[HN Gopher] Sunken Greenhouse
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Sunken Greenhouse
Author : simonebrunozzi
Score : 56 points
Date : 2023-01-06 18:59 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (thetinylife.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (thetinylife.com)
| irrational wrote:
| Seems like this would only be useful if you just happen to have a
| south facing hillside on your property that receives moderate
| sunlight.
| a9h74j wrote:
| Aren't there many similar bermed (plus very-wide) greenhouses in
| China, including motorized deploument of insulated covers at
| night?
| prawn wrote:
| I visited a very high-tech greenhouse a couple of years ago
| here in Australia and one of their solutions was very low-tech:
| in summer, to manage the heat somewhat, they sprayed the glass
| roof/walls with a chalky mixture which impeded heat coming
| through slightly.
| NathanielBaking wrote:
| Yes. I suggest the book "The Chinese Greenhouse". A very
| straightforward look at constructing a partially sunken
| greenhouse.
|
| Chiras, D. D., Chiras, F., & Rao, A. (2020). The chinese
| greenhouse: Design and build a low-cost, passive solar
| greenhouse. New Society Publishers.
| seiferteric wrote:
| Hmm I had a similar idea to this because I want to be able to
| grow cilantro in the summer without it bolting which it does when
| it gets hot here. I was thinking I could dig a pit or trench and
| cover it with plastic or glass and hopefully keep it relatively
| cool in the summer when its 100+ degrees outside.
| lief79 wrote:
| The easier approach to try first is just to plant it on the
| shady side of something that grows tall. Mine did much better
| this year mulched and growing in the shadow of tomatoes,
| cucumbers etc.
|
| I also confirmed that I've got too much sun for my cucumbers,
| and that they do better with some shade.
|
| I suspect you're hotter than Philadelphia though.
| prawn wrote:
| My parsley would always bolt and this has been the first year
| it's been excellent - in the most shaded of my garden beds.
| Coriander in that same bed still bolts though!
| seiferteric wrote:
| Ya, shade helps a bit but not enough, that's why I was
| thinking of the trench idea because during the summer
| cilantro is impossible here. I really want salsa with all
| my own tomatoes, jalapenos, onions and cilantro at the same
| time though!
| ______ wrote:
| If you're ever near Taos, New Mexico, check out the Earth Ships
| -- a community of homes each built around a similar concept, with
| a large thermal mass and south-facing windows allowing year-round
| gardening.
| kingsloi wrote:
| If this interests you, I recommend checking out this video of
| Russ Finch, a farmer who grows citruses (orange, lemons, etc),
| figs, pomegranates in his sunken greenhouse in the middle of
| Nebraska in the snow/20F, and uses geothermal heating (long tubes
| buried underground) to heat it (and his house) during the winter
| months, and cool in the summer months. Really interesting
| story/concept and I'm hoping to replicate on a small scale when I
| renovate my back yard in the coming years.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD_3_gsgsnk
| simonebrunozzi wrote:
| Wow. Love this. Thanks a lot for sharing it.
|
| I am thinking about something like that in the Venice Lagoon,
| Italy.
| dejv wrote:
| There is also Trail Break Farms channel[1] that document his
| experience with growing inside this greenhouse.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/@trailbreakfarms/videos
| kingsloi wrote:
| awesome, thanks for sharing!
| mcnugget wrote:
| The tubes are called earth tubes or ground-earth heat
| exchangers. If you look for geothermal heating you'll end up
| getting the wrong information, mostly for ground source heat
| pumps. The earth tubes aren't strictly speaking geothermal
| though, they're massive thermal reservoirs that you're taping
| into. You extract heat and then putting it back later either
| from day-night cycles or seasonal cycles.
| cmrdporcupine wrote:
| A friend/acquaintance of mine who lives a few miles from me
| built a setup based on this, here in southern Ontario. It's
| pretty neat. Big tubes into the ground and fans to run into/out
| of them to circular air from ground heat storage.
|
| Ended up costing him quite a bit to build even though he did a
| lot of the work himself. But he does have a full season growing
| setup though, and a swimming pool in there. Not sure how much
| if any supplemental heating he uses; but he's got various
| citrus, bananas, etc. growing.
| kingsloi wrote:
| wow, sounds incredible! He should blog his experience - I'd
| watch it!
| steve-benjamins wrote:
| No way! Do you think he'd be interested in visitors? I'm in
| southern Ontario and I've wanted to visit Russ Finch's for a
| long time but would love to see something closer to home...
| cmrdporcupine wrote:
| I haven't spoken to him in a while, but I could ask. I
| think he's mulled it over before and spoken of touring to
| the local area (Hamilton) permaculture guild, so he might
| be open to it. I can try to reach out.
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