Your greenhouse can be designed to suit your individual growing needs and whether you prefer tropical, working, alpine, vines or orchids there are a wide range of structural details that can be made to optimise your growing environment.
Clearly, a tropical house will have higher demands for heating than one used for the general production of salad and vegetable crops. Alpines on the other hand require cool temperatures and maximum ventilation.
If your interest is in orchids and you are seeking the perfect display house for your collection, you will know these exotic blooms have varying needs depending on the species, often requiring lots of shade. Vines too have particular requirements, traditionally their roots should be planted outside and strong wires will be needed inside the greenhouse to support the vine as it grows.
All these needs, and others too numerous to list, can be accommodated when planning your greenhouse.
In addition to designing the perfect structure to fit in your garden, our experts will help design a greenhouse that provides the perfect growing environment for your plants.
For example, if you want to house tropical foliage, large display areas will be designed for this. If your passion is for vines and fruit such as nectarines and figs, a lean-to structure against a wall is recommended for the extra warmth it provides. Maximum airflow through the building, combined with a long sloping roof, also reduces the chance of fungal disease.
The number of independent sections, the overall size, heating and environmental controls installed ultimately affects the conditions available for growing a variety of plants.
Greenhouse ventilation works together with shading, heating and damping-down to maintain greenhouse temperature and humidity. Ventilation is key in Alitex greenhouses and we work on the basis that a greenhouse should have ventilation equivalent to 17% of the floor area.
Our greenhouse design incorporates vents in the roof and sides, which, when combined with a steeply pitched roof and low eaves, create a ‘chimney effect’ for optimum growing conditions.
While ventilation is unlikely to be an issue in winter, in summer an unmanaged greenhouse can quickly overheat, with disastrous consequences. On a hot summer’s day greenhouse ventilation alone may not be adequate. It can simply lower humidity, drying out and damaging your plants. Under these circumstances greenhouse ventilation must be used in conjunction with shading to manage the environment.
Ventilation is a vital factor in choosing the right greenhouse: a greenhouse without adequate ventilation is a waste of money. Even a small 7” by 11” greenhouse needs at least two large ventilation panels and even then, on sunny days, you might need to leave the door open.
Depending on your needs our designs can incorporate greenhouse ventilation systems ranging from simple, temperature-sensitive vents that open automatically in response to the external temperature, to sophisticated computerised climate control systems.
Greenhouse heating, along with irrigation and ventilation, are important for a properly functioning greenhouse. As well as maintaining the optimum temperature, greenhouse heating ensures the right levels of humidity for your plants.
Several factors dictate the type and size of greenhouse heating system required. These include: the temperature you want to maintain; the lowest temperature you expect the weather to drop to and the size of the greenhouse. Alitex works in partnership with greenhouse heating experts Harrier Heating to advise on and install the ideal system for your requirements.
As a general guide, structures under 34m2 can be adequately heated with an electric heating system, usually fan heaters. These systems are cost-effective to install and generally low-maintenance. The disadvantages are that they can be expensive to run in winter, produce dry heat and can create ‘hot spots’. A wet system with pipes coming from a boiler is considerably more expensive but creates a steady temperature and a moist environment.
For more information please contact Harrier Heating.
There are many levels of greenhouse irrigation systems. One step up from manual watering is simple siphon irrigation. Using a reservoir supplied by a precision mains drip-feed, water is delivered to each plant pot via a pipe fitted with a nozzle. The nozzles are adjustable to ensure that this greenhouse irrigation system delivers the desired amount of water to each plant.
Moving up a level or two in sophistication is the capillary bench method of greenhouse irrigation. This system involves water seeping up from a perforated pipe buried in a bed of sand on the greenhouse bench. Any reasonably skilled DIY enthusiast should be able to construct a system like this.
Understandably, electronic greenhouse irrigation systems offer the greatest potential for watering sophistication. They can be programmed to ensure precise watering relative to the environmental conditions, and can even deliver plant feed if required. Alarms can be built-in to warn of conditions such as undesirable pH changes and you can even be alerted to system failure, ensuring that your prized plants are not at risk.
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