Viewing post #693045 by cycadjungle

RickCorey said:
>> I built my first greenhouse in 1989 and every few years I had to build another one.

I have read many people say that no greenhouse is ever big enough: gardeners always fill them and want more space. I guess you proved that true and then some!

It was especially true with my third greenhouse. That one is 36x48x12. I built it and I was so proud of it. I took some pictures of this huge empty space after I was finished and thought this one is going to be good for a long time to come. I started moving cycads in it and it was jam packed in two weeks, and I still needed space. I always need more irrigated space. Just with cycads, I have about 30,000, yet alone, everything else.

>> all of these went through 3 good sized hurricanes in a 3 week period several years ago, where all three eyes of these storms were 12 miles or closer to my location. Worst was 125 mph sustained wind. The plastic was shredded, and each greenhouse had 2 or 3 minor boards that needed replacing, but they did great.

Wow! Did that shred your cycads or peppers? It's impressive that the frame stayed up.

All the plants inside the greenhouses were fine. I wasn't growing peppers back then, but they would have been fine too. What happened parts of the plastic ripped but some stayed on top. As the rain kept coming down (about 18 inches average per storm) in one place, or square, as I call each part, the plastic gets filled we with water and it looks like a bath tub of water hanging down. From the weight of the water, one 2x4 broke away to relieve the pressure. So after it was all over with, all I had to do is replace one board and the greenhouses were fixed. Once the plastic was gone, the frame won't come down because there is nothing to catch the wind. However, to this day, if you look at number 3 and look at the posts, they aren't plumb any more. All the posts lean about 3 inches out of plumb, bit all the posts are tied together. I don't put concrete in the holes when I put the posts in. If I had done that, maybe even all of them could have snapped off.

>> The shade cloth stays on all the time.

That sounds odd to me, but I've almost always lived pretty far north. Is shade cloth really desirable, even in winter?

Sounds like a question from a person who lives up north! Winter is not all dreary down here. We might get a front for a couple of days every once in a while that it is cloudy, but for the most part, it is nice and sunny down here in the winter. The shade cloth helps all year.

That post would make a good article, just as it is. Or maybe a few more photos for people who don't visualize well. It looks to me like a "50-acorn article"!