse, but also retain water vapor and carbon dioxide inside it, which are the main nutrient medium for photosynthesis, which determines the growth and development of plants.

In order to prevent heat from escaping from the greenhouse, it is necessary to create a reliable seal in the greenhouse space. To do this, be sure to install doors or valves on the ventilation openings, on which you can set the required gap as necessary or close them completely.

Greenhouse heating system

2. The infiltration coefficient depends on the difference between the external and internal temperatures in the greenhouse. You can use the following table:

3. Temperature inside the greenhouse (indicated in the formula t1), is usually taken equal to:

• For growing seedlings - + 25 ° C;
• For normal development of vegetable beds - + 18 °C.

If any exotic plants are grown, then the corresponding values ​​are adopted.

4. External temperature ( t2) are accepted based on the results of meteorological observations in a particular region - the minimum during the coldest week during the planned season of use of the greenhouse.

5. Thermal conductivity indicators ( wtp), that is, the amount of thermal energy that is transferred outward by a covering area of ​​1 m² with a temperature difference of 1 ° C, depends on the type of material and its thickness. The table below shows the values ​​for the most commonly used materials for covering stationary greenhouses:

Having all the necessary data, it will not be difficult to calculate the required electrical heating power of the greenhouse. It’s even easier to use the online calculator below.

The greenhouse is as much a symbol of the modern era as space flight, 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 a person, roughly speaking, becomes dull and stupid), half was chronically malnourished, and a third, in addition, had never tasted either meat or food in their lives. fish, no eggs.

We still feel the consequences of insufficient and malnutrition on a global scale today, but the situation, if not radically improving, is at least not significantly worsening, although there is less than 0.5 hectares of farmland left on Earth per person. Greenhouse farming helps you survive until better times (while you’re still alive, hopefully!): the yield of fruits and vegetables in a greenhouse can exceed that in open ground by several times(see figure), and the harvest is not harvested in one gulp on market day, but gradually all year round; this makes it possible to stably meet demand and free up land for livestock farming.

Note: from UN things. Also in 1975, UN experts zealously promoted vegetarianism. And last year they recognized him as having 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-grown fruits and vegetables by taste, now in about 50% of cases they are confused. This means they don’t 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 ineffective or simply not applicable. For example, A greenhouse made of wood and glass becomes completely unusable in 2-3 years due to drip-fog irrigation.

Polycarbonate is a type of organic glass that reflects infrared (IR) rays well and thus can create a strong greenhouse effect. But it did not transform greenhouses on its own, but only after they learned to produce it in the form of sheets of a honeycomb structure. This made it possible to create strong and durable 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 resource: a greenhouse on a quarter-acre plot of land can 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 from it with functioning cladding is simple. With the widespread use of pipes made of structural plastics and methods for quickly and firmly connecting them, the construction of a frame has ceased to be a serious problem. Currently, there is a wide range of kits of parts for assembling small garden greenhouses on sale, but demand dictates prices! Therefore, those who want to build a greenhouse with their own hands are constantly arriving: in the Penza region alone. number of self-made private greenhouses for 2009-2014. increased by more than 20 (!) times.

Note: Structural plastics are those that are capable of bearing mechanical operating loads for a long time. PVC, for example, for all its advantages, is not a structural plastic, although it can be very useful in the greenhouse business, as will be discussed below. Of the structural plastics, polyisopropylene (PP) is most commonly used: it is not expensive, and its mechanical properties are comparable to steel. Further, unless otherwise stated, plastic will always mean 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 you not only how to make a greenhouse yourself, but also how to construct it, without complex calculations, and during construction to avoid excessive costs and labor. Ready-made sets of parts are designed for all occasions and therefore are not cheap; a design well worked out by others in these specific circumstances may turn out to be unsuitable for some reason, and we will create our own greenhouse to suit our own local conditions, making do with the minimum necessary.

We will focus primarily on greenhouses made of polycarbonate on a tubular plastic frame, as they are the most universal. But there are a number of garden crops that can vegetate and bear fruit all year round at relatively low above-zero temperatures and relatively low light. These are natives of the tropics who have taken root in temperate latitudes: cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, sweet peppers, zucchini, and squash. In our country they are cultivated as annuals, but in general they are evergreen and with minimal heating costs they can produce marketable products 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 the summer; here they need fresh air and coolness more. Therefore, as well as for a number of other reasons, a good old wooden greenhouse is better suited for their small-scale production and cultivation for personal consumption, so we will also deal with them. Let’s not ignore mini-greenhouses for table greens, flowers and seedlings, especially since you can set one up in a city apartment.

Finally, greenhouse business is being improved not only by seasoned 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 differentiated by size. Like, the greenhouse is big, you can go into 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 you have to do pruning, hilling, etc. uncomfortable. But this is only a visible difference, but the essence is much deeper: a large structure can be a greenhouse, and a small box can be a greenhouse.

Note: about appearance and essence. The famous ancient Greek sophist philosopher was once asked: “What is man?” After thinking, he replied: “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 mulched quite deeply with manure; the best is horse. As biofuel decomposes, it warms the earth from the inside. Root heating of plants at a lower air temperature than on the soil surface, combined with excess nitrogen, primarily stimulates the rapid growth by vegetation of its nutrient factory - green mass. If plants have their own depots of supplies (bulbs, rhizomes), then these are primarily used for this, and the root system still lags behind in development. Plants, figuratively speaking, do not yet think about fruiting in such conditions.

Greenhouses are used primarily for forcing and growing seedlings. Forcing is a process of controlled acceleration of vegetation; in some species - up to flowering. By forcing, for example, you can get onions, 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. Forcing table greens produces products of excellent quality if the planting material is environmentally friendly, because The plants take very little from the soil.

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

In the greenhouse, root heating occurs, but it is moderate. The main thing here is that the plants must feel the influx of warm air, warmer than the soil, from above and/or from the sides. This gives the “mid-spring effect”: plants tend to bear fruit as quickly as possible to begin storing nutrients for the winter or dry season. Well, if they have a paradise with eternal spring, then they can “fatten” as much as they want without depleting themselves, as long as there is enough soil nutrition: the root system is now working with all its might. This is the basis for the high productivity of greenhouse farming.

Note: A greenhouse cannot be a greenhouse, but any greenhouse can become a greenhouse. In general, for this you need to increase soil heating and weaken air heating. But the subtleties of handling forced crops are a topic from agricultural technology, and not from the construction of greenhouses.

About refraction

Polycarbonate and silicate glass have a refractive index of light significantly greater than 1. That is, the slopes of the greenhouse direct the sun's rays falling on them inward at a steeper angle. On the one hand, this is good: in winter, the stingray works as a light concentrator - it collects oblique winter light over a larger area and directs it inside to a smaller one, see figure:

On the other hand, as the slope of the slope decreases, the degree of reflection of direct rays also increases. If the angle of their incidence decreases to critical, 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 should be chosen within 30-45 degrees from the horizontal.
• The further north the greenhouse is located, the steeper the slopes should be.
• Greenhouses of conventional design must be gabled and oriented with the ridge of the roof from north to south, i.e. slopes to the east and west. In this case, the angle of incidence of most of the light transmitted inside onto the surface of the shadow slope will be less than critical and it will be reflected back inward.

Note: Cellular polycarbonate has an additional advantage over glass in this regard - light is refracted by each layer of its structure and the degree of light concentration is higher. But polycarbonate layers are thinner than the thinnest glass, so its light transmittance is almost the same as single-layer glass.

How do plants sense light?

The refraction in the greenhouse covering has another important meaning: it smoothes out fluctuations in lighting and temperature in it during the day and season. Most garden crops are quite tolerant of light and temperature levels, if they remain more or less stable or change smoothly. But a sharp jump in any of these parameters is understood by plants 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: yields fall, product quality deteriorates. A classic example is cucumbers. Even if it didn’t last long, it suddenly got colder or felt hot – that’s it, they became smaller and went to bitterness.

Own greenhouse

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

1. Winter, or year-round, allow you to grow any crops all year round. Today, only durian and cherimoya are not physiologically amenable to greenhouse farming.
2. Seasonal capital, or semi-winter, produce marketable products from Central Russia for 8-10 months. per year. In these, either annuals or plants with physiology that require/tolerate a dormant period at sub-zero temperatures are cultivated.
3. Seasonal lightweight - active phase of the production cycle for 2-3 months. shorter than semi-winter ones; This is usually what is meant by seasonal greenhouses. As a rule, early/late regular vegetables and herbs are cultivated in them.
4. Temporary - used for growing seedlings in natural soil, forcing them or for one-two-three times the harvest of crops that greatly deplete the soil: root crops, strawberries, etc. When the area is used up, the greenhouse is dismantled, moved to a new location, and the land is left fallow or sown with nitrogen-fixing crops, legumes, etc.
5. Greenhouses - they are installed (it’s difficult to call it a building) once for seedlings and forcing. How to make a greenhouse as such is described above. Greenhouses for exotic flowers are more complex in design, for example. orchids or gesneriaceae, but this topic is already from floriculture, and not gardening.

Note: Phalaenopsis, common in flower shops, are only a few representatives of about 800 genera and more than 35,000 species of orchids, suitable for mass cutting. The flowers of all orchids are long-lasting and cut-resistant. Among them there are many that in Hollywood there is not enough cocaine to deliberately invent, on the left in the figure. There are cases when wealthy connoisseurs paid $5,000 and even $20,000 for just 1 flower of a rare species. In countries where they love all sorts of rarities, renting out living flowering orchids in pots is a profitable type of small business; rare orchids need to be groomed and cherished until they bloom for 7-8 years. Many orchids emit a subtle scent; vanilla - orchid. Orchids grow all the way to the tundra, but in our area they are either small and not striking (for example, orchis), or very rare, like lady’s slippers - cypripediums, in the center in Fig. The culture of Gesneriaceae is simpler, and they are also very spectacular 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 of it. In winter, a capital foundation is required with full concreting of the underground part and insulation, as well as full lighting and heating. The cost of heating them accounts for the lion's share of current ones, so winter greenhouses turn out to be profitable especially in large sizes (from about 200 cubic meters) on large farms. The own heat reserve of a large greenhouse is enough to maintain the life of plants, taking into account the greenhouse effect, for several days, up to 2 weeks. Therefore, heating systems for them are designed not for peak frosts, but according to the average seasonal temperature, which is much higher.

The original version of a winter greenhouse is a greenhouse-greenhouse; in mid-latitudes it does not require constant heating at all. The greenhouse-greenhouse is heated by mulch decomposing under the soil layer. 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 meet modern sanitary requirements, because are oversaturated with nitrates. In the greenhouse phase of the cycle, only chives are more or less edible. Large greenhouses are used primarily as greenhouses, and small garden greenhouses are used for cut flower growing.

Note: in certain climatic conditions, it is possible to build a completely energy-independent winter greenhouse, the so-called. thermos greenhouses; a special section will be devoted to them. But the complexity of construction and the cost of it for a thermos greenhouse are much higher than for a regular one. True, exceptions are possible, see further in the same section.

Semi-winter greenhouses– also quite solid structures; The foundation is most often monolithic strip or made from lightweight prefabricated blocks, because the upper structure is light and has little risk of uneven shrinkage. But the working area here is illuminated and heated 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. A light lantern for a semi-winter greenhouse made of polycarbonate on a PP frame is inexpensive and can last more than 15 years, and with minimal lighting and heating, perennial subtropical crops, including citrus fruits, can be grown in one from Moscow and further south; they still have a period of rest. Harvesting will be seasonal, and heating to a slight plus in the coldest weather will help the plants survive the winter.

Seasonal greenhouses Most of all, they are built independently. With skillful management in the Moscow region, ordinary table crops can last up to 10 months. per year, and to the south of Rostov-on-Don they are able to operate year-round. In both cases, costs for light and heat will not exceed more than 2 times those for a city apartment of equal area. When the time of use is reduced during the cold season, heating costs drop rapidly, so most of these greenhouses live up to their name. The profitability of seasonal greenhouses increases significantly if owners have access to inexpensive solid fuel for stoves; For more details, see the section on heating greenhouses.

The skylights of seasonal greenhouses are generally the same as those of semi-winter greenhouses, but the foundation is made of a light columnar one. Most often, rolled metal (pipes, angles, channels) is used for it, but a very cheap wooden one will last as long as a greenhouse if the pieces of timber or logs for it are boiled in bitumen for 10-20 minutes (scalded with bitumen) and their ends before installing them in the pits wrap with roofing felt. If the service 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 used in the middle zone from approximately April to October. They grow quickly ripening crops; mainly bulbs and root vegetables, as well as table greens. Temporary greenhouses are most often made of soil (see below) and covered with film. Lighting and heating are not provided, because... there is already/still enough natural light 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 intensity of lighting, because Plants release carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. Therefore, you need an eye and an eye for the light in a greenhouse - less light, less carbon dioxide, it became colder, photosynthesis weakened, the greenhouse effect weakened, it got even colder, and so on very quickly until it freezes.

Greenhouse and soil

The next factor that needs to be kept in mind when, so to speak, preliminary thinking about a greenhouse is the nature of the use of the soil. According to it, greenhouses are divided into ground, 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. From the outside, the formwork is supported with pins made of reinforcing bars, onto which the ends of the lantern arches made of pipes are placed. The frame of the flashlight is lightweight, designed for more or less favorable weather conditions. Cover it mainly with film.

Fertile soil is poured into the formwork; mulch if necessary. As the soil becomes depleted, its top layer is removed and replaced. Such agricultural crops will be enough for 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 dismountable or, if it is made of PP pipes, completely transported by two or three to a new place.

A 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 filled to the top with crushed stone along the waterproofing, on which boxes filled with earth with perforated bottoms are placed. The depleted soil is simply thrown out of the boxes and new soil is poured in. Excess irrigation water flows into the crushed stone and then into the drainage. This eliminates the scourge of unprofessional greenhouses - soil acidification from the cold from below. If there is no drainage system on the site, then the greenhouse drain is drained into a cesspool attached to it. It is impossible to reuse wastewater for irrigation; it is teeming with harmful micro-living creatures!

Most highly profitable homemade greenhouses are box greenhouses. The manufacture of formwork and foundation for a box greenhouse is also possible from wood (see figure), because In this case, it has almost no contact with the ground and is subject to less harmful influences. If the lumber, in addition to being treated with biocides, is also impregnated twice with hot bitumen, then the formwork will last 12-15 years. For a longer estimated service life, it is better to use a blind area (for a semi-winter greenhouse - with insulation) and build a brick base on it.

Note: for plants with a shallow root system (onions, radishes, carrots, melons, watermelons), the boxes can be on stands. Then the greenhouse can be multi-story, 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 an outlet into a cesspool or a collection area common to the site, and earth is poured on top of it. Areas for different crops in the trenches are separated by removable partitions that reach the drainage layer.

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

Note: The author knows of a resident of the Kola Peninsula who, using the income from potatoes, onions, garlic and tomatoes from a homemade trench greenhouse, built himself a mansion of 230 square meters in 5 years. When he was asked: “Mortgage?”, he asked in response: “What is it?”

When form is everything

The most important factor determining the functionality of a greenhouse is the configuration of its skylight. In terms of the variety of architectural forms, greenhouses can compete with public buildings, but frame greenhouse houses, pos. 1 in Fig., faceted tunnel, pos. 2, and tunnel arched with semicircular (item 3) and pointed (item 4) arches.

House

In a greenhouse-house, the entire operational load is carried by the frame, so the glazing can be of any kind. Given the required strength for a home greenhouse, the simplest technologically and cheapest is a wooden frame. Modern methods of processing industrial wood make it possible to achieve its durability in greenhouse conditions for 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 cultivation in a greenhouse, see above. When the sun is high, the roof slightly shades the plants and cuts off ultraviolet radiation, which protects them from burns. In the southern regions, sometimes roof slopes are also covered with gauze or old washed sheets in the hottest weather.

The roof of a wide-open greenhouse-house plays another role: excess carbon dioxide is formed in the greenhouse, because It is heavier than air, and once heated, it cannot rise. For plants, it’s like caviar for cognac: the harvest is rampant, and the fruits are the same.

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

Note: Yakut watermelons may seem incredible, but we, not limiting ourselves to verbal assurances, refer the reader to the book by Yu. K. Efremov “The Nature of My Country”, M., “Thought”, 1985 (see figure) With the science fiction writer Ivan Efremov, his namesake geographer Yuri Konstantinovich is not related.

Watermelons and melons come from deserts; they are able to develop quickly as semi-ephemerals. 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, and the UV burns. A fully hinged greenhouse-house allows you to create a suitable microclimate for the right time for early ripening varieties. True, with heating at the beginning/end of the season, but here fuel is inexpensive and sales of products are ensured.

A drawing with the specification of the frame of 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 lighter and its frame can be made from scrap materials, for example. old window frames, see below.

Note: a wooden greenhouse is not at odds with polycarbonate. On the contrary, lightweight but durable polycarbonate takes on some of the operational loads, which silicate glass is not capable of. At current prices, a polycarbonate coating will cost less than glazing, and the entire wooden greenhouse under the polycarbonate will be stronger and cheaper.

Faceted Tunnel

Greenhouse houses have a significant drawback, which manifests itself in places with weak insolation: when the Sun is low, the angle of incidence of its rays on the slopes turns out to be close to optimal once a day for a short time. Simply put, the greenhouse-house does not concentrate 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 not advisable to make the frame of a faceted tunnel from plastic, because... The mechanical properties of PP are best when the transverse connections 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, lined with polycarbonate; pipes can be round, but profile ones are more often used. However, this raises the problem of the joints of the frame elements.

Welded seams corrode intensively in greenhouse conditions, especially external ones, sandwiched between the pipe and the casing. Non-destructive visual inspection in such places is impossible, so the frame is prone to sudden destruction.

Note: Do not try to make steel frames prestressed - ordinary rolled steel is completely unsuitable for use in this capacity! Have you heard about fatigue and fluidity of metal?

In the industrial production of metal greenhouses, welding is completely abandoned, and the 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 homemade steel frames of greenhouses are still welded, but without external seams: the workpiece is cut at an angle, bent and welded from the inside, on the right in Fig. This requires special precision and care in calculating the frame and marking the workpieces, but weakened joints are immediately visible, because the weld seam rusts faster than solid metal.

Speaking of connections

In greenhouse frames other than wooden ones, you cannot drill holes and drive fasteners into them: a sharp difference in environmental conditions inside and outside will create pockets of corrosion and/or dangerous mechanical stress in such places. Non-wooden frames are assembled using welding or special connecting units. In plastic branded kits for self-assembly, the parts in the connectors are still secured with self-tapping screws, because Few people will buy a kit that requires special tools for assembly. But serious manufacturers carefully calculate the location of the fasteners, the entire structure is modeled on computers, and the prototype is put through full-scale tests before production. And frivolous locals, without bothering themselves with painful thoughts about copyrights, simply copy proven models.

Arched tunnels

A greenhouse-tunnel made from semicircular arches is the easiest to manufacture, the most wind-resistant and the best at concentrating light. Pay attention again to item 3 in Fig. with the shapes of greenhouses: most of the sides of the semicircular seem darkish. This means that most of the light went inside and did its useful work there. And in the summer, when it’s hot and the sun is high, an almost flat roof gives the same effect as a greenhouse-house.

The material consumption of a semi-circular greenhouse and the costs of its construction are also minimal, however, snow resistance is low, and in places with a large snow load, incidents like the one in the figure are possible, even if the structure is structurally executed completely correctly. Therefore, in regions with heavy snow, it would be more correct to build a 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 exhibits all its advantages only when subjected to intense, operational load as part of the structure or previously. For a greenhouse, as a lightweight 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 from prestressed pipes. In combination with working polycarbonate sheathing, this brings greenhouses made from it on a plastic tubular frame to record ratios of strength, durability and durability to cost. This leads to another record for 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 another arch.

Arch from profile

In thin-walled volumetric parts with bending radii characteristic of arched greenhouses, the stresses in ordinary steel turn out to be far from its yield limit, 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 figure) seems to be elementary: just a Phillips screwdriver and metal scissors. When strengthened with struts and crossbars, the “fresh” structure turns out to be 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 lighter.

However, the first disappointments await the specialized enthusiast already during assembly. Firstly, you have to twist a lot of screws and they are expensive. And the cramped fingers and bleeding calluses simply scream: “Well, finally, you, such a master, buy a screwdriver!” Secondly, the blanks marked by hand and cut without a profile cutter (and there are many of them!) do not fit together exactly and the entire frame goes, as they say, awry. In production it’s easier, where the computer calculates it, transfers the data to the robot stamp, and it cuts it perfectly, it’s just not good at it.

But the most important disappointment awaits even before the end of the first season: the frame is rusting before our eyes. What would seem worth reading right away is the specification for the profiles - they, like drywall, are not intended for outdoor use...

Plastic arches

And snow and wind...

Correctly configuring and assembling a plastic greenhouse yourself is only possible if you know the wind and snow loads on it at the construction site. The maps in Fig. will help you decide on them for your greenhouse. As they say, don’t bother with numerical values ​​of loads and don’t expect complex formulas in the future: everything has already been reduced to the numbers of load zones. If one of them is indicated in the text, the largest in this place is meant. For example, the greenhouse will be in the 2nd wind and 6th snow zones, or vice versa. Then you need to do it for the 6th zone; Specifics regarding snow and wind, if they exist in this case, are discussed.

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 at several angles. They are available for sale, but they are expensive and are usually designed for a specific design. Having pushed around in attempts to adapt it for yourself, you still have to buy the rest to complete the complete set. Which, all at once, would be half the price.

We will go the other way. We will make do 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 parts, just like . Renting a soldering iron (more precisely, a welding machine) for propylene is inexpensive, it consumes little electricity (it is plugged into a regular outlet), and you can learn how to weld PP in half an hour. A finished frame of this design will be no worse than a branded one, but much cheaper. A novice master can assemble it in a weekend. Since aerodynamics and icing are more important for a greenhouse than the weight of the upper floors, the frame is designed according to aviation rather than construction principles. Good planes sometimes fly longer than an ordinary house costs.

Zero cycle

The basics about preparing the base of the greenhouse have already been said earlier. You just need to add that the site for the greenhouse must be planned with an accuracy of 5 cm/m, otherwise the likelihood of soil acidification increases. If the greenhouse is not ground, after leveling, a soil slope of 6-8 cm/m is formed towards the drainage. For lightweight greenhouses, the slope is formed before installing the formwork under gravel, and for capital ones - after pouring the strip foundation. The slopes of the drains of winter trench greenhouses and thermos greenhouses are formed by the screed of their floors. Don't forget about waterproofing the slope!

The arcs of the arches of the design under consideration are tightly placed on pins made of reinforcing bars protruding upward by 40-50 cm. There is no need to make the protrusion smaller; the arches will not hold well. More is also not necessary, they will bend incorrectly. Under a lightweight greenhouse, reinforcement bars are driven into the ground close to the formwork by 1 m or more, and under a permanent greenhouse they are walled up in the foundation by the same 40-50 cm. After assembling the frame, the arcs are attracted to the formwork with clamps made of a thin perforated steel strip and self-tapping screws 5-8 mm long 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 screws. In the upper zones, the frames are made without thresholds, and their racks are put on reinforcement pins, like the arches.

How to make a frame?

Dimensions

Standard lengths of water pipes are 6, 5 and 4 m. They are used to produce 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 be used as a guide when calculating the overall dimensions of the greenhouse. Pointed arches are more reliable if the snow zone is 4th and higher. Then, on the contrary, they go from the dimensions: the arch is drawn to scale on graph paper (the upper corner is necessarily straight in this case!), the length of its wing is measured with a curvimeter, a flexible ruler or laid out along the contour of a thick thread, followed by measurement, and converted into the length of the workpiece. Add 20 cm for trimming and shrinkage. You can do the opposite: measure a piece of soft wire to scale (for example, copper winding wire with a diameter of 0.8-1.2 mm), bend it as necessary on graph paper and beat off the profile of the arc wing on it .

Assembly

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

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

How often to install arches?

The arc installation step is determined as follows:

• If zones 1 and 1, take a step of 1100 mm.
• In other cases, enter the zone numbers and get the consolidated load zone number N.
• For the largest zone up to and including the 3rd, divide 4800 by N, and the resulting value is rounded to the nearest smaller integer, a multiple of 50, and the step is obtained in millimeters; eg for zones 2 and 3 it will be 950 mm, and for zones 3 and 3 – 800 mm.
• If the largest zone is 4 or 5, N is divided by 5600; further – similar to zones 2 and 3.
• In the largest zones 6 and 7, N is divided by 5500.

The dependence of the arc step on the zone, as we see, is nonlinear. This is explained by the fact that as the zone number increases, the stringers take on more and more load, see below. So the design turns out to be a little more material-intensive, but significantly less labor-intensive.

Note 15: The 8th zone, both of them, generally speaking, are problematic. Here, sometimes, snow breaks concrete floors, and the wind moves houses from their foundations. Any independent construction here is carried out at your own peril and risk, and this fully applies to greenhouses. How to still get out, with a certain amount of risk, will be discussed later in the course of the presentation.

Gain

You can rely on the lightest frame with some caution in zones 1-2, but even here it is advisable to reinforce it with at least a pair of stringers. Their location diagrams for different zones are shown in pos. A-B. Just remember that the coordinates are given for the longitudinal axes of the connections, and the beams themselves are stepped, like the ridge beam. Taking this (and welding shrinkage) into account, you need to mark the workpieces.

Attention! Pairs of stringers of the same level must be performed in a mirror image, pos. E!

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

How to install braces without 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 from sections of steel pipe are inserted into it and the ears are crimped with a vice. It is convenient to use 2 pairs of vices: the stationary tabletop ones compress the long ear, and the smaller adjustable ones compress the short one.

After crimping, the mandrels are removed, the clamp is cut to size and shape, and holes are drilled for M6 bolts. This kind of handicraft crimping results in a shortage, but here this is only for the better: compressed with bolts in place, the clamp and pipes will grab tightly, and will acquire a monstrous rigidity for such a thin metal.

Arrows and legs

The location of the stringers on the pointed arches is determined based on the basic semicircular with the same span, as shown in pos. D. Please note that this method is only valid for arrows with an apex angle of 90 degrees! You can’t make the arrow’s ridge single without a gusset, and there’s no need to. An additional pipe, corners and tees for a double-beam ridge, pos. I. Its halves are made, like the stringers, in a mirror manner. The maximum distance from the top is indicated; the beams need to be moved as close to it as possible, in accordance with the size of the available tees and welding skills of the PP. By the way, the easiest way to remove both the chimney and the semicircular arch is through a double ridge, making 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 the legs, position D. Reinforcement in zones 7 and 8 is carried out according to the same schemes, moving one cell down, those. There should be no empty cells under reinforced ones. If your legs are higher than 0.6 m - alas! – needs to 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 mandatory, and in the lower zones it is highly advisable, to fasten the door and window frames not directly to the arch (slightly beveled tees create unwanted stresses in the frame), but to hang them in it on half-crossbars and short longitudinal holders, pos. K, K1, K2. To an inexperienced eye, such a fastening seems rather weak, but remember: the gables will be covered with a still functioning cladding made of durable polycarbonate. Ultimately, the frame will be no weaker and will last no less than the fuselage of a DC-3 or An-2.

And under the film?

Today's 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 less than rigid polycarbonate. 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. Ventilating film greenhouses in hot weather does not cause problems: it is enough to tuck the edges of the canopy; They don’t even need a door with a window. In general, for places with mild and temperate climates, a greenhouse under film is the best option, but in others there is no point in building it.

The frame described above will also work perfectly under the film. It has quite an airplane safety margin, and when calculating for film, it is enough to take the zone numbers 1 higher. The uprights of the door and window frames must be left, see figure, because they take part of the loads. You can attach Velcro to the posts not with self-tapping screws, as in the figure, but with clamps made of thin soft wire. Not as aesthetically pleasing, but simpler, cheaper and no less reliable. If using self-tapping screws, then it is better to install straight couplings under the Velcro and wrap the screws into their thickened bodies.

Hard roof

Film greenhouses justify themselves mainly in cases where they are installed temporarily for a relatively short period of time. For example, someone bought a plot for forest planting or a pasture for livestock. Everyone knows how things are with loans now. In order to raise funds for its development, I decided to wait 3-4 years, and for now rent out the land inexpensively. This is where subtenants can help out a fellow farmer, and make some good money themselves.

For long-term use, greenhouses with a hard polycarbonate coating are more profitable. With an estimated service life of 20 years (and this is not the limit), it will cost less than replacing the film cover 2-3 times. In addition, there is no need to bother with washing it, removing and installing it twice a year, and setting aside an area for its winter storage. So let’s take a closer look at polycarbonate.

It has already been said above that the greenhouse, from the point of view of its covering, differs from other structures by the 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 those for and. The video gives an idea of ​​how to cut polycarbonate for a greenhouse:

and how to attach it to the frame:

We will consider only individual points that are not sufficiently covered in known sources.

Structure

Cellular polycarbonate slabs are available in different thicknesses and structures. Slabs of the same thickness can have different structures, and vice versa. The 2R structure (see figure) is unsuitable for greenhouses either in terms of thermal insulation or mechanical qualities.

Structures of the R type (without diagonal connections in the cells) are more transparent than the RX type, but withstand dynamic loads worse, therefore they are suitable for places where the wind zone is not higher than 4th. 3R is used where the average winter temperature is above –15 degrees or frost below –20 degrees lasts 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 5 and higher. For any 8th zone, the only acceptable option is 6RX. There is no need to take 5RX, it is not very transparent. 6RX and was developed to replace the 5RX in greenhouses.

The thickness of the slabs is determined as follows:

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

Thus, for example, for zones 4 and 4 the thickness is 16 mm, and for zones 8 and 8 - 40 mm. However, both 8 zones do not exist in the Russian Federation.

Sheathing

The standard sizes 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 over the gables of arched and faceted houses and along the entire perimeter of the roof. According to SNiP, the overhang should be at least 15 cm. If the greenhouse is commercial and you expect to receive a sanitary certificate for the products, keep in mind that inspectors will check the greenhouse in its entirety.

The radii of curvature of greenhouse arches allow slabs of the most commonly used structures 3R and 5R to be laid on the frame both lengthwise and across. What would be more correct? This way and that way. It all depends on which loads are greater in a given location, 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, right there.

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

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

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

Fastenings

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

It is highly undesirable to weaken the greenhouse frame, as indicated above, with holes and fasteners. The casing is attached to it with steel clamps 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 back. The bend must be made taking into account the thickness of the rubber gaskets, and they, in turn, in accordance with the thickness of the walls of the cages of the frame connectors. The thermal gap between the plates, 3-5 mm wide, is filled with silicone sealant.

Hut made of windows

Greenhouses made from frames of unusable windows appeared during the times of mass Khrushchev construction. Firstly, back then the carpentry for new buildings was of the most disgusting quality: “Give me a plan! Val come on! The current generation of people will live under communism!” Therefore, many new residents immediately replaced the windows and doors with custom ones, since the materials and work then cost a penny. Secondly, to the working people, i.e. officially permanently employed, summer cottage plots were then distributed to everyone left and right. Thirdly, cheap government prices and accessibility are by no means friends. It is appropriate here to recall an old Soviet political joke. The chairman of the collective farm “Svet Ilyich” opens the general meeting: “Comrades! We have two issues on the agenda: repairing the barn and building a commune. Regarding the first question: no boards, no nails, no bricks, no cement, no mortar. Let's move on to the second question."

We will move on to technical issues, they can be of some use. Nowadays, too, many windows are being replaced with metal-plastic with double-glazed windows, but frames that are still strong are thrown away. You can assemble a completely reliable and durable house from them, if you help the frames a little to carry the load. There is no point in covering such a structure with a Khrushchev-style disposable film; it is 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 allow you to get by with just one roof truss for the roof, except for the gables. We will get a completely seasonal and commercial greenhouse for zones up to 4 inclusive, i.e. for most of the territory of the Russian Federation suitable for agricultural use.

The design of the greenhouse frame under the frames is shown in Fig. For clarity, the proportions of the parts are given arbitrarily. Dimensions in plan – 5.7x2.7 m; internal space - 5.4x2.4 m. It will require, 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 cc. m of coniferous wood, and about 5 kg of nails 70, 100 and 150 mm.

The foundation is a wooden columnar one, made of 6 pillars in 2 rows, 1 m long. The 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 leveled along it using a hydraulic level. There is no need to deepen the pillars according to freezing calculations; the structure will play together with the soil for many years; it has been tested on Khrushchev’s “polyethylene”.

The beams of the lower support frame - the grillage - and the upper one - the frame - are sewn together on nails from boards as usual, in a zigzag, pos. 1. The driving pitch in a row is 250-400 mm. The grillage is assembled into a prefabricated tenon, and the trim into a prefabricated quarter (item 2) is also on nails, 5 envelopes per corner. Cutting boards measuring 150x150 are cut into three pieces; these pieces will come in handy later.

Next, the grillage is mounted on the foundation and 2 boards are spread out in three lengths. Here you will have to move from the new tree to the old one and sort the frames. 8 solid highest ones (or better yet 10, if found), are put 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 ​​the walls somehow, as long as there are fewer holes, on the right in Fig.

Now, from the 50x40 slats, cut 4 racks the length of the tallest frame plus 10 mm and nail them to the grillage vertically at the corners flush with their outer sides. The corners from the outside are sheathed with boards that are the same length as the posts now plus 220 mm (height of the grillage + height of the trim). The strapping is placed in the resulting nest at the top and the entire box is finally sewn together 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 the places of the future door and casement window from both sides, place the racks of the door and window frames from solid boards. They are fastened to the grillage, frames and adjacent frames with nails using the same blocks from scraps. If necessary, you can lay out 1-2 more boards on them.

Now it's the roof's turn. Rafter trusses are made according to pos. 6. Polycarbonate is laid lengthwise on the roof. A longitudinal strip 40 cm wide is cut from each slab. This will create roof overhangs of about 15 cm, and the strips will be used for cladding 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 entire structure additional cohesion and strength. Secondly, the dimensions of the door and window are measured locally and their frames are made according to Fig. on right.

Before installing drainage and starting the greenhouse, all that remains is to design the base. In Khrushchev's times, they used slate or roofing felt on it, sprinkling the outside with earth. It’s easier for us: now there is such a wonderful (without irony) material as empty plastic bottles. They simply push them under the grillage with their necks inward, but there is no need to remove the plugs. You will get excellent thermal insulation with ventilation, absolute manufacturability with maintainability and long-term durability; Environmentalists around the world are ready to howl about what they should do with these bottles. And it’s a free benefit for us.

Note: This type of box will also fit under disposable polyethylene film, only it needs to be reinforced with the same 50x40 slats, see figure:

Bottle shop

Plastic bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Among the remarkable qualities of this material there is also 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 vessels, it makes complete sense to make a greenhouse entirely from bottles.

There are 3 possible options here. The first is, on long winter evenings, to unravel the bottles into sheets and sew them on a machine with nylon or, better, propylene threads into panels of a suitable size, pos. 1 in Fig. It’s not worth sewing with a furniture stapler, as is sometimes advised: staples will cost more than thread and will rust quite quickly. You can also find advice to sew not with thread, but with fishing line. Even if their authors know where to get a machine that sews with fishing line, or they themselves know how to sew by hand at the same speed, then all the same, the fishing line will cost many times more in length and weight than thread, and the seam will not tighten, because. The line is solid, not twisted.

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

The third option is to place the bottles horizontally with their necks inward, pos. 4. Thermal insulation and light concentration are maximized (even houses are built this way), but not hundreds, but thousands of bottles are needed. They are connected with glue or cement, which is labor-intensive 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, the thermos greenhouse was invented.

It was not invented by Ukrainian craftsmen these days, as Ukrainian news outlets say, 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 is often a very long time...

Israel is the world leader in greenhouse farming. 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 a given place; in the subtropics it is approximately +18-20. With an increase of 7-12 degrees from the greenhouse effect, we get just the optimum for plants, including pineapples.

Only the upper zone of the underground structure of the greenhouse is a thermos, see fig. The lower one, ordinary concrete, is essentially an air conditioner. In winter, it is warmed by Mother Earth, but in summer, hot light will not flow into a hole with cool dense air. As a result, the temperature in the greenhouse can be controlled 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 temperature here is about +15, heating depends not only on the 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 to the freezing depth of at least 2 m. Already in the Rostov region, this requires a hole of 2.5 m. Secondly, peak cold weather here lasts not hours, but days . Therefore, the greenhouse volume is needed to be large. In the same Rostov region. The minimum dimensions of the pit in plan are 5x10 m.

From such a fifty, in fact, 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 national currency is always ready to willingly and joyfully register heroin as a food additive, and weapons-grade plutonium as children’s toys.

But half a ton of even small pineapples will yield about 1000 fruits individually. How much does 1 (one) pineapple cost? In a supermarket, with a branded sticker and a quality certificate for the batch? How often and how many pineapples are bought? In this situation, when will just excavating 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 insatiable desire to achieve something intrinsically unique, 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 vault there is a sliding hatch-temperature regulator with a clapper valve and a deflector that diverts the cold stream from the plants to the zone of greatest heating.

The upper firecracker should be triggered by the slightest blow back and forth, so its flap 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 firecracker still does not save you from frost, so the hatch regulator must be closed manually at night.

The dimensions indicated are minimum; the greenhouse can be made larger. If it is made in the form of a ridge, but for every full and partial 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. There is no need to pull the hood high up, it is still not a stove; minimal draft is needed here, just so that the heated air leaks through the heater.

When is minimization needed?

The mini-greenhouse is used primarily in city apartments. Here a part of an insulated balcony or loggia is allocated for it. It is better to make the 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 herbs in winter.

In plant growing, mini-greenhouses are used to create special conditions for a certain group of plants. In a regular box greenhouse, all you need to do is nail arcs made of metal-plastic pipes to the boxes and cover everything with film, on the left in Fig. For potted crops, we have to make smaller copies of large greenhouses, in the center there.

A mini-greenhouse made from bottles, on the right in the figure, will be an excellent help in gardening. higher. Due to the high concentration of light, it can be through, and fresh air has a beneficial effect on plants in the early phases of development. Besides, there’s no hassle with this: I took it outside and set it up.

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 from tires. Despite its clumsy appearance, it is high-tech: a two-stage greenhouse effect and drip irrigation are used. With skillful selection of varieties, one “auto-greenhouse” stand 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 fairly high prices and demand, in the second - a mild winter. In both cases, in general, 2 designs are possible for a small private owner.

The first is a classic trench greenhouse, only covered with polycarbonate, see fig. below. Because the frame is completely load-bearing; when calculating the coverage, take the zone number 1 less. In winter, flowers and onions are grown. By the end of February, when the mulch is almost rotten, tomatoes and cucumbers are sown and harvested at the end of April. In the summer they “greenhouse” as usual, and in the fall, when ground crops are cheap, the trenches are refilled; This is not a matter of one day, because... Fresh biofuel gets very hot at first. Then the cycle repeats.

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

It is advisable to insulate the base and blind area of ​​the dugout greenhouse, but there is no need to insulate the foundation. In the positive zone 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 warm up?

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

However, the best option for heating a greenhouse is a stove-heater like a buleryan or buller. The obliquely upward nozzles of its convector direct hot air onto the roof slopes; here it prevents them from freezing, but cools down to a comfortable temperature and falls over the plants like a warm veil, creating the effect of the height of spring. You can learn more about the features of stove heating in greenhouses from the video below.

Video: stove heating of a greenhouse

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

About lighting

Greenhouse lighting requires a separate, detailed discussion. Here we will share just a little secret: 1 special 24 W phytolamp can be replaced with 3 regular 13-15 W housekeepers with spectra at 2700K, 4100K and 6400K. The 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 must be hung so that identical spectra are not adjacent either in a row or between rows.

Finally

Let's summarize - what kind of greenhouse to build? For starters, from bottles. It will quickly, simply and cheaply allow you to learn how to run a greenhouse and experience its benefits.

Further, in temperate climates, greenhouses made of polycarbonate on a frame made of PP pipes clearly dominate. In harsh places, a wooden one, also covered with polycarbonate, is preferable. It is also good because it has minimal impact on the environment. This is vitally important on permafrost.

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When manufacturing any greenhouse, the following conditions must be met:

• good light conductivity;
• free access to plants to care for them;
• the possibility of ventilation of the internal space of the greenhouse;
• strength;
• aesthetics is an important quality, especially when it is at home, beauty always inspires.

Place for a mini-greenhouse

The place in the apartment for a mini-greenhouse should be chosen taking into account the time of year, the illumination of the place, or the possibility of installing additional lighting there. A good solution would be placement on a glazed loggia.

Types of mini-greenhouses

Mini-greenhouses vary in size, design, materials and purpose. Very small greenhouses can be used at home or on a loggia. Portable greenhouses are very convenient - with the onset of warm weather they can be easy to transport to your summer cottage. On the site, they can be moved to the right place, for example, to shelter a small area of ​​planting from bad weather, or to adapt seedlings planted in open ground.

There are greenhouses only for growing seedlings, there are those where the plant can go through the entire cycle– from seed to harvest.

But first things first.

Frame

Most mini-greenhouses are of this type, regardless of their size. Such greenhouses are the most convenient. Their design will allow all the above conditions to be met. You can make them from any available material, So it will not require any special expenses. You can grow anything in frame greenhouses, because its size depends only on the creative and engineering thought of its creator.

Greenhouse-bread bin

A very successful design from all points of view. Used as for indoor mini-greenhouses, So for large stationary greenhouses Location on. It can grow seedlings, indoor flowers, and herbs. It all depends on its size.

Growbox and thermobox

Unlike classic translucent greenhouses, this box made of opaque material with internal microclimate and lighting. Grow in growbox Anything is possible, even tropical plants.

Such a greenhouse can become an interesting part of the interior, if you make its front wall in the form of a glazed panel. Behind it you can place interesting compositions of tropical indoor plants.

Thermobox, unlike a growbox, this is completely isolated hermetically sealed system without transparent walls. Such greenhouses are high-tech and can be equipped with automatic systems for lighting, watering and maintaining the required level of humidity and temperature.

Greenhouse rack

Such home greenhouses allow you to save space, since they can be installed on top of each other. They look good on balconies and loggias and are perfect for growing indoor flowers. Although seedlings, herbs and vegetables grow just as well in it.

Wigwam

The simplest outdoor mini-greenhouse in design, which can be carried and used for different purposes. It can be used to cover young seedlings of fruit trees or bushes, or placed above ground tomato or pepper bushes in bad weather.

Portable

Lightweight designs allow them to be moved in the garden beds, in the spring from home to the dacha. They are convenient for growing seedlings and temporarily protecting plants planted in the ground.

What do we grow in a mini-structure?

First of all, seedlings. An indoor greenhouse will save a passionate gardener who misses his beds and garden greenhouses from the winter blues. There are many vegetables that you want from the very early spring. A mini-greenhouse will allow you to grow all year round garlic, enjoy fresh herbs, in spring - cherry tomatoes, in early summer - ripe strawberries.

Mini-greenhouse installed on site can be used for experiments enthusiastic breeders and for growing flowers and low-growing vegetable crops.

A mini-greenhouse will also be a good help for keen gardeners, especially those who like to experiment and grow flowers from seeds.

Do-it-yourself mini-greenhouse (small)

All of the above types of greenhouses can be made with your own hands., having the remains of building materials, coating, and fittings.

How to make a small or small (mini) greenhouse with your own hands? To make a frame you can use wood, plastic pipes, metal rod. Suitable for coating any transparent material– regular or reinforced film, polycarbonate, glass, plastic bottles. So, let's look at the instructions with photos on how to make mini (small) greenhouses for seedlings with your own hands.

Where to begin?

Before you take up the hammer and nails, carefully consider the design and necessary equipment in the greenhouse:

• make a drawing;
• calculate the number of shelves, desired height and width;
• think over the heating system;
• decide on the supplementary lighting system (where lamps will be needed);
• select materials.

Mini greenhouse with convertible top

Such a greenhouse is perfect for growing vegetables in a summer cottage; its size depends only on your needs. It is easy to manufacture and requires minimal costs. PVC pipes are used to create the frame, and film or polycarbonate is used for the covering.

1. Make a wooden box of the required size.
2. Cover the bottom with fine reinforced mesh (rodent protection).
3. Strengthen the corners of the greenhouse, they bear the main load.
4. Press the pipes to the lifting frame from the outside using screw-on clamps.
5. Attach the removable frame from one end to the box using hinges.
6. Attach restraints - belts or chains - to the box and frame to prevent the top from tipping over.

Greenhouse-bread bin

It can be made for the site and for home use. Any size can be made, depending on the need and purpose. At a summer cottage, it is used for growing seedlings and low-growing crops of peppers, standard tomatoes, and eggplants.

Its design allows make optimal use of the area under cover due to convenient access to plants. The greenhouse may have one or two lifting sides. If its width is about a meter, it is reasonable to open it twice so as not to trample on the planted bed, reaching for distant plantings. The manufacturing technology is simple:

1. Make a box of the desired size.
2. Dig a trench corresponding to the size of the box up to 50 cm deep.
3. Place the finished box in it and prepare the bottom of the greenhouse (crushed stone, fertile layer, etc.).
4. Make a frame from pipes bent into half-arcs using an industrial hair dryer.
5. Cover the frame with polycarbonate - this is the best material for such a structure. Secure it to the frame using self-tapping screws.
6. Seal the remaining gaps between the sheathing and the frame with self-adhesive sealant.
7. The ends are covered with film and covered with an aluminum profile.
8. The tightened frame is hinged to the top of the box.

The greenhouse is ready, it can be filled.

Greenhouse rack

It is used for any material, from which you can make shelves. Having built a bookcase of the desired size and height, pull a cover made of transparent material with a zipper over it. It could be greenhouse film. By unfastening the cover, you will have free access to the plants and at the same time ventilate the mini-greenhouse.

Mini-greenhouse “wigwam”

Quite simple and cheap it can be made as a disposable greenhouse. It requires 1 tall wooden block or metal tube, rods and a plastic bag of the required size.

A block is installed in the center, around it, within a radius of 0.5 m (you may need an area of ​​a different size), rods are stuck into the ground and the upper ends are connected and secured to the central block. A bag is placed on top of the structure, the bottom of which is cut off, that is, it looks like a polyethylene pipe. Its lower edges are fixed to the ground with something heavy, and the upper part is hermetically fixed to the top point of the central block.

Design easily moves around the site, But not very convenient when you need to water or feed the plant., or, as well as greenhouses. Or you can, which you can read about in more detail in one of the articles on our website.

Useful video

You can watch how to install a homemade mini-greenhouse in the video.

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

Hi all!

There is very little time left before the full-fledged gardening season begins. The seedlings have already been planted and the first shoots are appearing. And soon it will need to be planted on your site. Some are planted in open ground, and some in greenhouses.

But, before you plant your seedlings in the greenhouse, you must have it)). You can, of course, buy a greenhouse in a store, but if you are ready to make it yourself, then in this article we will look at the most common options for making it.

Select the greenhouse or project you are interested in:

Before building a greenhouse, you need to determine some points for yourself. Firstly, and this is the most important thing, what will grow in the greenhouse. The size of your structure depends on this. You can put up a large greenhouse, or you can make greenhouses. Next, we choose the place where the greenhouse will be located. And, lastly, the material from which we will make it. The most common material is wood. However, with the advent of various types of building materials, a greenhouse can also be made from plastic pipes, polycarbonate, etc.

According to the shape of the roof, greenhouses are arched, single-pitched and gable. The most common greenhouses in garden plots are gable greenhouses. This roof shape provides good illumination.

Consider the option of a greenhouse that is made of wood. Wood is the best, most profitable and affordable material. Of course, it is also best susceptible to environmental influences. Therefore, when building a greenhouse, it is necessary to take this factor into account and choose a material for your structure, preferably from hard wood, as well as treat all elements and parts of the greenhouse with various preservatives.

On a note:

Which tree species are considered hard and which are soft? Hardwoods include most deciduous trees, while conifers include larch and swamp cypress. Soft woods are pine, spruce, alder, linden, and aspen.

If your greenhouse is temporary, then you can use inexpensive softwood and practically not spend money on processing it.

If you are installing a greenhouse for a long time, then, in addition to suitable wood, you will need to prepare a foundation. Foundations for greenhouses are different. You can choose the most suitable one depending on the design of your greenhouse.

Foundation made of timber or railway sleepers.We prepare a trench in which we lay timber or sleepers on the roofing paper. Everything is connected with metal brackets. After this, the frame is installed.

If strong winds prevail in your area, then a columnar foundation is suitable for you. The concrete foundation is laid deep enough to help keep the greenhouse in place even if a hurricane hits.To build such a foundation, you will need pipes with a diameter of 20 cm, which must be installed in the ground below the frost line (from 90 cm to 1.2 m). If your greenhouse measures 3x6 m (usually this is the standard), then you will need to install 6 poles. The beams are placed on them and connected to each other and to the frame in the same way as in the previous method.

Block foundation. A trench is dug around the perimeter of your greenhouse, into which concrete blocks are laid on a gravel-sand bed. Cement mortar is used to secure them. And already on top of these blocks a frame of large cross-section beams is attached

Strip foundations are installed for large greenhouses, as they can withstand heavy loads. Such a foundation is a concrete pad with a thickness of 30 to 50 cm, poured into a shallow trench. The service life of such a foundation is quite long, so greenhouses on it can be replaced if necessary.

After the foundation is ready, we begin assembling the greenhouse frame. There are quite a lot of options. As mentioned earlier, there are arched, single and gable greenhouses. It is important to choose one that will meet your requirements and the requirements of the area where you will install it. First of all, it all depends on what you are going to grow in the greenhouse and how long it will serve you.

The most optimal (however, standard, found in most gardeners) rectangular greenhouse measuring 3x6 m, with a gable roof. Such a greenhouse is most often covered with plastic film. Many, however, use polycarbonate. But it depends on the possibilities. Polyethylene, of course, will be cheaper. However, it will have to be changed every season.

It is best to start assembling the frame of the future greenhouse by assembling separate sections located parallel to the front and rear walls of the greenhouse. The number of such sections depends on the length of the structure, as well as on the required reliability (the more sections, the less sagging and greater stability).

If you use polycarbonate to cover the greenhouse, then the number of sections will depend on the width of this covering (210 cm). The sections, for example, can be placed at a distance of 0.5-1 m from each other. The dimensions of the sections themselves will be as follows: 1.5-1.6 m for the side walls, 3-meter bars for connecting the upper part and 1.75 m bars for the roof slopes. However, you can choose the sizes yourself.

Below are several schemes from which you can choose the most suitable one for yourself. For example, I was interested in these particular schemes (which is why I took them). But based on all these schemes, I want to make one for myself, according to which I will build my greenhouse.

The figure above shows not only the diagram of the greenhouse, but also the list of materials needed for its construction, as well as their dimensions and consumption. This list is intended for standard sizes of 6x2.8 m, however, based on these data, you can calculate the amount of material needed for your size.

Stages of greenhouse construction

As you can see, this is a standard trapezoidal house-shaped greenhouse (with a gable roof). There will be a door at one of the ends (the back of the picture).

We start by installing the supporting beam. As a rule, it is taken for this purpose somewhat wider than the one from which the frame is made. We treat with an antiseptic. This beam is attached to the foundation using metal anchor bolts and reinforcement.

The main thing to remember is that the base of the greenhouse should be a solid beam, and not fastened sections. The stability of the greenhouse depends on this.

So, we’ve attached the base to the foundation, let’s move on to the frame itself, and start making it from the walls.

The figure below shows a diagram of a finished wall measuring 5.4 x 1.5 m. There are two such walls, and two end ones. In this diagram, the timber is fastened using grooves. To attach other frame elements you will need self-tapping screws, a metal profile, a corner, and clamps.

Next we move on to installing the rafters. There can be any number of them, but the more, the better the strength and reliability of the roof, as well as. Easier to attach the covering material. We also make grooves in the rafters (see picture).

There is such a thing as a rafter leg. The size of this leg depends on the height of the person. If your height is average, then the length of the rafter leg is 1.27 m, and if you are tall, then 1.35 cm.

In general, the length of the rafter leg is directly related to the width of the covering material: the width of the polyethylene film sleeve is 3 m, and when unfolded it is 6 m. Based on this, the sum of the lengths of two rafter legs and two uprights should be about 5.8 m. As a result By using polyethylene film measuring 6 x 6 m, you will avoid excess pieces that go to waste.

The number of rafters usually corresponds to the number of racks.

After the rafters have been attached to the side wall posts, we move on to installing the roof ridge (attached to the top groove of the rafters) and wind boards (attached to the side grooves of the rafters). In the general diagram of the greenhouse (first picture), these boards are highlighted in dark color. These three elements of the greenhouse should be made only from solid material.

And finally, when everything is ready, we install a door at the end, and here, or at the opposite end, a window.

That's probably all about installing a greenhouse. Now it can be covered with covering material. Previously, the covering material was mainly polyethylene, sometimes glass. Now they use polycarbonate.

Greenhouse made of polycarbonate and plastic pipes. We do it ourselves

With the development of technology, new materials for construction have appeared. Nowadays, plastic pipes are quite actively used in the construction of greenhouses. It should be noted that I make small greenhouses in my garden only from such pipes. Pipes come in the following types: PVC, polypropylene and metal-plastic.

PVC pipes are the cheapest, but they are all quite easy to install. Therefore, the choice of pipes is yours. The only thing I would like to note is that metal-plastic is somewhat more reliable.

In addition, using plastic pipes, you can already give your greenhouse any shape (which is difficult to do in a wooden one).

Before you start building a greenhouse, you, as in the case of a wooden one, choose what you will plant in it and the place where it will stand. Based on this, you prepare a drawing of the greenhouse in order to purchase the required amount of material from it.

Below is an approximate diagram of such a greenhouse with mounting options.

Based on this, we select the required amount of material. For the above scheme, the material consumption will be as follows (prices may vary):

After this, you decide whether your greenhouse will be permanent or temporary (portable). If you are installing it for a long time, then it is best to make a strip or columnar foundation for it. If you install it without a foundation, then you need to dig in metal pins. They should protrude 30 centimeters above the ground surface. It will be necessary to put the greenhouse frame on them. To do this, we put pipes on these pins. If the height of the greenhouse is 4 meters, then the length of the attached pipe will be 6 meters. We bend the pipe, forming an arc and put it on the pins of the opposite side.

To secure the installed arcs to each other, we take a pipe of the same length as the planned greenhouse. If there is no pipe of this length, then we connect two pipes to each other. After that, we place it in the center of the arcs and fix it with clamps.

The frame is assembled. Now we assemble the coating, for which we use polycarbonate. We choose sheets with a thickness of at least 4 mm. Their size will be 2.1x6 m.

We fasten these sheets with an overlap. The joints can be sealed with special tape. We connect the sheets with thermal washers or self-tapping screws with wide heads.

Now all we have to do is attach the polycarbonate sheets to the greenhouse.

Polycarbonate is a fairly flexible material. This allows you to cut it and install it without any effort. In addition, polycarbonate is attractive for use due to its strength and resistance to atmospheric adversity.

Standard sheets for greenhouses are 6 and 8 mm, for greenhouses - 4 mm, and for a winter greenhouse - 10 mm.

To attach the polycarbonate to the frame, you can use so-called plastic earrings or aluminum staples. The figure below shows a diagram of such a fastening.

Another option for fastening polycarbonate is the use of profiles. Before attaching the screws to the metal frame, we drill holes in advance, and then attach the polycarbonate to the screws. Self-tapping screws with thermal washers are best suited, since they have a wide support area, and, in addition, this will make it possible to keep the carbonate intact and prevent condensation from appearing.

The figure below shows self-tapping screws for fastening polycarbonate.

A simple greenhouse made from window frames. How to build with your own hands?

Another option for a greenhouse that can often be seen in garden plots is a greenhouse made from window frames. This is also an easy and inexpensive project. However, it is good if you have a sufficient number of these same frames. If your frames are made of glass, then you are installing a glass greenhouse. If your frames are empty, then after installing it you cover the frames with plastic wrap.

So, before installing the greenhouse, we prepare the foundation for it. We install a wooden frame made of timber or boards on it. It is best to use timber 50X50 mm, and boards 40 mm thick.

The frame consists of racks, upper and lower trim. The lower and upper trims are made from identical boards. The racks are installed at a distance from each other so that the window frame fits between them.

The roof frame must be strong enough. It is better to make the roof gable, with additional supports under the ridge, so that it does not collapse in winter under the weight of snow. It is best to use timber for the roof.

Frames are installed using both nails and screws. Each frame must be secured both outside and inside, on four sides. If there are gaps between the frames, they are sealed with polyurethane foam.

It is best to make the roof from polycarbonate, or stretch a film over it. This way, your roof will be completely transparent and there will be enough light. But if you are making it from frames, then it is better to start installing the frames from the roof, and not from the side walls. Otherwise, a tool or other material that accidentally falls may break the glass.

At the end of the greenhouse we make a door, which also represents a frame. So we installed a greenhouse. Now you can use it for its intended purpose.

Do-it-yourself greenhouse from a profile

Another modern material that has become actively used by skilled builders is profile. The advantage of a profile greenhouse is that both the size and shape of the greenhouse can be made to whatever you like.

The figure below shows a diagram of a standard profile greenhouse.

To build such a greenhouse you will need the following tools: metal scissors, tape measure, building level and plumb line, screwdriver.

Having drawn up a diagram of the greenhouse, you can begin assembling it. As described in previous projects, we start with the foundation.

You select the size of the greenhouse based on the size of the polycarbonate that will serve as its covering. You can also choose the roof at your discretion: arched or pitched. It is better to make a pitched one in the form of a house (gable). Then there will be much more lighting.

According to the diagram, you cut the profile into the required size elements. Connect these elements together with metal screws.

You start installing the frame with the guides. We screw them to the foundation with self-tapping screws. The frame itself consists of sections that are connected to each other by a common upper beam. The pitch between sections should be such as to ensure sufficient structural rigidity. Basically, it is equal to the width of the polycarbonate sheet divided by 3 or 4.

Assembly of the front and rear walls occurs in the same way as sections. However, they are reinforced by vertical posts. We make an entrance in the front wall. We screw the door hinges to one of the racks, and from the profile we assemble a door frame, which we also cover with polycarbonate.

When the sections and walls (front and back) are ready, screw them to the guides.

We attach the polycarbonate in the same way as in the previous version (a greenhouse made of pipes and polycarbonate).

That’s probably all that concerns the manufacture and installation of greenhouses from the most common and popular materials. I would like to wish you good luck in making it, so that there are no unnecessary difficulties, and a good harvest. You can, of course, buy a ready-made greenhouse, but, you see, growing a good harvest in a greenhouse you assembled with your own hands is much more pleasant.