We've started looking for greenhouse kits, we would like a large greenhouse, probably ~40 feet long. While searching for kits we are seeing all sorts of options and prices.

Are there manufacturers we should stay away from? Are there manufacturers you all in this forum like?

The greenhouse will need to be pretty sturdy since we are in Kansas and we get lots of wind. Also we would prefer one that is fairly insulated.

Thanks.

A lot depends upon how warm you want to keep your greenhouse and how hard you want to work to keep it that temperature. For that size, will you need a building permit?

My greenhouse is a kit from Charley's Greenhouse. It was expensive but built by a company in Canada and designed to withstand 130 mph winds. I keep it above 50 degrees (it usually stays above about 55) in winter because I grow orchids and tropicals. I can easily heat it with a small utility heater. It has 5 wall polycarbonate panels. My daughter (who also lives in Reno) has a twin wall greenhouse which she heats with a small utility heater. She attempts to keep it above freezing but it does freeze inside a few times each winter. But she is growing citrus and has an aquaponic system so those temperatures are not a problem.

Daisyl, thank you for the info. My hope is to use it during the winter, might even put some tropical stuff in there, so probably above 50/55 at night. We are looking at some geothermal systems to help control temps. I don't know that it needs to withstand 130mph but probably a good 70 or 80 mph wind gusts. Would you mind giving me a link to your kit?

I started at Charley's Greenhouse but my particular greenhouse was all custom. This is the link to the glazing used. Skip down to 16mm (5/8") Super 5X-Wall Storm

https://charleysgh.com/product...

What's Charleys is showing now is nothing like mine. They used to have about 20 different designs and now seem to have 3.

My greenhouse is heated by a solar hot water system. Its not as efficent as I was led to believe as there's not a lot of heat and sun in the winter (but well worth it to see the smile on my techno-nerd husband's face). The only reason the solar system works well in winter is the the giant Polaris burner heating water at a pretty low price. The utility heater as a back up hasn't been needed too often.

I have a small dome greenhouse. They make some nice large ones. It is engineered to withstand very high winds and they are good in very cold climates. Check these out.
https://growingspaces.com/?inf...

Thanks for the link to the Polycarbonate, that actually looks very nice. I wonder if I can just find plans for a diy greenhouse that will use those.

I looked at the dome, I can see how it helps on windy areas, but why is it better for cold climates?

It has an inside pond of water that holds heat and releases it at night. It has an undersoil piping setup that takes warm daytime air and pumps it under the soil bed to keep things warmer. Check out their greenhouses that are on their Colorado property. They are often buried in snow, but they grow food all winter.

I have to use supplementary heating because I want to grow tropical plants. It hasn't been very expensive even though I use electric. Many greenhouses can use propane, or even wood heat.

Per the question about cold climate domes, domes have the highest volume to surface ratio, so they theoretically lose less heat per volume enclosed. Effectively using that volume can be difficult for some because of the round edges, though. I have very happy with my dome.

Paul, maybe I'm thinking of someone else, but didn't you build your own dome GH? If so, did you have a thread about the construction of it?

Do you want to use your greenhouse for three seasons and shut it down in winter?

A four-season greenhouse needs to be sheathed with multilayer polycarbonate. Our local climate is savage, so I chose six-wall (R 3.8) for the roof and three-wall for the sides. The north side is the wall of our garage. If you choose a stand-alone greenhouse, a well-insulated wall that doesn't transmit light would be best.

Besides extreme cold, we get lots of strong, erratic winds. Kit greenhouses with light aluminum frames tend to rack (flex) with the wind, which loosens the joints and can eventually shatter glass or poly panels. I've watched a neighbor's kit greenhouse disintegrate over the years.


Mine is stick-built, framed with 2 x lumber, and I added diagonal braces of steel strap to prevent racking. 12 years and no problems.

Weedwhacker said:Paul, maybe I'm thinking of someone else, but didn't you build your own dome GH? If so, did you have a thread about the construction of it?

I did, though I didn't use a kit, so I thought it might be off-topic in this thread, and the link to information is in my signature line, so it seemed redundant. I originally documented the process on Dave's Garden while I built it, and then I moved the information to Cubits when I followed Dave there (and was locked out of my own threads on Dave's Garden for a time). Finally, I cleaned it up a bit and posted it on Instructables so that it could all appear in a single document.

https://www.instructables.com/...

My bad for not noticing the link! At any rate, not a kit but definitely a good reference for anyone interested in putting up a dome GH

I would also say that Chip's GH is a good model for anyone looking to grow in a cold climate

I can't tell from the picture, but a lot of greenhouses built like Chip's allow venting at the roof seam, which I really like. The better we insulate our greenhouses for the cold, the more they heat up in the summer, and the high temps are hard on the structure as well as the stuff in them.

psa said:I can't tell from the picture, but a lot of greenhouses built like Chip's allow venting at the roof seam, which I really like. The better we insulate our greenhouses for the cold, the more they heat up in the summer, and the high temps are hard on the structure as well as the stuff in them.

True. We have brilliant sunlight here at 8000 ft. Good in winter but in summer it can overheat the space. The clerestory upper vents (with thermal pistons) are aligned across the prevailing wind, which creates a suction that, with low corner vents, allows effective passive cooling.

I also use reflective shade cloths.

Paul, thanks for the link to your cedar dome instructable. It's very good.
Your design and covering addresses the difficult issue of covering in a laudable fashion, I think.
The use of cedar solves the wood rotting issue, and the heavy woven cover for the outer layer, with plastic furring strips seems an excellent design.

Given your experience in tackling tough covering issues and obvious skill, I wonder if you had any thoughts about EMT conduit dome covering? EMT domes are very cheap and are well suited to high winds, but covering without using two outer layers of plastic and a blower is a serious problem. Relying on a lot of tape at my elevation of 5600ft seems unwise; the UV levels are very rough on tapes and acrylic adhesives.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Bruce M

This thread is titled "Greenhouse Kits" and was started by mntgoat to ask what kits we had used. We have other greenhouse threads talking about DIY greenhouse builds.

DaisyI said:This thread is titled "Greenhouse Kits" and was started by mntgoat to ask what kits we had used. We have other greenhouse threads talking about DIY greenhouse builds.

That's alright, very interesting stuff and diy isn't out of the question for me at this point.

That's good to hear as this conversation has been hijacked.

I would have liked it to stay on the topic of "Greenhouse Kits" because that was a unique discussion. Every thread in this Forum ends up talking DIY. I'm not against that but for some of us, its not an option. It would be nice to hear what the "Kit" people are doing once in awhile.

The older and slower I get the more attractive the kits seem, but so far I've never bought one, chiefly because of expense. I would love to put up a growing spaces dome, for instance, but I just can't justify the cost over building it from scratch. I've worked in a lot of different kinds of greenhouses, and even purchased large hoop houses used, and perhaps I've become opinionated about what I like and dislike in their construction and operation.

Someday I dream of putting up a really large dome by someone who has done all of the engineering and diagrams that would satisfy permitting and insurance for a public garden. On the other end of the spectrum I almost purchased a harbor freight special for a dedicated cold house this year. And, if I ever find a new location for my nursery business (real estate is insane around here lately), I'll likely have to purchase full kits just for the needed scale.

So, I came here to see what was being recommended, responded to the comment on the benefits of domes, and really didn't mean to hijack the thread. I'm sure we could start a thread elsewhere if people want to discuss that (but I've never owned a metal dome and don't have any idea how I'd cover one...).

https://www.greenhousecatalog....

Have the arched type as shown in above catalog for over 30 years. It's held up thru all types of weather.

Has all the bells and whistles that can be added thru the catalog .
Also have a small heater for winters.

Easy peasy to build, my son and I built it. Was fun 🤩. Be sure to have access to electricity,
Water etc. I have lights for flowering plants and lights for green plants/seedlings, that come with their own ballasts and shade cloth. Just power wash every couple of years and it still looks like new…