Market Farming

[bcluton AT aol.com]

As someone mentioned before it's perhaps best to look for greenhouse / hoophouse suppliers in your region.  Shipping costs can be significant.

Ledgewood Farms in New Hampshire is said to make really high quality frames.  I believe Rimol Greenhouse is also out of New Hampshire.  And XS Smith and Paul Boer greenhouses both have a strong presence in New York and New England.  

You may be able to track down used frames.  There is a bit of time and cost involved in finding, moving and getting hardware -etc.  We recently picked up a used frame at a pretty good value.  Finding used frames is sometimes a trick.  We pretty heavily scout Craig's List and you may also contact local landscaping organizations - etc.  It seems to me that the high cost of fuel oil, etc. in the past year has put more used frames on the market and/or left more potentially available used frames standing empty around the countryside.

Another potential consideration depending on your intended size and construction accumen is a wood framed greenhouse.  In Vermont I imagine you can find a mill that cuts rough sawn hemlock and/or tamarack.  Both are really rot resistant and tend to be fairly affordable.  Just be sure that your ultimate dimensions will work for the glazing available on the market.

With regards to wood stove heat its like folks have been saying.  Depending on the size and scale it may prove a logistical problem.(or at-least a sleep problem in spring)  Wood boilers - etc. are probably a great idea if the scale warrants it.  

That said we've heated our lone seedling house (wood framed - roughly 15 x 30) with a old large woodstove.  A big firebox is key.  We picked it up cheap out of an old barn.  It has worked really well.  The beauty of a wood stove in a house of that size is the fact that we can really REALLY crank the heat to get crops germinated in late winter.  A good sound damper lets us tone down the heat and reduce our trips to load the firebox once things are germinated. Alternating clouds and sun during the day can be a pain and result either a cooler than intended house or an overworked ventilation system.  We purchased a thermometer with a remote sensor and alarm to help ease worries about the fire dying or something overnight.(not a bad idea with any heating unit I suppose)  This thermometer also allows you to track temperature through time.  This really helped answer some questions about how temperatures fluctuated overnight - etc.

We're building a larger heated greenhouse at the moment and are exploring options for heat ourselves.  I'm still drawn to wood for many reasons but also recognize some of its inefficiencies.  Not to mention it can be a bit difficult to control temperatures.  There is an achilles heel to any energy option.  So I suppose its a matter of trade offs, your farms system, and availability and cost of various "fuels".

Good luck,

Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: SUE WELLS <farmersue AT verizon.net>
To: 'Market Farming' <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 8:14 am
Subject: [Market-farming] greenhouses

What greenhouses do you all think are the best ones? And what about wood
stoves in them? 
Thank you all very much.
Sue
Vermont


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