Soilless Greenhouse

The above photo shows the progress the plants have made since my post of March 28,2009. All of the warm weather plants are progressing nicely. The peppers, eggplant and strawberries are either flowering or setting fruit. The lettuce is almost ready to harvest, and another batch is germinating. The flowers for the garden have been started and are entering the vegetative stage.

Cucumber seeds are germinating, as is a batch of chard destined to be grown in an ebb and flow system. The plants on the floor in trays are intended for the garden, and I will have to deal with them for at least another month.

The greenhouse is now fully operational and as I call it on autopilot. There is a small electric oil filled heater on a timer that turns on at eight in the evening until eight in the morning. I am no longer running any lights for indoor gardening, so the trade in power consumption is most likely a wash.

The drippers and ebb and flow systems are on timers and the Autopots are connected to their respective reservoirs. Automatic vent openers operate both vents, so the only daily maintenance is to run nutrients through the plans in trays that are intened for the garden. In another month they will have been planted, and from then on there will be little if any daily maintenance required.

The weather today is cloudy and gloomy with an outside air temperature of 50 degrees. In the greenhouse the temperature is ten degrees higher with a comfortable, for plants, humidity level of 59 per cent. Even with the cloudy conditions the light level measures slightly less than 2000 foot candles.

Considering that I am kind of "making it up as I go along", I am satisfied with the progress so far. Again, time will tell....