All summer residents are familiar with this picture: May, it’s warm, the sun is shining brightly, there are first shoots of an early planting, the next morning you look out the window, and snow fell there. Of course, this is not a very favorable phenomenon, which will negatively affect yields, especially on crops that are sensitive to sudden changes in temperature. If you are waiting for an early harvest to sell, then losses cannot be avoided. But getting out of this situation is quite real. It will not be possible to stop the snow, but to protect the seedlings from it is within the power of everyone. For this, a greenhouse is being built.

You can find many original ideas on how and from what to build it. We offer to figure out how to build a greenhouse using polycarbonate. The article will present options for its arrangement, tell what foundation can be built, what to make the frame from and how to mount polycarbonate. We are sure that after reading the material you will be convinced that it is possible to make a polycarbonate greenhouse on your own.

Varieties of types and forms of greenhouses

Today you can find different forms of greenhouses. Most Popular:

• arched;
• tented.

Between themselves, they differ in the shape of the roof. There are also other differences, they are listed in the table:

Greenhouse comparison
The name of this greenhouse speaks for itself. The shape of the roof is semicircular. This is a kind of tunnel with walls. For this shape, polycarbonate is an ideal shelter option. It bends easily, forming a smooth arc.	Its production is carried out from separate blocks. On average, the height of the building reaches 2500 mm, sometimes higher. Length and width are determined individually. The shape of the roof is predominantly gable.

Some greenhouses are not built for growing certain crops directly in the ground. In this case, the construction of special racks and shelves will be required.

There are options for greenhouses with removable insulating shields. For example, they can be removed during the warm season. When it gets colder, removable shields are installed in their place, and they protect the plants from cold and precipitation.

In any case, regardless of the chosen form of construction, the following must be considered:

• The greenhouse must be durable and functional.
• All plants must be freely accessible.

Dome-shaped polygonal greenhouses attract with their originality and shape. Their manufacturing process is laborious. Moreover, it is extremely difficult to sheathe them with polycarbonate.

Important nuances of choosing an installation site

There are several important nuances that should be considered when choosing a place for installation:

• soil composition;
• landscape drawing;
• side of the world.

With regard to landscape design, it is important to take into account the nature of the terrain or the dynamics of the state of the soil. For example, if the greenhouse is installed on a slope, will it not be flooded when snow or rain melts? Also pay attention to the level of soil freezing and the level of groundwater. Values ​​should be no higher than 1.2 m, otherwise the rising water will wet the roots, which will eventually rot.

Note! If the groundwater in your area is above 1.2 meters, then it is necessary to manufacture a drainage system to remove moisture.

As for the choice of cardinal points and suitable soil, it is worth talking about this in more detail. With insufficient attention to this issue, the yield in the greenhouse can be poor. This will be discussed further.

Definition of soil for growing greenhouse plants

The soil should be relatively dry and even. If you dig a shallow hole where you plan to put a greenhouse and find clay in it, then this place is not suitable for a greenhouse. Clay retains moisture, so after each watering, the water will stand on the surface for a long time.

The ideal soil is sandy soil. If there is no sand on your site, then it is important to perform a number of additional works: dig a pit, pour sand gravel and fill in a sand cushion. A layer of fertile soil should be poured on top.

Choice of cardinal points

To begin with, it is worth noting that the correct location of the greenhouse relative to the cardinal points contributes to serious savings of your money. If the greenhouse receives enough sunlight, there will be no need for lighting. In addition, sunlight will provide the plants with the necessary heat. Agree that the organization of heating and lighting the greenhouse will require a lot of money, but finances are still needed to maintain the systems and keep them in working order.

So, there are 2 good ways to install a greenhouse relative to the cardinal points:

• from east to west;
• from North to South.

The first option is the most efficient. Thanks to this arrangement, the plants will receive sunlight throughout the day.

Note! If your greenhouse is square, then these requirements do not apply to it. Determining the cardinal points is necessary for greenhouses with dimensions of 3 × 6, 3 × 8 m and more. You can install a square greenhouse in the way that is more convenient for you.

Determination of the place in relation to buildings and trees

An important role is played by the location of the greenhouse in relation to existing outbuildings and trees. So, the shadow from the house or trees should not fall on the greenhouse. If you place a greenhouse near a tree, then foliage will accumulate on the roof of the greenhouse, preventing the penetration of sunlight into the greenhouse. You will have to constantly ensure that the roof is clean.

Having considered the main nuances of the location of the greenhouse, we propose to return to our main topic. Let's talk about the advantages of using polycarbonate, as well as the features of its choice.

Features of polycarbonate greenhouses

Traditionally, the greenhouse is covered with glass or polyethylene. These materials are affordable. However, if we compare them with the construction of polycarbonate, then the latter has a clear advantage in terms of durability. There is a very high risk that the polyethylene will break through. What’s more, it doesn’t take much effort to do so. Glass is fragile and can break. Of course, polycarbonate can also be broken, just in terms of strength and practicality, it has more advantages. If the glass breaks, fragments can get into the eyes and on exposed skin. Moreover, fragments that have fallen into the ground are very dangerous, because a large amount of work in the ground is done manually.

The advantage of such a greenhouse is that it can be made independently. We offer you to get acquainted with the pros and cons of polycarbonate greenhouses:

Advantages	Flaws
High transmittance of sunlight.	The material is flammable, which is a fire hazard.
The polycarbonate fixed on the frame of the greenhouse is resistant to mechanical stress.	In comparison with other materials, the final cost may be higher.
The plasticity of the material allows you to give the greenhouse an arched shape.
The operational period is about 20 years.
Polycarbonate is weather resistant.
Attractive appearance.
The light weight of the material does not require the manufacture of a powerful foundation.
Possibility to choose any color palette.

Which polycarbonate to choose for the greenhouse

The market offers polycarbonate in different versions. Our goal is to choose the most suitable material for the greenhouse. This is an important stage, because polycarbonate plays an important role in getting a good harvest. So, when choosing, it is worth remembering the following:

• Often you can find low-quality polycarbonate. Worst of all, it is sold under the guise of branded materials.
• Lightweight polycarbonate is on sale - it has thin walls. Its use is cost-effective in warm climates. With sudden changes in temperature, such polycarbonate will become brittle. Moreover, it will not provide sufficient strength to the greenhouse.
• Often, the indicated parameters on the packaging do not correspond to reality. For example, if a sheet thickness of 4 mm is declared, then it may turn out to be only 3.5 mm. And such polycarbonate is not recommended to buy.
• If you want to purchase wear-resistant polycarbonate, then weight plays an important role in its choice. A normal and high-quality sheet of standard sizes will have a weight of about 10 kg. Lightweight version - 8.5 kg, or even less. The latter do not differ in high strength - they are fragile.
• On high-quality polycarbonate there is always a mark on the method and method of its installation. The quality is also indicated by the presence of a special protective film against ultraviolet rays.
• High-quality polycarbonate is flexible and easy to work with. It shouldn't be too fragile.

If you are planning a large purchase of material, you can ask for documentation and a quality certificate. Usually, weight, size, manufacturer and other necessary data are indicated there.

New polycarbonate must be packed in polyethylene. On the side that is protected from ultraviolet rays, and on the edge of the elements, the corresponding marking must be present. In its absence, it is better not to buy plastic.

For the device of the greenhouse, cellular polycarbonate is most often used. And this is logical, because it is relatively transparent, it transmits up to 88% of the light, and these indicators do not decrease during operation. If we talk about impact strength, then it is 100 or more times greater than that of glass. We also highlight other features of this type of polycarbonate:

1. The thermal conductivity of a material with a thickness of 4 mm is 2 times greater than that of glass. That saves energy up to 30%. High thermal insulation is achieved due to the presence of an air gap.
2. The material is self-extinguishing, so it is considered fireproof.
3. Easy to install. The greenhouse can be given any shape.
4. The material is resistant to various atmospheric phenomena. It is recommended to use at temperatures ranging from -40°С to +120°С. During operation, it does not lose its qualities.

Now let's pay attention to the appropriate thickness of the material for the greenhouse. The optimal thickness is 8 mm. The thicker the polycarbonate, the larger the step is allowed in the crate. Thin material has a lower price, but the crate must be done with a small step, plus its impact resistance is lower.

So, when choosing polycarbonate, start from the following recommendations:

• for greenhouses - up to 4 mm;
• for a greenhouse of a small area - 6 mm;
• for the average area of ​​the greenhouse - 8 mm;
• if the greenhouse has a large vertical part, then the recommended thickness is 10 mm;
• in the case of large spans, a material with a thickness of 16 mm is recommended.

An important factor is the choice of material density. For a greenhouse, it should be 800 g / m 2. You can even determine the density visually. If in the supine position the sheets do not look skewed, do not have bends and other deformations, then the polycarbonate is of sufficient density. But it is best to ask for documentation with data on technical characteristics.

Which is better - ready-made or homemade

If you do not like to do something yourself or do not have time for that at all, then the ideal option would be to buy a ready-made greenhouse. You will purchase a complete kit, which includes a frame, fasteners, covering and the like. However, such greenhouses have a number of disadvantages, which cannot be ignored. Factory-made greenhouses often do not comply with the declared GOSTs. As a rule, such frames are less stable. Therefore, before installing them, you should make a good foundation and further strengthen the structure.

The metal frame is often corroded, and the need for repair very quickly appears. It is quite another thing when everything is made independently. Doing everything from scratch, you will never save on consumables.

Below we offer to watch the video material, where a variant of a ready-made greenhouse is provided.

Video: the process of assembling a finished greenhouse from a metal profile

Frame options for polycarbonate greenhouses

The frame can be made from different building materials. Each of them differs in quality, which affects the duration of operation. For example, a greenhouse can be made based on:

• profile pipe;
• tree;
• galvanized profile;
• polypropylene pipe, etc.

It is impossible to say unequivocally which of them is the best, because each has undeniable advantages:

Frame options for a polycarbonate greenhouse
	The material is durable. Does not corrode when exposed to moisture. The advantages include ease of installation. The structures are light in weight, so there is no need to make a heavy foundation. However, there are also disadvantages. If there is a lot of snow in your area, then the galvanized profile can bend, unable to withstand the load.
	This material is budgetary, unlike analogues. Such a frame will last more than one year. Polypropylene does not corrode. However, due to the low weight of the structure, the frame must be attached to the ground. And very reliable. Otherwise, under the influence of wind, the greenhouse may turn over.
	Also quite affordable material. Using this material, you can completely independently make a frame for a polycarbonate greenhouse. But there are some downsides here. Wood itself absorbs moisture. For this reason, it is prone to corrosion and rot. Accordingly, you need a reliable foundation, high-quality processing of the frame with an antiseptic and high-quality wood.
	This material is light weight. However, it is by far the most expensive. Given that the frame of the greenhouse requires a thick aluminum profile, in the end everything will be very expensive. Although the quality of such a frame will fully justify itself.
	This material is undeniably the best in its strength. However, to assemble such a greenhouse, a welding machine is required. Bolted connection is not the best option, although possible. To prevent the formation of corrosion, it is necessary to treat the profile pipe with a special compound. The installation process is quite laborious and requires a lot of labor.

What you should pay attention to when determining the structure of the frame:

• Plan the correct location of the windows. For normal ventilation, 2 small windows are enough.
• If the greenhouse is large, then ventilation vents should be located every 2 meters.
• It is often necessary to think about the organization of lighting, especially if you are growing vegetables for seedlings.
• Correctly calculate the number of sections and arcs in the future frame. Remember, the strength of the frame depends on the section of the profile. The step between each section should not exceed 700 mm. Although today you can find ready-made greenhouses with a step between arcs of up to 2000 mm. This is not the most durable option.
• Correctly select the thickness of the polycarbonate. We discussed the details of this process above.

So, these are the main nuances that should be taken into account when forming the frame structure.

Foundation manufacturing options

Like any other building, the greenhouse must also be located on the foundation. It just may differ in the material used. It is worth noting that the base under the greenhouse should perform several important functions, including:

• providing a reliable basis for the frame;
• preventing direct contact of the frame wall with the ground, which provokes heat loss up to 10%;
• exclusion of moisture penetration into the greenhouse;
• preventing the penetration of moles, shrews and other "uninvited guests" into the greenhouse.

We suggest that you familiarize yourself with several types of foundations that are successfully used in the construction of a polycarbonate greenhouse:

• tape;
• wood;
• columnar.

We offer step-by-step construction instructions for each type of foundation. Of course, you may know other methods, but we will describe the most accessible and common.

Tape

This type of base has a high degree of strength. You can mount a frame for a greenhouse on it from any building material. In addition, it provides excellent protection against the penetration of cold and excessive moisture. The manufacture of such a foundation is carried out in several successive stages, which are reflected in the table:

Stages of work	Instruction
Stage #1	To begin with, the marking of the strip foundation is performed. To do this, pegs are installed around the perimeter. To get the correct size, measure the diagonals and the corners themselves. The diagram shows how to perform these processes: For a polycarbonate greenhouse, a foundation with a width of 250 mm to 400 mm will be enough.
Stage #2	Now, after marking, it is necessary to carry out earthworks. The trench along the entire perimeter of the foundation is dug to a depth of 600 mm.
Stage 3	The bottom of the trench is leveled, and a sand cushion with a thickness of around 100–150 mm is filled up. A layer of sand and gravel must be rammed. This layer is necessary in order to create a good base for the concrete and prevent it from mixing with the ground.
Stage 4	Now you need to set the formwork. In the photo you can see a small section of the formwork, namely the way it is mounted: The formwork must be securely fastened. Outside, supports in the form of stakes or struts are required. It is necessary to pull together the formwork with a screed made of wooden beams. Above the ground level, the strip foundation should rise by 300 mm.
Stage number 5	At the bottom of the trench, reinforcement is necessarily laid in the form of a wire-bound frame. This will give strength to the base.
Stage #6	Now the concrete solution is mixed. It is best to pour the foundation at a time. Having laid a layer of liquid concrete, it must be compacted and vibrated. This will eliminate the formation of voids in the concrete body.

That's all, the strip foundation is ready. Depending on the type of frame, metal embedded bars can be immediately inserted into the concrete, which will stick up. But it depends on the type of framework chosen. After pouring concrete, it is recommended to cover it with polyethylene. This is especially necessary if the weather is sunny and hot. The concrete will gradually dry out.

Wood

If we talk about the simplest and most inexpensive foundation, then this is a tree. Such a foundation will allow you to move the greenhouse to another place if necessary. However, remember an important drawback of such a base - the tree is subject to corrosion. At the heart of the wooden foundation is a beam. Manufacturing work is as follows:

Manufacturing technology of a wooden foundation for a greenhouse
	First of all, you need to markup. This stage of work is performed regardless of the type of foundation. In this case, wooden bars 100 × 100 mm are used. Depending on the weight of the frame, the thickness of the timber may be greater or lesser.
	The bars are measured strictly according to the specified size. With the help of a marker, they are marked and prepared for cutting.
	It is convenient to use a chainsaw to cut the timber. It is important to observe the 90˚ angle.
	Use a level when you lay down the beams. Thanks to this, the frame for the greenhouse will be even.
	There is a method of connecting the bars groove to groove. In this case, a metal corner will be used. The edges of the beam are mounted on supports. Previously, a foundation of bricks, blocks is laid in the ground or it is made of concrete.
	Again, everything is pre-measured by level. At this stage, the supports for the timber are already laid and clearly installed.
	The next step is to measure the diagonals.
	Their sizes must match. If this condition is not met, problems may arise.
	If the dimensions all match, then soil is poured under the timber. It is also worth making control measurements using a level.
	At the last stage, the metal corner is fixed using self-tapping screws and a screwdriver.
	At the same time, control the diagonals so that your previous measurements are not violated.
	The end result is such a foundation for a future greenhouse.

It is important to highlight some of the nuances here. In the method of laying a wooden foundation described above, the beam has direct contact with the ground. For this reason, the timber must be treated with a special anti-corrosion mastic. But this is short-lived, therefore, after some time, it will be necessary to repair the base. To eliminate this problem, some build a wooden base on a metal column foundation. How to do this, see the prepared videos.

Video: marking and preparing the base for a wooden foundation

Video: what will happen if you do not measure the diagonal when marking the foundation

Video: instructions for making a wooden foundation

Columnar

This type of base for the greenhouse is combined with a tape base. We will give instructions for the manufacture of a columnar foundation on metal pipes. Wooden bars will be laid on top. All instructions are presented in the table:

Sequence of work	The process of manufacturing a tape base
	After the markup is completed, we determine the places for laying the supporting pillars. Support pillars must be located at the corners of the greenhouse. On the long side, the step between the pillars can be up to 3 m. Everything will depend on the weight of the future greenhouse structure. Wells Ø300 mm are made.
	A roofing material is placed in the finished well, which will protect the concrete from direct contact with the ground. The roofing material should just form the desired hole diameter of 300 mm. A pipe is inserted in the middle of the well, the walls of which must be at least 3 mm thick. As for the diameter of the pipe, it can be different and 50, and 75, and 100 mm, etc. The pipe is installed strictly vertically.
	Now the concrete work is being done. The inner part of the roofing material is completely filled with concrete. So that the concrete mixture does not push through the roofing material, it is simultaneously necessary to pour and tamp the earth. The level of the poured concrete should be level with the soil or protrude slightly.
	According to this scheme, each support is installed under the foundation of the greenhouse.
	When the concrete has completely hardened, it is necessary to make preparations so that the columnar supports are cut to the same level. For this, such a device in the form of a clamp is useful. When you mark the cut level, you can use the template to make a clean cut.
	The next step is to use a laser level. At one point, it is necessary to install it and “shoot” it with a laser beam at all installed pipes. Cut marks are placed on the pipes.
	After that, using a special clamp, a cut is made according to the marks using a grinder and a circle for metal. Thanks to this technology, you will be able to provide a flat surface for the top of the pole.
	The next step is to prepare the concrete mixture. A kind of watering can is made, which will direct the entire concrete mix into the middle of the pipe. The entire inside of the pipe must be filled with concrete. As you know, when concrete comes into contact with metal, the latter does not rust. As the pipe fills, take a metal fitting or other pin and penetrate the concrete to completely eliminate the presence of air in its interior.
	When the concrete has gained strength by 50–60%, you can proceed to the next step. A sheet of metal 8 mm thick is taken. For the corner pillars of the support, such corner plates are cut off. Holes are made in them through which wooden beams will be attached.
	Intermediate beams will have such metal plates, which will allow either to connect two beams together or to fix the beam along the entire length.
	As a waterproofing for each columnar support, such "litters" of roofing material are cut out. Already from above, you can lay the bars and fasten them for the subsequent formation of the greenhouse frame.

Today, there are other technologies for making a foundation for a polycarbonate greenhouse. You should choose the most suitable option. When doing this, always consider the fact that polycarbonate itself does not have much weight. Therefore, the strength of the foundation is determined based on the weight of the frame. It is clear that if it is a metal frame, then a stronger foundation is needed. Next, we offer to look at several options for making a frame for a greenhouse.

Greenhouse frame

As for the frame of the greenhouse, it can be made of several materials. For example, the simplest is a wooden beam. More expensive technologies are also used, including aluminum profiles, metal pipes and metal profiles. We offer you to get acquainted with the technology of manufacturing the frame using different building materials.

First of all, it is worth considering the features of this material. Is it so good for making a greenhouse. A metal profile pipe is a pipe with a rectangular section. This material has found wide application due to the following technical characteristics:

• the load is distributed evenly along the edges, this ensures greater strength of the frame;
• running meter has a very affordable cost;
• the presence of smooth sides simplifies the fastening of polycarbonate;
• the greenhouse from the profile as a result is quite strong and durable.

Most often, a profile pipe with a section of 40 × 20 or 20 × 20 mm is used.

Drawing of a greenhouse from a profile pipe. What is important to consider

When making a drawing of a frame from a profile pipe, it is important to take into account that the length of the rolled profile pipe has a limitation: 3, 6, 4, 12 m, etc. Knowing the parameters of the future greenhouse, as well as the length of the profile, you can save a lot. How? For example, you can design a drawing to minimize waste. Moreover, the dimensions of the greenhouse can be adjusted to the existing dimensions of the profile pipe.

Note! If you buy a profile for racks, then it is better to give preference to pipes with a cross section of 20 × 40 mm, if we are talking about cross sections, then pipes of 20 × 20 mm will be a suitable option.

When making a drawing, be sure to prepare the following elements:

• roof;
• top/bottom harness;
• vertical racks;
• openings for windows and doors;
• additional items.

The installation step of each rack can reach 1 m.

As for the manufacture of the roof, it is necessary to prepare a kind of farm. They can have two slopes or be in the form of an arch. It all depends on your preferences. But not only. To create an arched roof, it is necessary to bend a profile pipe on a special pipe bender. As for the gable roof, only welding is necessary.

Note! Among other things, be sure to consider the dimensions of polycarbonate. For example, find out the width of the sheet and determine where exactly the joint will be.

If you have an arched roof, then here take into account the fact that for the construction of a greenhouse with a height of about 2 m, you will need a profile of 12 m. You can use this option: buy two profiles of 6 m each and connect them together.

To form the roof of the greenhouse, they use a simple option. This will also require minimal welding work. So, it is necessary to make cuts with a grinder in suitable places of the pipe and simply bend it. This form is generated:

It is extremely important to make accurate measurements and cuts in order to avoid mistakes. Each segment must be welded together:

A calculation is also carried out regarding the location of the ventilation window and the door in the end part of the frame. Look at the diagram:

There is also a scheme for assembling a greenhouse from a profile pipe, on which all connections are indicated:

Instructions for assembling the frame of a greenhouse with a gable roof

Now we offer a small instruction for making a frame for a greenhouse from a metal profile in the table:

Sequence of work	Processes
Foundation preparation	For the construction of a frame made of a metal profile, a strong foundation is required, it is advisable to fill in a tape one. It is also possible to lay embedded elements in the form of anchors in the foundation, through which the future frame will be fixed by welding or bolting.
Profile preparation	Now you need to cut the purchased profile into the appropriate dimensions. First of all, the frame racks are formed.
Installation of support pillars	After that, support pillars along the perimeter are welded to the mortgages in the foundation. Necessarily in the corners, as well as in increments of around 1 meter. In this case, it is important to use a level to install the racks strictly vertically.
Installation of the top trim	At this stage, a piping must be welded along the perimeter of the upper part of the pipe. Thus, all installed racks will be connected into one structure.
Spacers between posts	In order for the greenhouse structure to be stable, crossbars and spacers are welded. They can run perpendicular or oblique. Their main task is to give the greatest rigidity.
Roofing	For the manufacture of a gable roof, two pieces of a profile pipe are measured. After the ridge is formed, and the pipes are welded at the top point. You can use the method described above by making cuts with a grinder. By bending the pipe, you immediately get 2 slopes, which remain to be welded to the frame structure.
Door installation	On one end side, doors must be installed. Loops are used for this. The door frame is also made of a pipe, after which it is sheathed with polycarbonate.

There is a technology by which all the main elements are assembled on a flat horizontal surface. After that, the assembled trusses are interconnected and attached to the foundation.

If you want to give the roof an arc shape, then cut off part of the pipe and, using a pipe bender, bend it to the desired radius. Certainly, it is necessary to work hard here. If there is no pipe bender, some home craftsmen make cuts on the pipe and bend along them. But this method is inefficient, it is better to use a pipe bender.

We offer several videos on the manufacture of a greenhouse from a metal profile. At the same time, consider options with a gable roof and in the form of an arch.

Video: making an arched greenhouse from a profile pipe

Video: making a gable roof from a profile pipe

Wooden frame for a greenhouse: gable and arched

The frame for a greenhouse made of wood has its own characteristics and advantages. Among the positive aspects, the following can be distinguished:

The advantages of a greenhouse made of wood
low cost	Unlike metal, the raw material for a wooden greenhouse is much cheaper.
Ease of use	During construction, there is no need to use welding units. To work, you need a screwdriver / screwdriver, a hacksaw and a hammer. These are basic carpentry tools.
maintainability	If one of the structural elements breaks down, it is very easy to replace.
Ease of mounting polycarbonate	It is easiest to mount polycarbonate on wooden blocks. No need to drill holes.
Environmental friendliness	The material is absolutely environmentally friendly and does not pose any threat to the environment.
Light weight	The overall structure of the greenhouse frame made of wooden beams will have much less weight, in contrast to a metal profile pipe.
Ease of care	During operation, there is no need for special care.

Indeed, wooden greenhouses are a great solution. They will fit perfectly into the landscape of your suburban area. Now we propose to consider 2 instructions for making an arched greenhouse and a gable one.

Arched greenhouse made of wooden bars

The main problem of an arched greenhouse is the manufacture of a wooden arch. The manufactured arcs must have high strength. But to make such a greenhouse is within the power of everyone. You will see for yourself now.

First, prepare the following building material:

• boards 50 mm thick;
• beam 50 × 50 mm;
• self-tapping screws;
• metal furniture corners.

As for the tool, this is a standard carpentry set, including a wood saw, a hammer, a screwdriver, a drill, a level, a tape measure, etc.

We suggest step by step to follow how to make just such a greenhouse. It should be noted right away that this type of greenhouse is ideally combined with a wooden foundation:

Below are some dimensions. Based on your circumstances, you can replace them with your own, increasing or decreasing the design of the greenhouse. So, first of all, the most key element is made - an arch or arc. It will consist of many similar elements:

For the convenience of work, it is first recommended to make a pattern; thick cardboard is suitable for this. After that, take a board 50 mm thick and put your pattern on top of it. With a marker, transfer its outlines to the board. To reduce waste, place the pattern on the board in the most rational way.

Having cut the required number of such elements, you can begin to assemble the first layer of the arc. In the provided scheme, 17 such elements were used. In your case, there may be more/less.

On a flat surface, elements are laid out to form an arc as shown in the diagram:

Each element must be stacked to each other as tightly as possible and without gaps. The result is an arc like this:

The second layer of the arc should act as a mount. Fastening is carried out according to this principle:

Both ends of the board should fall on the center of the already fixed element, that is, with a slight offset. All elements are interconnected by self-tapping screws. To prevent the elements from splitting, it is recommended to drill holes for the screws. But the diameter of the hole must be less than the diameter of the mounting screw. This way you will collect a whole arc. The number of such farms will depend on the footage of the entire greenhouse. The step between them should be no more than one meter.

Note! Once you have made all the finished elements of the greenhouse, you need to treat them with a special antiseptic against decay. This will prevent their destruction under the influence of moisture.

The next step is to mount the arcs to the foundation. This is done in the following way:

Fastening can be done using furniture metal corners. Step by step, you get this framework:

After that, stiffeners are necessarily fixed. For this, a bar with a section of 50 × 50 mm is used. The length of the beam depends on the length of the greenhouse. As a result, you should have something like this:

Each summer resident can make a similar frame for a polycarbonate greenhouse on their own. You will end up with a structure like this:

Video: an original idea for making an arched greenhouse

Manufacturing technology of a gable wooden greenhouse

Making a greenhouse with a gable roof is much easier. Detailed drawings and diagrams will help here. Thanks to them, it will be easier to collect the necessary building material. At the heart of the frame design, you can use 50 × 50 mm bars as supports and for a 100 × 100 mm frame.

It is worth noting that the principle of manufacturing such a greenhouse is similar to the sequence of manufacturing a greenhouse from a profile pipe. Only in this case everything is much simpler. Support poles are installed along the perimeter: at the corners of the greenhouse and in increments of up to 1000 mm. For greater strength, the lower strapping and the upper strapping are performed; for this purpose, a bar is used. For the rigidity of the walls of the structure, crossbars are necessarily fixed.

The formation of two roof slopes is performed on a flat horizontal surface. Using the prepared drawings and diagrams, you can cope with this work quite easily and quickly.

To connect the bars, self-tapping screws, metal corners, and in some cases nails are used. Below we offer to see the principle of manufacturing such a greenhouse.

Video: how to make a wooden frame with a gable roof

Greenhouse made of galvanized profile

This material is also used to make a greenhouse. It has many positive aspects, among which stand out:

• simple installation;
• a small set of tools for installation;
• galvanized does not corrode;
• the frame does not need to be painted and coated with protective compounds;
• the total weight of the greenhouse will be small, which allows you to save money and build a small foundation;
• unlike a profile pipe, a galvanized profile is cheaper;
• assembly speed.

The manufacturing process is relatively simple, the description is presented in the table:

Stages of work	Process description
Stage 1	For the manufacture of the frame, a flat horizontal surface is required. Otherwise, there is a risk that the frame will have irregularities that will negatively affect when attaching polycarbonate. So, first of all, the frame of the back and front walls is made. Lay out a rectangular shape or a square on the ground (depending on the chosen shape of your greenhouse). Its upper and lower parts are the width of the greenhouse, and the two side (left and right) are the support posts.
Stage 2	Measure the diagonals of the structure. They must match. The difference is allowed up to 5 mm. That is, you should get an even figure, but in no case a rhombus.
Stage 3	After inserting the profile into each other, fasten it with metal screws. The galvanized profile is relatively soft, so there is no need to drill holes. For each fastener, 2 self-tapping screws are necessarily twisted. This will give the frame structure more rigidity.
Stage 4	After the assembled square / rectangle, find the middle of the upper part and draw a perpendicular line from it upwards to form the roof ridge.
Stage 5	From the marked point, measure with a tape measure the distance to the edge of the upper corner of the greenhouse. As a result, you should get 2 skates of the same size. Then a profile of the appropriate size is taken and cut in half. At the cut, the profile is bent, and this is how a gable roof is formed.
stage 6	The roof element is attached to the frame. The finished structure is also additionally fastened with stiffeners. Crossbars can be located diagonally or crosswise. There is no strict rule here. The main goal is to create the necessary rigidity. According to this scheme, the second part of the end side of the greenhouse is assembled.
Stage 7	Be sure to form an opening for the door in the end part.
Stage 8	Given the size of polycarbonate sheets, it is calculated how many and in what places additional trusses need to be installed. Standard polycarbonate is 210 cm wide, so a normal span would be 105 cm.
Stage 9	When all the elements of the frame are prepared, it remains to install the greenhouse. Be sure to attach spacers, ties and crossbars for greater stability of the greenhouse.

To eliminate the unpleasant phenomenon in the form of a broken greenhouse, additionally install a diagonal profile between each rack. Even a strong wind load in this case will not violate the integrity of the galvanized profile greenhouse frame.

Note! For the manufacture of such a frame, a plasterboard profile is often used. Therefore, you can calculate what will cost less.

Video: making a greenhouse from a galvanized profile

Homemade frame made of polypropylene pipes

Polypropylene pipes are successfully used not only for laying water supply systems. They can be used to make homemade greenhouses covered with polycarbonate. This material in this purpose has the following advantages:

• the pipes themselves and components are of low cost;
• it is possible to transfer the greenhouse to another place due to the low weight of the structure;
• simple installation, and for work you need a special welding soldering iron and scissors;
• polypropylene does not corrode, the greenhouse will last 20 years or more.

As for the downsides, it's light weight. Such a greenhouse will have a strong windage. For this reason, it will be necessary to provide for a correct and reinforced fastening to the foundation or ground.

So, making such a greenhouse will not take much effort. All work consists of several successive stages:

1. Let's start with the markup.
2. At the corners of the future greenhouse, reinforcement is driven into the ground, while from the ground level it should stick out to a height of up to 500 mm.
3. After that, a pipe is taken and one end of it is inserted into the armature sticking out of the ground. It gently bends, and the other end is inserted into the opposite segment of the reinforcement.

According to this principle, the entire frame of the greenhouse is assembled. When all the trusses are installed, the crossbars must be fixed. This will require special fittings: tees and crosses.

To fasten the crossbars, the following steps are performed:

1. A pipe is cut in the upper part of the arch; later, a cross or a tee will be soldered at the cut site.
2. A plastic cross should be welded onto the cut off parts of the pipe (help will be needed for this work: one holds the pipe, bending it, and the second solder).
3. In having 2 exits from the crosspiece, it will be necessary to solder the crossbars, so the whole structure will be interconnected.
4. The end parts of the greenhouse are also cut and the tees are soldered.

Doors and windows can also be formed from polypropylene pipe. Watch interesting videos. One shows how to assemble such a greenhouse using self-tapping screws, and the second is all done using soldering. Polycarbonate is attached to such a greenhouse with self-tapping screws, which is very convenient and fast.

Video: features of making a greenhouse from polypropylene pipes

Fastening polycarbonate to a greenhouse - technology

So, the features of the manufacture of the foundation and frame of the greenhouse were considered. As you can see, there are many technologies that differ from each other in the complexity of execution, the cost of raw materials, and more. Now we have come to the next stage in the manufacture of the greenhouse - the installation / fastening of polycarbonate. First, let's discuss the options for mounting material.

Ordinary self-tapping screws will not work here. There are special thermal washers on sale that do not damage polycarbonate, but on the contrary, securely hold the material. Special sealing thermal washers are used. They have such positive aspects:

• The ability to easily attach polycarbonate to any type of crate.
• Moisture and cold air will not penetrate inside through the bolts, since their device involves the use of a special rubber gasket.
• The thermal washer allows the polycarbonate to expand in extreme heat without destroying it.

Neoprene material is used as a seal. It's soft enough. If the temperature regime changes, then the maximum that happens to neoprene is compression, but it does not lose its tightness. That is, the polycarbonate sheet will move, but in no case warp. As for the self-tapping screw, it is a kind of "beetles", that is, the tip of the self-tapping screw resembles a drill. After tightening the self-tapping screw, the hat is closed with a plastic plug, which gives an aesthetic appearance. Plus, the self-tapping screw will be protected from direct moisture, which eliminates its corrosion.

On sale there are also special profiles for attaching polycarbonate. They can be of different types, for example, H-shaped, ridge - RP, one-piece connecting - HP and detachable - HCP, end - UP, detachable connecting - SP, wall-mounted - FP.

An aluminum fastening system is also known. Of course, the high strength and durability of the entire greenhouse structure speaks in favor of this technology. The fastening aluminum profile is available in lengths of 6 m and thicknesses from 6 to 25 mm.

Video: types of fasteners for polycarbonate

Features of mounting polycarbonate

In fact, it absolutely does not matter in what position the polycarbonate sheet will be located, vertically, at an angle, horizontally, etc. Special attention should be paid to sealing the joints. If an aluminum profile is used for fastening, then it has a special sealing gum. Polycarbonate sheets are joined together, forming a hermetic connection.

When screwing a self-tapping screw through polycarbonate, do not overtighten it. The sealing gum should lightly press the sheet against the frame. Special attention must be paid to the edges and ends of polycarbonate. They should be framed with a special protective plastic profile.

If after cutting the sheet you find burrs, uneven and very rough edges, then all this must be removed. Otherwise, it will not be possible to provide sufficient sealing. Additionally, we suggest watching video materials, which clearly shows the process of attaching polycarbonate to a greenhouse.

Video: technology for attaching polycarbonate to a greenhouse

Communications in a polycarbonate greenhouse

To build a greenhouse is one thing, it is quite another to provide it with the necessary communications. Among the main ones are the following:

1. Lighting.
2. Ventilation.
3. Heating.
4. Watering.

This is especially important if you plan to grow vegetables all year round. If your work is related to this, then you should think about automating most of the processes. This will save you a lot of time, although at first you will have to attract a lot of money. We recommend that you watch the videos in these subsections. We are confident that this information will help you make the right decision.

Artificial lighting as a supplement to natural

We already said at the beginning of this article that the correct location of the greenhouse will save you money. If the chosen place is well lit by sunlight, then this is a huge plus. However, some cultures are sensitive to even a slight lack of light, and this can cause negative effects that affect their development.

Lamps are used to organize lighting:

• conventional incandescent;
• mercury high pressure;
• sodium high pressure;
• luminescent;
• halogen;
• LED.

Consider the features of these types of lamps in the context of their use for lighting in a polycarbonate greenhouse:

Types of lamps	Specifications
Incandescent lamps	This type of lighting gives an excess of rays. This has a bad effect on the development of plants, so their installation will not ensure the achievement of the original goal.
Mercury	This type of lamps, in addition to lighting, also gives warmth. However, their main disadvantage is ultraviolet radiation. Their use is allowed in combination with other types of lighting.
sodium	High level of light output. The light emanating from them has a yellow-orange tint. It is excellent for the development and fruiting of all plants in the greenhouse.
Fluorescent	This type of lamp is considered the most efficient. The light emitted by them favorably affects the development of plants. The low temperature that they radiate allows them to be placed in close proximity to plants. Additionally, you can use ultraviolet lamps that will not allow bacteria and other harmful microorganisms to develop.
Halogen	High cost and short service life are a serious disadvantage. However, the emitted light most closely replicates the spectrum of sunlight.
LEDs	The radiation acquires shades of blue and red spectrum. They are very popular due to their cost-effectiveness. In the greenhouse it is recommended to use white LEDs.

The subtleties of organizing wiring in a greenhouse

When conducting electrical cables in a greenhouse, it is important to consider one characteristic feature. There is always high humidity in the greenhouse. Therefore, the wires should be reliably protected from moisture. This also applies to the irrigation process. Therefore, the wires should be laid in special boxes. It is worth fixing it, the higher from the ground, on the ceiling and walls.

To make the development of plants most beneficial, the process of lighting inside the greenhouse can be automated. At first, this will entail waste, but later you will experience significant savings.

Video: greenhouse lighting features

Heating is inextricably linked with lighting

Greenhouse heating is directly related to lighting. Therefore, if you decide to carry out the necessary communications, then heating should be in the foreground. Today, several methods of heating are known. For example, stove heating. For implementation, it is required to build a special vestibule in the greenhouse. The main disadvantage is the low efficiency and laboriousness of the heating process. As for modern technology, this should include water heating and electric. It is distinguished by its high efficiency. Plus, it is quite possible to automate the process with the help of special automation.

There is an interesting technology for ground heating, it is a kind of "warm floor". The soil is an excellent conductor of heat, so this technology is in great demand, but requires considerable financial investments. We have prepared several videos on the effectiveness of a particular heating method in a greenhouse.

Video: features of the organization of heating in a greenhouse

Ventilation - automatic and manual

Ventilation also affects plant productivity. Today, there are several ways to organize ventilation in a polycarbonate greenhouse. The simplest is mechanical, that is, manual. To do this, the frame provides for the presence of vents (small windows). If necessary, the vents open to allow a change of air. Windows for ventilation can be located at the end of the greenhouse. If the greenhouse has large dimensions, then there may be several such windows. In principle, this method is suitable for summer residents who live in the country during the period of growing a particular crop.

If your financial capabilities allow, then it is quite possible to build an automatic ventilation system. It comes in several types:

1. Electric.
2. Biometric.
3. Hydraulic.

Type of automatic ventilation	Features and differences
Electrical	This method of greenhouse ventilation is considered the cheapest. For its implementation, an electric fan and a thermal relay are required. The key element of the whole circuit will be the thermal relay. It will send a signal to the fan to turn the fan on/off. One of the advantages is that you can install several fans and thermostats along the entire length of the greenhouse. To increase the efficiency of such a system, it is recommended to install vents at different ends of the greenhouse, which will open when the fan is turned on. A significant disadvantage is energy dependence. When the power is turned off, ventilation will not work.
hydraulic	This ventilation option is considered the most efficient, reliable and durable. This system consists of levers that are interconnected by a transom. The principle of operation is as follows: water is poured into the container. When water is heated, it expands; when it cools, it contracts. When the liquid expands, the vents open, respectively, in the reverse order, when the water is compressed, the vents close. A vessel installed inside the greenhouse can be used as a thermometer. A container fixed outside is a compensator. Hydraulic hoses are used to communicate the containers with each other. Everything is relatively simple. You can watch the video at the end of this section.
Biometric	In this system, the device and operation of automatic ventilation is possible due to the increase in material with increasing temperature. To implement such a project, two metals with different expansion coefficients are used. As a result, such a system has a low cost, is easy to install, but has a long service life.

Video: organization of ventilation in the greenhouse

Irrigation - water, the source of life

Another important communication is watering. The irrigation method depends on the crop being grown. For example, tomatoes should not be watered from above, water should immediately flow into the root system. Plants especially need watering in the summer. With all this, organizing watering, you should avoid excess water and its lack, adhering to the golden mean.

This can be achieved through the manufacture of an irrigation system, which can be of the following plan:

• sprinkling system;
• subsurface irrigation;
• drip irrigation.

Consider the features of each of them.

Sprinkler system. The simplest method is considered to be just such a method of irrigation, where water comes from above. It is implemented using a shower sprayer. There is also a fountain sprayer. In this case, water is sprayed by means of a rotating spray head. Among the positive aspects of such irrigation can be identified:

• increase in air humidity in the greenhouse;
• imitation of rain watering;
• high performance;
• uniform watering of plants.

Intrasoil irrigation. With such watering, the roots immediately feed on moisture. Channels are built in the ground through which water flows. It is evenly distributed over the root system of certain plants. Plastic pipes can also be laid down to a depth of 350 mm. At the bottom, a plastic film spreads, after which a perforated pipe and from above all this is covered with soil.

Among the positive aspects of this type of irrigation can be identified:

• a significant slowdown in the growth of weeds;
• slight moistening of the upper layer of the soil;
• regular feeding of the root system of the plant with moisture.

Drip irrigation. Well, the last method of watering is drip. Based on its name, it becomes clear that water is supplied in drops. At the same time, it goes directly to the roots. This solution has a number of positive aspects, for example, water is rationally used, the formation of fungal diseases is excluded, and so on.

Each of the described irrigation systems has its own characteristics, and all of them can be automated. It will be necessary to purchase sensors and all kinds of automation.

Video: watering a greenhouse, how best to do it

So, the question of how to make a polycarbonate greenhouse on your own was considered in detail. If you want to add anything, you can leave feedback and comments on this article. In addition to everything, we offer a series of photos of ready-made greenhouses. Perhaps they will come in handy when building your own polycarbonate greenhouse.

Photo: options for finished polycarbonate greenhouses

Greenhouse made of polycarbonate and metal frame Greenhouse made of polycarbonate with plastic windows and doors In a polycarbonate greenhouse, you can carry out the necessary communications

Polycarbonate greenhouses are an effective option for growing horticultural crops. You can build it with your own hands.

Properties of polycarbonate

Polycarbonate is presented in two main types: cellular and monolithic. The first option is used to create various structures, including greenhouses. The material is a multilayer panel, inside which there are voids and transverse partitions. This feature provides strength, reliability, durability, low thermal conductivity of cellular polycarbonate. Therefore, it is effective for creating greenhouses that differ in shape, dimensions, and design features.

Advantages

Polycarbonate is an effective material for creating greenhouses, as it has several advantages over other means. At the same time, the characteristics of polycarbonate differ depending on the type of material, but the positive qualities are common to all types.

The advantages of a honeycomb structure for greenhouses are as follows:

• good flexibility, fire resistance, heat resistance;
• strength, resistance to mechanical stress;
• transparency and uniform dispersion of light;
• aesthetic appearance and durability;
• easy installation, providing optimal conditions for plants inside the greenhouse.

The positive properties of polycarbonate make it effective for building greenhouses of various sizes. The shape of the structure can also be different, because the honeycomb material is flexible and simple fastening technology.

Flaws

Polycarbonate sheets are practical, but not without drawbacks. One of these qualities is the need for careful adherence to installation rules. The ends of the sheets of material are always well closed, because moisture, insects and bacteria can get inside the cells. This will lead to damage to the material and loss of its appearance.

Self-tapping screws are used to fasten the sheets. When screwing in, it is important to take into account the pressing force and not damage the sheets. Otherwise, a hole will form through which moisture will penetrate and the polycarbonate will quickly lose its effectiveness. To avoid damage to the outer protective layer of the material, do not use metal objects, abrasive substances. In winter, snow must be removed from the roof of the greenhouse, which will keep the structure intact. Thus, polycarbonate is effective, but requires careful and careful maintenance during operation.

Preparation: drawings, diagrams and dimensions of the greenhouse

It is easy to install a small greenhouse on a garden plot, and the shape of the structure is often presented in the form of a house or has a domed roof. Greenhouses attached to a private house require more careful organization and are difficult to arrange. Therefore, free-standing small structures are a practical, convenient and reliable option. They are easy to place anywhere on the site.

After choosing the form, you need to determine the dimensions of the structure and its location. When you create it yourself, it is easy to make a greenhouse of individual sizes. For example, a design with a perimeter of 4x2 m is convenient and does not take up much space. A height of 2.2 m is optimal for the highest point of the greenhouse roof. After determining the parameters, you need to draw up a diagram or drawing of the structure. The plan reflects all the dimensions of the greenhouse, as well as the necessary landing zones.

On a detailed drawing, it is worth indicating the number and location of vents, doors and other important elements. Their sizes are also indicated. First, it is worth considering the conditions that are necessary for the growth and fruiting of crops. This is required to determine the number of vents.

What material to choose: types and characteristics of polycarbonate

For greenhouses, cellular polycarbonate is optimal, since cast material will not provide sufficient thermal insulation in the greenhouse. The cellular material diffuses light well, retains heat and is resistant to various influences. Optimal sheets for greenhouses meet the following requirements:

• thickness from 4 to 8 mm. This indicator makes polycarbonate convenient for creating greenhouses and ensures the durability of the structure. Thicker material is impractical and is used for large greenhouse complexes or roofing;
• maximum transparency. This is characteristic of colorless polycarbonate. The material provides conditions for plants as close to natural as possible;
• a layer of UV protection. Sheets that meet this requirement are more durable, practical and efficient for the construction of greenhouses;
• service life more than 10 years. Such material has a high-quality and reliable design, it is safe.

Polycarbonate is classified into color and transparent. It is the latter option that is suitable for greenhouses, as it allows you to create the conditions necessary for the plant. Colored sheets are more optimal for creating canopies, roofs and other structures.

Manufacturers produce material with both one- and two-sided protective coating. An ultraviolet layer can only be present on one side, which is optimal for a greenhouse. Bilateral options are more expensive and their use is unprofitable. And also, when choosing, you should not buy sheets that are too cheap, because a low price may indicate the same low quality, damage or manufacturing defects.

How to calculate the required amount of material?

To calculate the amount of material, you need to know the dimensions and take into account the shape of the structure. A drawing is preliminarily created, on which the dimensions of the structure are indicated. For example, for a round standard greenhouse with a circumference of 6 m, it is best to use sheets of the same length. This creates a one-piece coating that provides reliable protection for plants.

If the length of the greenhouse is 6 m, then you need to take three sheets, 2.1 m wide. During installation, a hermetic overlap of the elements is created. Such a design will have a gable width of 3 m and a height of 2.1 m. Therefore, one sheet of polycarbonate will be required to sheath two ends. The total number of sheets is 3 pieces. With large dimensions of the structure, the amount of material increases accordingly. Separately, the calculation of the number of metal arcs and profiles, wooden elements for the base is carried out. In this case, a similar calculation principle is used as when determining the volume of polycarbonate.

Tools for the job

To create a greenhouse with your own hands, you will need reliable and accurate tools. A tape measure, a shovel, a building level, a hammer, anchor bolts, nails and twine are used in the construction of a greenhouse. And you also need the following materials and tools:

• metal structures, square or round pipes;
• thermal washers, wooden boards;
• concrete mixer;
• primer, enamel and brush;
• welder.

All fixtures are needed to create a greenhouse with a concrete foundation. Of particular importance is attached to the fastening of polycarbonate sheets, because during operation they are subjected to heavy loads. Therefore, thermal washers must be of high quality, and their installation requires accuracy.

Instructions: creating a greenhouse with your own hands

The construction of a polycarbonate greenhouse with a base in the form of shaped pipes begins with the creation of a foundation. The concrete base is reliable and makes the entire structure durable. The complex of works includes the following stages:

1. The area for the greenhouse is leveled, the grassy layer is removed. For a concrete base, formwork should be made, the dimensions of which correspond to the design parameters. The scheme for fastening the layers involves the use of anchor bolts, as well as a series of brickwork. Bricks can be replaced with a base of wooden boards;
2. To create a metal frame, you need a pipe bending machine, a square pipe with a section of 25x25 mm, and a welding machine. Pipes are cut into elements of the required size, and then connected, taking into account the step between the greenhouse arches. The ends of the pipes are attached to a square profile. Next, the door frame, vents are welded;
3. The frame is fixed to concrete using anchor bolts. Self-tapping screws are used for a wooden base. In the absence of a base in the form of a square pipe, it is necessary to fix the ends of the arches with clamps to a wooden foundation;
4. Sheathing of the ends is carried out with the preliminary creation of vents, doors. The cut out elements are attached to the end parts of the structure. After that, fittings are mounted, for example, valves and hinges;
5. The first sheet of polycarbonate is laid on the frame, leveled, bringing about 3 cm of material to the end. On the end arc, the sheet is fixed with self-tapping screws for the roof;
6. The galvanized metal tape must be thrown onto the frame, attached with self-tapping screws to the second arc. Next, fix the second sheet and attach another tape. Coupler of galvanized elements from the first sheet of polycarbonate and from the second arc. The overlap must be fixed last.

Installation of an arched greenhouse is easy to do with your own hands. It is more difficult to create a structure in the form of a house. At the same time, the ends of polycarbonate sheets are carefully sealed with the help of profiles, special compositions. In this case, the frame is made of profile pipes.

Interior arrangement

Building a greenhouse with your own hands allows you to create a design according to individual sizes and taking into account personal preferences. This is important for the proper internal organization of the greenhouse. One of the important points is the ventilation system, which is often presented in the form of vents. The elements can be supplemented with an automatic movement mechanism, which facilitates operation.

The design of the doors must be sufficiently tight, which will protect the plants from adverse weather conditions. The organization of irrigation and heating systems is also important for the growth and fruiting of crops. For this purpose, it is easy to install drip irrigation, and heating with electrical devices.

To get a high yield and protect your vegetables from the negative effects of fog and high humidity, you need to take care of installing a greenhouse. Often, in the manufacture of greenhouses, summer residents use plastic wrap, but it needs to be replaced annually, which entails financial costs. We will tell you how to make a polycarbonate greenhouse, demonstrate all the pros and cons of this material.

What is cellular polycarbonate

This material is made in the form of two-layer plastic sheets with different thicknesses. As a rule, sheets with a size of 6 × 2.1 m and a thickness of 4.5 mm are used.

Polycarbonate has a number of significant advantages in comparison with glass and plastic film:

1. It is highly durable and remains intact with minor impacts (its strength is about 200 times higher than ordinary glass).
2. It completely protects the plant in the greenhouse from the adverse effects of ultraviolet rays.
3. Resistant to temperature changes from -40 to +60̊С.
4. The material is able to scatter the incoming sunlight, and, accordingly, the combustion of plants is excluded.
5. Double-layer plastic has high thermal insulation properties.
6. The material is easy to process and easy to cut and drill. As fasteners for the structure, you can use both self-tapping screws and an electric screwdriver.
7. The mass of polycarbonate is less than glass, which greatly facilitates its installation and transportation.
8. The surface of the material has a dust-repellent quality, and the resulting dirt is removed with ordinary water.
9. Polycarbonate is not combustible, but when interacting with fire, it begins to melt.
10. Its cost is similar to the cost of ordinary glass.

In order for the polycarbonate structure to be durable, you need to follow some requirements:

• when cleaning the surface of the greenhouse from dirt, dust, use detergents without alkali, ether and chlorine, and also do not use abrasive pastes for these purposes;
• in order to prevent the formation of mold and fungus, it is necessary to ensure that the end part of the greenhouse is always closed from insects and moisture;
• in winter, make sure that ice does not form on the surface of the greenhouse, which can later lead to deformation and even destruction of the structure.

It is best to make a drawing of the greenhouse, as well as mark the place where it will be installed on the garden plot. Under the greenhouse you need a lot of free space away from trees and structures to ensure good ventilation and plenty of light and heat.

The drawing must show what shape the greenhouse will be. Here are several options:

• in order to save materials and save heat, sometimes a wall greenhouse is installed with reference to an existing building;
• in shape, greenhouses come with a single or gable roof;
• the most common is an arched roof, especially if it is made of polycarbonate, but there are also difficulties in making an arched roof. The arch is made of metal corners and pipes, and for this you will need a special pipe bender or you will have to purchase ready-made arched structures.

If the place, dimensions, shape are selected, and there are the necessary drawings, you can start arranging the foundation. For a greenhouse, the foundation is very important, and the strength of the structure depends on what quality it will be.

Structure construction technology

Ventilation holes must be provided in the form of window and door openings. The roof should be made in the form of an arch, thereby increasing the volume of air in the structure. The built-in lever system will allow you to open the windows built into such a roof.

The size of the vent should be at least ¼ of the entire roof surface. Additional air circulation will be provided by doors located in the end or side walls of the structure.

For paving paths, choose paving slabs, and enclose the ridges with high curbs, which will greatly facilitate the process of planting care. Under the ceiling space, fasten the rods that will be needed to secure some plants.

Foundation works

The first stage is laying the foundation, in parallel with which the fences for the ridges are poured. For the frame, it is better to use square pipes or metal corners. First, the strapping is made, and then it is fixed on the foundation.

The metal structure must be carefully painted before installation, otherwise it will succumb to corrosion.

The harness is fixed to the foundation with anchor bolts.

Device and types of foundation

• timber;
• brick;
• stone;
• tape.

The beam foundation is made of wooden beams. Financially, it is inexpensive, but will not last long, up to a maximum of 5 years, despite the treatment with an antiseptic. Over time, the tree will begin to rot. The installation of the beam foundation is as follows:

• steel corners are driven in around the entire perimeter;
• wooden supports are attached to the corners and driven into the ground;
• pre-prepared wooden bars measuring 10 by 10 cm are laid around the perimeter of the base of the greenhouse.

The brick foundation is distinguished by quality and service life. If properly built such a foundation, then it can last a long time, but for its manufacture it will take a lot of bricks to support the weight of the greenhouse. First, a waterproofing pillow is made to protect against the destructive action of moisture from the soil. During the construction of a brick foundation, a conventional cement-sand mortar is used.

In order to make the brick foundation more stable, it needs to be plastered.

A stone foundation is also suitable, since such a foundation is durable and designed for any load.

It should be borne in mind that laying natural stone of an unequal shape requires certain skills, and making a stone foundation on your own is not an easy task. It is best to use a clay-sand mixture for the solution in a ratio of 1 × 1. Such a solution will contribute to heat saving. So that the clay does not wash out with water, the foundation must be plastered, and if it turned out to be too uneven, then put the formwork and pour concrete around the edges.

The advantages of the strip foundation are that the funds, as well as the time and effort spent, are relatively small, but the result is excellent. This type of foundation differs from others in durability and reliability. When making it you will need:

• cement mortar;
• formwork from boards;
• cushion that protects the foundation from subsidence.

The device of the strip foundation is as follows:

1. The pillow is made of gravel or sand.
2. Then formwork is laid in the form of a greenhouse.
3. The solution is poured to a width of 30–40 cm, a depth of approximately 0.5 m.

This technology will provide high strength of this foundation.

Any of these foundations must be equipped at a distance of 25–30 cm from the ground level. This will protect the foundation from destruction, and the structure will last a long time.

Installation work

• First of all, you need to build a frame. For the frame, plastic, aluminum and galvanized profiles are used. But taking into account seasonal loads, for example, the severity of a large amount of snow on the roof of a greenhouse, it is better to use wooden bars for the frame, since wood can withstand heavy loads due to its properties.
• After the frame is ready, the arched elements are fastened together.
• Then the front parts of the greenhouse are mounted - a door and a vent, so that the room is well ventilated.
• At the end of the work, the frame is covered with polycarbonate sheets. They are laid end-to-end and connected using a connecting profile using rubberized thermal washers to protect the fasteners from dirt and moisture.

Greenhouse frame options

Greenhouse made of profile and polycarbonate

An important role is played by a properly assembled frame made of reliable materials, one of which is the profile. We will not dwell on the factory designs from the profile, as you will find detailed assembly instructions in the purchased kit. Let's dwell on a more economical option - a frame made of a drywall profile. A design with rounded shapes will not work, but the frame will be strong enough to withstand snow and wind loads.

Consider the advantages of using such a material for the manufacture of the frame:

• Low cost profile.
• The profile is galvanized, so it is not afraid of moisture.
• The ability to assemble the frame without the involvement of assistants.
• The construction is quite light.
• It is convenient to fix polycarbonate sheets.

First you need to make a drawing, or at least draw a sketch of the future greenhouse with dimensions. After that, using the resulting data, cut the blanks. Now you need to fix the profile to the foundation with anchors, which will serve as the basis of the entire structure. After that, you can proceed to the installation of the frame.

As for the assembly of the frame, everyone decides to do as he pleases. We recommend that you assemble the arches on a horizontal flat surface, and then mount and do the strapping. How to fix the sheets is already written in the article.

Greenhouse made of pipes and polycarbonate

The frame for the greenhouse can be made from several types of pipes. If the frame is metal, then it is better to use profile pipes by welding them by electric welding. The arched structure experiences less snow loads, but in order to give the pipe the required shape, you need to use a pipe bender. If there is no desire to bend pipes or buy ready-made arches, then you can make the shape of the greenhouse the same as from a metal profile - with a sloping roof.

Racks are attached to the corners and walls of the strapping by welding. At the same time, doorways are being installed. On top of the racks and door structures, an upper trim is made, on which the arches are attached. After that, proceed to install the arched windows on the roof and fix the hinges to the ridge. Build a lever system for lifting the windows, and then proceed to paint the frame.

It is undesirable to make a greenhouse frame from round pipes, because when screwing polycarbonate, a self-tapping screw can slip to the side and ruin the sheet.

It is faster and easier to assemble a simple frame made of polypropylene pipes. Again, you need to make a drawing and cut the blanks. To assemble the frame, you will need a soldering iron, and a certain number of pipes and fittings will need to be purchased in accordance with the chosen shape of the greenhouse.

One of the advantages of a frame made of polypropylene pipes is the excellent combination of strength and flexibility of this material. Flexibility allows you to give the frame the desired shape, and strength allows you to withstand considerable loads.

For convenience, a window can be made in the door for ventilation. After the frame is assembled and fixed, it can be sheathed with polycarbonate.

How to properly heat

Now it is important to take care of the insulation and heating system of the greenhouse. Modern technologies involve the use of transparent or bubble plastic to insulate the greenhouse from the inside and outside. The advantage of this solution is that this material does not absorb sunlight and looks decent.

Heating methods:

• Stove heating - for this, a stove or barbecue is built, and ventilation is installed to ventilate the room. The disadvantage of this method is that the heat is distributed unevenly over the area of ​​the greenhouse.
• Electric heating is carried out with the help of a convector and heating elements. In this case, ventilation is not required.
• Water heating is carried out by installing pipes, to which hot water is supplied by a pump from a boiler, which is heated by electricity, gas or coal. Ventilation is required when using gas and solid fuels. Also, this method is laborious and costly.
• gas heating is carried out using catalytic burners. This requires constant ventilation and ventilation throughout the greenhouse.

Heating in a greenhouse may not be entirely cost-effective, but as they say, the goal, and in our case, to harvest a rich harvest, justifies the means.

Sheets of material are laid strictly along the length, fixed with self-tapping screws, or special thermal washers. They securely fasten the polycarbonate to the arch of the frame and save it from deformation during expansion in the winter. The role of the pressure plate will be played by the corners for the plastic arch, which you can buy at a hardware store.

Before starting installation work, it is necessary to remove the polycarbonate from the packaging film, coat the edges with glue and fix the plastic corner. The open edges of the material are treated with adhesive tape or sealed tape, and the bottom edge with perforations will provide the necessary drainage effect.

To connect two sheets of polycarbonate to each other, use the connecting strip intended for this. Then you can proceed to attach the polycarbonate sheets to the frame of the greenhouse.

Initially, the roof is sheathed with polycarbonate sheets, and only then the remaining part of the arch from the ends. Further, the walls and doors of the structure are trimmed with material. Connections at the corners are closed with metal or plastic corners. After that, remove the remnants of the protective film.

Even if you, having no experience, will be forced to entrust some of the work to professionals, more will fall on your shoulders. Therefore, try to approach the process with all responsibility in order to continue to enjoy natural products grown in a greenhouse.

Video: tips for choosing a greenhouse design and materials for its manufacture

Drawings and diagrams

Photos of interesting solutions

Today, a greenhouse can be found in almost every personal plot. This simple construction allows not only to extend the warm season for a couple of months, but also to increase the yield of cultivated plants at times. Almost any crop can be grown in greenhouses. Cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants and bell peppers grow most often in these warm and cozy buildings.

To clarify, it is worth considering the differences between a greenhouse and a greenhouse, because many do not know how they differ from each other.

1. Greenhouse. To maintain a positive temperature, the greenhouse needs sunlight, although auxiliary energy sources such as coal, gas, firewood or fuel oil can also be used. The greenhouse is much larger than a greenhouse, which allows an adult to be inside.

Greenhouse. This is an absolutely self-sufficient energy system. The influx of thermal energy is achieved due to the biological decay of organic materials (compost, manure, etc.) and the greenhouse effect that occurs under the action of sunlight. Greenhouses almost never have doors. For access to plants, its upper part is completely removed or leans back. It is convenient to use a greenhouse for growing seedlings, while a more spacious greenhouse is better for adult plants.

All types of greenhouses have as their main task the preservation of internal thermal energy, therefore, when choosing the material and design of the building, the closest attention should be paid to minimizing heat loss.

What is the best way to make a greenhouse?

A couple of decades ago, such a question might have seemed simply inappropriate. At that time, the frame for the greenhouse was made from any suitable materials at hand, and an uncontested polyethylene film (which still had to be found in stores) acted as a covering material. The film was fixed on the arcs, and by raising and lowering it, the temperature level inside the greenhouse was regulated. Among the shortcomings of such a greenhouse, one can note the short service life of the plastic film - it was rarely enough for more than two summer seasons; of the advantages - the comparative cheapness of polyethylene.

On a note! A glazed greenhouse was considered a more advanced and convenient design. Glass transmits sunlight better and has a much longer service life. The main disadvantages were fragility and the danger of sharp fragments being introduced into the soil.

Today, the first two varieties of greenhouses can still be found in summer cottages, but the palm, no doubt, was taken by greenhouses from. This material has amazing properties - it is light, durable, flexible, transparent, it perfectly conducts heat inside the greenhouse, but very reluctantly releases it into the atmosphere. The only thing that still keeps some summer residents from buying it is the rather high cost.

What type of polycarbonate do you prefer?

There are two types of polycarbonate on the market today:

• monolithic;
• cellular.

Reminiscent of a flexible sheet of glass, it can be of different thicknesses and colors. The service life can reach several tens of years. With equal thickness, it costs a little more than a cellular one. Most often used in the construction of fences, canopies, canopies, etc.

Structurally, it consists of two thin polymer sheets interconnected by stiffening ribs located at regular intervals. The air-filled cavities provide this type of material with amazing thermal insulation qualities, making it ideal for building greenhouses and greenhouses. It differs from a monolithic one by a slightly lower cost and a shorter service life.

Prices for cellular polycarbonate

cellular polycarbonate

What is more profitable - to buy a ready-made greenhouse or build it yourself?

To understand the difference, it is enough to compare the total cost of acquiring materials for self-build with the cost of a factory kit.

Table. What is required to build a standard medium-sized greenhouse.

Name	Quantity, pcs.	Cost per piece, rub.	Total cost, rub.
Standard polycarbonate sheet 4 mm thick	1	2000	2000
Galvanized square pipe 20x20x1.5 mm	22	50	1100
Self-tapping screws, electrodes, loops, other consumables	-	-	500

Total: the total cost of building a shed greenhouse with dimensions of 3x1.2x1.8 m will cost about 3,600 rubles.

In stores, a kit for installing a similar greenhouse will cost significantly more. However, if funds allow, but you really want to save time and effort, you can prefer this option. Another plus of a factory-made greenhouse is that all its parts are perfectly matched to each other, and the owner of the cottage will be spared from possible design / assembly errors.

The main structures of polycarbonate greenhouses

Consider the most popular designs of polycarbonate greenhouses.

1. Recessed greenhouse. Used quite rarely. It is a deep trench, along the perimeter of which a harness is built and a covered frame is installed. The main advantage of such a greenhouse is the best energy saving due to the reduction of the cooled surface. Minus - the complexity of manufacturing and static design.

. The features of this design allow you to freely approach the plants from any side, as well as more efficiently ventilate the space inside the greenhouse.

Greenhouse-bread box (snail). Arched structure consisting of two mutually independent surfaces. The semi-circular hinged walls can be easily moved, providing access to plants for watering, weeding or harvesting. There are models with both one and two movable doors.

Belgian greenhouse. Single pitched construction with a flat roof. Most often used for growing tall crops.

Do you need to build a foundation?

So that the greenhouse is not blown away by a strong gust of wind, and the whole structure is sufficiently rigid and stable, it is necessary to make a foundation. This will take quite a bit of time and will allow, if necessary, to easily transfer the greenhouse to a new location.

Here is a simple set of materials that will be required for the construction of the foundation:

• wooden beam 12x12 mm;
• ruberoid;
• wood screws;
• hacksaw;
• roulette;
• antiseptic;
• shovel.

A trench is dug along the perimeter of the structure being erected, with a width and depth exceeding the beam by 5-7 mm. Roofing material is laid in the trench. Next, pieces of timber of the required length are prepared and treated with an antiseptic composition. After that, the beam is laid in a trench, and the edges of the roofing material are wrapped towards the foundation (if necessary, the roofing material can be fixed on the beam with a construction stapler). It remains to securely fasten the bars with self-tapping screws - the foundation is ready.

Prices for roofing material

ruberoid

What material to choose for the construction of the frame?

The frame serves as a kind of skeleton on which the entire structure of the greenhouse rests. Therefore, it is necessary to approach the choice of material here with special care. The most inexpensive and common option is a wooden frame. The tree is easy to process, inexpensive, but it also serves much less. An ordinary greenhouse made of raw wood rarely lasts more than 3-4 years. However, if the wooden parts are pre-treated with an antiseptic, the service life of the structure can be increased to 10 years.

A more expensive, but also more durable option may be the use of a metal profile. The disadvantages of this option are a more complicated installation (especially when building a greenhouse on your own), as well as the susceptibility of the metal to corrosion.

On a note! The most practical option may be to use a galvanized profile. However, there are quite a few such greenhouses due to their high cost.

Consider the simplest option - a wooden frame for a greenhouse. To work, you will need a wooden block 50x50 or 40x40 mm, a board with a thickness of 25-30 mm and a width of 100-150 mm, a rail 30x20 cm, an antiseptic, metal-plastic water pipes with a diameter of 20-25 mm, mounting corners.

Table. Step by step instructions for making a wooden frame for a greenhouse.

Steps, illustrations	Description of actions
	A box is built on a foundation or just a leveled area. It is made from edged boards 25-30 mm thick. The boards are tightly fitted to each other and assembled into shields of the required size using 20x30 mm rail segments. The height of the greenhouse depends on the number of boards and can be from 20 to 50 cm. A high box is made when a warm bed is built inside the greenhouse.
	The shields are set according to the markings and their ends are fixed to the corner posts from a 50x50 mm bar using self-tapping screws or corners. The top of the racks are cut at an angle of 45 degrees. The box from the inside is carefully treated with an antiseptic, dried and the walls are covered with a waterproofing material - roofing felt or analogues. In the northern regions, the walls can be additionally insulated with polystyrene foam or polystyrene boards.
	Beams and posts form end walls. The middle rack is made from a bar 50x50 mm, placed strictly in the center of the end walls and attached to the boards on the corners and self-tapping screws. Beams from a bar 50x50 mm are marked in place, applied to the corner and middle posts, cut to size. When using a film as a coating, it is recommended to process the bar - chamfer and sand.
	Fasten the beams with the help of corners. 135 degree corners are used for connection with corner posts, 45 degrees for attachment to the middle rack. In the absence of the necessary corners, a perforated metal strip can be used. It is cut into segments of 8-10 cm and fixed to 6-8 self-tapping screws in each node. Steel corners without a protective coating need to be painted, galvanized ones can be left untreated.
	Intermediate racks are also made from a 50x50 mm bar. They are applied to the wall and marked in place, fixed from the inside with a steel perforated strip. The distance between the racks should be 40-50 cm, their number depends on the width of the greenhouse. From the inside, to strengthen the structure, you can fix a scarf from scraps of plywood.
	A ridge beam from a 50x50 mm bar is laid on the middle racks and fixed to the corners. The removal of the ridge bar on both sides must be at least 15 cm - during the operation of the greenhouse, a film rolled into a roll is attached to it. The upper chamfers are removed from the timber and sanded to avoid damage to the film.
	Rafter frames are made of metal-plastic pipes - it is more convenient to bend them in the right places, and besides, they retain their shape. The pipe installation step is 0.5-0.8 m. One of the end walls can be used as a template. The pipe is applied to the corner posts and beams and the bend points are marked. Bending pipes with a spring pipe bender.
	The truss frames are fixed with a perforated metal strip and self-tapping screws. At the bottom of the pipe, they are grabbed by 2-3 clamps. At the top, at the point of attachment to the ridge, a horizontal section of the pipe 5 cm long is needed for a better fit to the bar. There is only one attachment point.

Features of mounting polycarbonate

After completing the construction of the foundation and frame of the greenhouse, you should proceed with the installation of polycarbonate sheets.

The following tools may come in handy here:

• and sealing tape;
• marker;
• polycarbonate sheets;
• special self-tapping screws with;
• drill;
• hand circular saw.

To make the greenhouse look beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, it is necessary to cut polycarbonate sheets as evenly as possible. A hand-held circular saw is best suited for such purposes. The cut is even and straight.

After preparing all the structural elements, it is worth additionally processing the ends of the polycarbonate. To prevent the penetration of dust and moisture, one of the ends should be carefully glued with sealing tape. If this is not done, the polymer may darken prematurely, which will adversely affect the amount of sunlight the plants receive. It is better to glue the opposite end with perforated tape. This will help to avoid condensation, as well as effectively protect against dust and debris.

To fix the cut pieces of polycarbonate on the frame of the greenhouse, it is worth purchasing special self-tapping screws with thermal washers.

The thermal washer, on the one hand, will help not to overtighten the self-tapping screw, which is a very important point for cellular polycarbonate. An overtightened self-tapping screw will cause the honeycomb structure of the sheet to collapse, which can cause cracks and reduce the life of the material. On the other hand, if the self-tapping screw is loosely tightened, the contact of the polymer sheet with the frame will be loose, the sheet will vibrate and may break prematurely at the point of contact.

The greenhouse is as much a symbol of the modern age as space flights, computers with the Internet, robots and nuclear energy. This is not an exaggeration. According to WHO data for 1975, then 3/4 of the world's population lacked animal protein (without which, roughly speaking, a person becomes dumb and stupid), half were chronically malnourished, and a third, in addition, had never tasted either meat or meat in their lives. fish, no eggs.

We still feel the consequences of malnutrition and malnutrition on a global scale today, but if the situation is not improving radically, then at least it is not significantly worsening, although there are less than 0.5 hectares of agricultural land left on Earth per person. It is greenhouse farming that helps to hold out until better times (while still alive - hopefully!) the yield of fruit and vegetable crops in a greenhouse can be several times higher than in open ground(see fig.), and they harvest not in one gulp on a market day, but gradually all year round; this allows us to consistently meet demand and free up land for livestock farming.

Note: from the UN stuff. In the same 1975, UN experts zealously promoted vegetarianism. And last year they also recognized him as a mental disorder.

In turn, greenhouse agricultural technology was completely transformed quantitatively and qualitatively by a polycarbonate greenhouse. It is simple, cheap, durable and technologically advanced. In addition, if in the same 1975 expert tasters accurately separated greenhouse fruits and vegetables from ground fruits and vegetables, now they confuse them in about 50% of cases. This means that they do not feel a noticeable difference and speak at random. Under an indispensable condition: the test samples were grown in modern greenhouses using modern agricultural technologies. Which, in turn, in old greenhouses are either inefficient or simply not applicable. For example, a greenhouse made of wood and glass from drip-fog irrigation in it becomes completely unusable in 2-3 years.

Polycarbonate is a type of organic glass that reflects infrared (IR) rays well and thus can create a strong greenhouse effect. But he did not transform greenhouses on his own, but only after they learned how to produce it in the form of sheets of a honeycomb structure. This made it possible to create strong and resistant prestressed greenhouse structures on a lightweight frame; You can build a polycarbonate greenhouse in almost any climate, from the Sahara to the Putorana Mountains and from the Mojave Desert to Northern Labrador. Thanks to this, greenhouse farming has also become a public help: a greenhouse on a piece of land of a quarter of a hundred square meters is able to provide a family with fruits and herbs all year round and even provide a marketable surplus for sale.

Polycarbonate is easy to process, and the technology for creating structures with working skin from it is simple. With the widespread use of pipes made of engineering plastics and methods for their quick and durable connection, the construction of the frame has ceased to be a serious problem. Currently, there is a wide range of kits for assembling small garden greenhouses on sale, but - demand dictates prices! Therefore, everyone who wants to build a greenhouse with their own hands arrives: in the Penza region alone. number of self-made private greenhouses for 2009-2014 increased by more than 20 (!) times.

Note: engineering plastics - those that are able to bear mechanical operational loads for a long time. PVC, for example, with all its advantages, is not structural plastic, although it can be very useful in greenhouse business, which will be discussed later. Of the engineering plastics, polyisopropylene (PP) is most commonly used: it is not expensive, and its mechanical properties are comparable to steel. Further, unless otherwise specified, plastic will always be understood as PP.

There are different ways to build a greenhouse from PP, at least this:

Video: greenhouse made of polypropylene pipes

But we will further try to tell not only how to make a greenhouse ourselves, but also how to design it, and without complicated calculations, and during construction to avoid excessive costs and labor costs. Ready-made sets of parts are calculated for all occasions and therefore are not cheap, a design well developed by others in these specific circumstances may turn out to be unsuitable for any reason, and we will create our own greenhouse for our own local conditions, getting by with the minimum necessary.

We will focus primarily on polycarbonate greenhouses on a tubular plastic frame, as the most versatile. But there are a number of garden crops that can vegetate and bear fruit all year round at a relatively low above-zero temperature and relatively low light. These are people from the tropics who have taken root in temperate latitudes: cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, sweet peppers, zucchini, squash. We cultivate them as annuals, but in general they are evergreen and, with minimal heating costs, can produce marketable products for 9-10 months a year, and the demand for them is always good.

Such crops do not require high agricultural technologies, but they are afraid of overheating in summer; Here they need more fresh air and coolness. Therefore, and also for a number of other reasons, for their small-scale production and cultivation for their own consumption, the good old greenhouse made of wood is better suited, so we will also deal with them. We will not ignore mini-greenhouses for table greens, flowers and seedlings, especially since you can arrange one in a city apartment.

Finally, greenhouse business is being improved not only by venerable specialists in large research centers. Craftsmen sometimes come up with designs that are surprisingly effective and promising; some of them will also be discussed.

Greenhouse or greenhouse?

Greenhouses with greenhouses are usually distinguished by size. Like, the greenhouse is large, you can enter it and work there like in a garden. And the greenhouse is small, you can only climb into it with your hands, and then squatting, so do pruning, hilling, etc. uncomfortable. But this is only a visible difference, and the essence is much deeper: a large building can be a greenhouse, and a small box can be a greenhouse.

Note: about appearance and essence. The famous ancient Greek philosopher-sophist was once asked: "What is a man?" He, after thinking, answered: "A biped without feathers." The next day, the students shook out of the bag in front of him ... a plucked chicken.

The greenhouse creates the so-called. spring awakening effect. To do this, the soil in it is deeply mulched with manure; the best is horse. As biofuels decompose, they heat the earth from within. Root heating of plants at a lower air temperature than on the soil surface, in combination with an excess of nitrogen, stimulates, first of all, the rapid growth of vegetation of its nutrient factory - green mass. If plants have their own depots of supplies (bulbs, rhizomes), then they are primarily used for this, and the root system is still lagging behind in development. Figuratively speaking, plants do not yet think about fruiting under such conditions.

Greenhouses are used mainly for forcing and growing seedlings. Forcing is a process of controlled acceleration of vegetation; in some species - up to flowering. By distillation, for example, you can get onion feathers, fresh watercress and lilies of the valley by a predetermined date: New Year, March 8th. Plants are so exhausted from forcing that they either die or require a long rest in the vegetative phase. Distillation of table greens gives products of excellent quality if the planting material was environmentally friendly, because. plants take very little from the soil.

Note: the simplest full-fledged greenhouse for seedlings and forcing onions on greens can be built in half an hour or an hour, see fig. The fertile layer of soil is removed on a bayonet, folded into a pile. Another half bayonet is selected and a layer of manure is laid. The soil is laid back on top, a shelter is made of a film - and you're done! In central Russia, such a greenhouse produces products from about the end of March to mid-October or early November.

In the greenhouse, root heating takes place, but moderate. The main thing here is that the plants should feel the influx of warm, warmer than the soil, air from above and / or from the side. This creates a “mid-spring effect” whereby plants tend to produce as quickly as possible in order to start accumulating nutrients for the winter or dry season. Well, if a paradise with eternal spring is arranged for them, then you can “fatten” as much as you like without exhausting yourself, as long as there is enough soil nutrition: the root system is now working with might and main. This is the basis for the high productivity of the greenhouse economy.

Note: a greenhouse cannot be a greenhouse, but any greenhouse can become a greenhouse. In general, for this it is necessary to strengthen the soil heating and weaken the air. But the subtleties of handling distilled crops are already a topic from agricultural technology, and not the construction of greenhouses.

About refraction

Polycarbonate and silicate glass have a refractive index of light significantly more than 1. That is, the slopes of the greenhouse, the rays of the Sun falling on them, are directed inward at a steeper angle. On the one hand, this is good: in winter, the ramp works as a light concentrator - it collects oblique winter light over a larger area and directs it inward to a smaller one, see Fig.:

On the other hand, with a decrease in the slope of the slope, the degree of reflection of direct rays also increases. If the angle of their incidence decreases to a critical one, the so-called. angle of total reflection, then only half of the scattered light will pass inward, and the direct light will be completely reflected. Based on this:

• In mid-latitudes, the angle of inclination of the slopes must be chosen within 30-45 degrees from the horizontal.
• The further north the greenhouse is located, the steeper the slopes should be.
• Greenhouses of a conventional design must be made gable and oriented with a roof ridge from north to south, i.e. slopes to the east and west. In this case, the angle of incidence of most of the light that has passed inward onto the surface of the shadow slope will be less than the critical one and it will be reflected back inward.

Note: Cellular polycarbonate has an additional advantage over glass in this regard - light refracts each of the layers of its structure and the degree of light concentration is higher. But the layers of polycarbonate are thinner than the thinnest glass, so its light transmission is almost the same as that of a single layer of glass.

How do plants sense light?

Radiation refraction in the coating of the greenhouse has another important role: it smooths out fluctuations in lighting and temperature in it during the day and season. Most horticultural crops are quite hardy to the amount of light and temperature, if they are kept more or less stable or change smoothly. But a sharp jump in any of these parameters of the plant is understood as a signal that unfavorable conditions are approaching. At the same time, their physiology switches from growth and fruiting algorithms to survival and accumulation of their own reserves: the yield drops, the product quality deteriorates. A classic example is cucumbers. Let it not be for long, but it suddenly became colder or breathed with heat - everything became smaller and went bitter.

Own greenhouse

The first thing to start with is why do we need a greenhouse? What do we, speaking in Odessa, want to have from her? According to marketability, greenhouses are divided as follows:

1. Winter, or year-round - allow you to grow any crops all year round. To date, only durian and cherimoya are not physiologically amenable to greenhouse farming.
2. Seasonal capital, or semi-winter - give marketable products from Central Russia 8-10 months. in a year. In these, either annuals or plants with physiology that require / endure a dormant period at sub-zero temperatures are cultivated.
3. Seasonal lightweight - the active phase of the production cycle for 2-3 months. shorter than semi-winter ones; usually they are meant by seasonal greenhouses. Cultivated in them, as a rule, early / late ordinary vegetables and herbs.
4. Temporary - used for growing seedlings in natural soil, forcing or for a one-two-three-fold crop of crops that greatly deplete the soil: root crops, strawberries, etc. When the site is developed, the greenhouse is dismantled, transferred to a new location, and the land is left to rest under fallow or sown with nitrogen-fixing crops, legumes, etc.
5. Greenhouses - they are put (it is difficult to call it a building) once for seedlings and forcing. How to make a greenhouse as such, said above. It is more difficult to arrange greenhouses for exotic flowers, for example. orchids or Gesneriaceae, but this topic is already from floriculture, and not gardening.

Note: phalaenopsis common in flower shops - only a few representatives of about 800 genera and more than 35,000 species of orchids, suitable for mass culture for cutting. The flowers of all orchids are long-lived and stand-up cut. Among them there are many such that in Hollywood there is not enough cocaine to purposely invent, on the left in fig. There are cases when rich connoisseurs paid $5,000 and even $20,000 for just 1 flower of a rare species. In countries where all sorts of rarities are loved, renting live flowering orchids in pots is a lucrative form of small business; rare orchids need to be groomed and nurtured until flowering for 7-8 years. Many orchids exude a delicate fragrance; vanilla is an orchid. Orchids grow up to the tundra, but in our area they are either small and do not catch the eye (for example, orchis), or very rare, like venus slippers - cypripediums, in the center in fig. The Gesnerian culture is simpler, and they are also very showy and simply luxurious, on the right in fig. True, they are not suitable for cutting.

The purpose of the greenhouse determines the initial and operating costs for it. In winter, a capital foundation is needed with complete concreting of the underground part and insulation, as well as full lighting and heating. The cost of their heating is the lion's share of the current ones, so winter greenhouses are more profitable than the larger ones (from about 200 cubic meters) in large farms. The own heat reserve of a large greenhouse is enough to maintain the vital activity of plants, taking into account the greenhouse effect, for several days, up to 2 weeks. Therefore, heating systems for them do not rely on peak frosts, but on the average seasonal temperature, which is much higher.

The original version of the winter greenhouse is a greenhouse-greenhouse; it does not require constant heating in the middle latitudes at all. The mulch that decomposes under the soil layer heats the greenhouse. But its production cycle is difficult to vary, it is necessary to extract manure in large quantities 1-2 times a year, and food crops from it most often do not pass modern sanitary requirements, because. are oversaturated with nitrates. In the greenhouse phase of the cycle, only chives are more or less edible. Large hotbeds are used mainly as greenhouses, and small home gardens are used for cut flowers.

Note: in certain climatic conditions, it is possible to build a completely non-volatile winter greenhouse, the so-called. thermos greenhouses; a separate section will be devoted to them. But the complexity of construction and the cost of it for a thermos greenhouse turn out to be much higher than for a conventional one. True, exceptions are possible, see later in the same section.

Semi-winter greenhouses- also quite solid structures; the foundation is most often tape monolithic or from ready-made blocks of lightweight type, tk. the upper structure is light and is not afraid of uneven shrinkage. But the working area is illuminated and heated here only at the beginning and end of the season of use, and 6-7 months. The greenhouse operates on natural light and the greenhouse effect. The light lantern of a semi-winter greenhouse made of polycarbonate on a PP frame will be inexpensive and can last more than 15 years, and with minimal illumination and heating in such a one from Moscow and to the south, you can grow perennial subtropical crops up to citrus fruits; they still have a dormant period. Harvesting will be seasonal, and heating in the very cold to a slight plus will help the plants endure the winter.

seasonal greenhouses Most of all, they build themselves. Ordinary table crops, with skillful management in the Moscow region, give up to 10 months. per year, and to the south of Rostov-on-Don, they are able to function year-round. In both cases, the cost of light and heat will not exceed more than 2 times those for a city apartment of equal area. With a reduction in the time of use in the cold season, heat costs fall rapidly, so most of these greenhouses live up to their name. The profitability of seasonal greenhouses increases significantly if inexpensive solid fuel for stoves is available to the owners; see the section on heating greenhouses for more details.

Light lanterns of seasonal greenhouses are generally the same as those of semi-winter greenhouses, but the foundation is made light columnar. Most often, rolled metal is used for it (pipes, corners, channels), but it will serve a period on a par with a greenhouse and very cheap wood, if the pieces of timber or logs for it are boiled in bitumen for 10-20 minutes (scalded with bitumen) and before being installed in the pits, their ends wrap with ruberoid. If the life of the greenhouse does not exceed 5-7 years, and the lantern is plastic, then it can be built without a foundation.

Temporary greenhouses and greenhouses use in the middle lane from about April to October. They grow fast-ripening crops in them; predominantly bulbous and root vegetables, as well as table greens. Make temporary greenhouses most often ground (see below) and cover with a film. Lighting and heating are not done, because. natural light is already / still enough for photosynthesis, and the greenhouse effect gives an increase of 7-12 degrees to the seasonal temperature.

Note: the degree of the greenhouse effect depends on the strength of the lighting, because. Plants release carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. Therefore, behind the light in the greenhouse you need an eye and an eye - less light, less carbon dioxide, it became colder, photosynthesis weakened, the greenhouse effect also weakened, it got colder, and so very quickly until freezing.

Greenhouse and soil

The next factor to keep in mind when, so to speak, preliminary consideration of the greenhouse is the nature of the use of the soil. According to it, greenhouses are divided into soil, box and trench or bulk.

Ground, as the name implies, are built directly on the ground. They are temporary and seasonal. The basis of such a greenhouse is simple: wooden formwork 200-300 mm high on a flat area, see fig. Outside, the formwork is supported with pins made of reinforcing bars, on which the ends of the arcs of the lantern from pipes are put on. The frame of the lantern is lightweight, designed for more or less favorable weather conditions. Cover it mainly with a film.

Fertile soil is poured into the formwork; mulch if necessary. As the soil is depleted, its top layer is selected and changed. Such agriculture will last no more than 5-7 years: the smaller the plot of land, the more difficult and expensive it is to maintain its fertility for a long time. But by that time, the formwork will rot, the film, if it is not disposable (see below), will wear out, and the frame of the greenhouse is made collapsible or, if it is made of PP pipes, completely transferred by two or three to a new place.

The box greenhouse is suitable for all greenhouse crops for at least 10 years; theoretically - forever. This is achieved by the fact that the reinforced formwork is filled up with crushed stone along the waterproofing, on which boxes are placed filled with earth, with perforated bottoms. The depleted earth from the boxes is simply thrown away and a new one is poured. Excess irrigation water flows into the rubble and then into the drainage. Thus, the scourge of non-professional greenhouse farms is excluded - acidification of the soil from the cold from below. If there is no drainage system on the site, then the drain of the greenhouse is taken out into a cesspool attached to it. It is impossible to reuse wastewater for irrigation, harmful micro-animals are teeming with them!

Most highly profitable home-made greenhouses are box-type. The production of formwork and foundation for a box greenhouse is also possible from wood (see Fig.), because. in this case, it almost does not contact the soil and is less exposed to harmful effects. If lumber, in addition to being treated with biocides, is also soaked twice with hot bitumen, then the formwork will last 12-15 years. For a longer estimated service life, it is better with a blind area (for a semi-winter greenhouse - with insulation) and build a brick base on it.

Note: for plants with a superficial root system (onions, radishes, carrots, melons, watermelons), the boxes can be on stands. Then the greenhouse can be multi-storey, in whole or in part.

A trench greenhouse is, roughly speaking, a series of concrete gutters (trenches) with technological passages between them. They are cast together with the foundation and covered with a common lantern. In each trench, crushed stone drainage is made with access to a cesspool or a collector common to the site, and earth is poured on top of it. Plots for different crops in trenches are separated by removable partitions reaching the drainage layer.

Caring for a trench greenhouse is more difficult than a box greenhouse, and the likelihood of the spread of diseases in it is greater, which requires quite skillful agricultural technology. But with proper construction, soil cooling from below is completely excluded even on permafrost. In addition, it is possible to cultivate plants with a powerful deep root system, up to woody ones. Therefore, most of all winter and semi-winter greenhouses are built with trenches in places with a harsh climate.

Note: the author knows a resident of the Kola Peninsula, who, on income from potatoes, onions, garlic and tomatoes from a makeshift trench greenhouse, built himself a mansion of 230 residential squares in 5 years. When asked: “Mortgage?”, He asked in response: “What is it?”

When Form Matters

The most important factor determining the functionality of a greenhouse is the configuration of its lantern. In terms of the variety of architectural forms, greenhouses can compete with public buildings, but they most often build frame greenhouses-houses on their own, pos. 1 in the figure, tunnel faceted, pos. 2, and tunnel arches with semicircular (pos. 3) and lancet (pos. 4) arcs of arches.

small house

In the greenhouse-house, the entire operational load is carried by the frame, so the glazing can be of any kind. With the required strength for a backyard greenhouse, the simplest technologically and cheapest is a wooden frame. Modern methods of processing commercial wood make it possible to achieve its durability in greenhouse conditions up to 30-40 years. The best type of wood for construction is larch.

The easiest way to make a wooden greenhouse-house is fully ventilated; this is important for summer greenhouse cultivation, see above. The roof at a high standing of the Sun slightly shade the plants and cuts off the ultraviolet, which protects them from burns. In the southern regions, sometimes the roof slopes in the very heat are also covered with gauze or old washed sheets.

The roof of a wide-open greenhouse-house plays another role: an excess of carbon dioxide is formed in the greenhouse, because. it is heavier than air, and when heated, it cannot go up. For plants, this is like caviar for cognac: the harvest is rampant, and the fruits are one to one.

In regions with a sharply continental climate, a wooden greenhouse-house will be the best choice, especially if local lumber is cheap. In Yakutia (Republic of Sakha), for example, it is very hot in summer and watermelons have time to ripen on a layer of soil 20-30 cm above the permafrost. Small, with a large apple or orange, but it tastes like watermelon like watermelon.

Note: Yakut watermelons may seem incredible, but we, without limiting ourselves to verbal assurances, refer the reader to Yu. Yuri Konstantinovich is not related.

Watermelons and melons come from deserts, they are able to develop as semi-ephemera, quickly. However, it is useless to experiment with tomatoes, cucumbers and radishes in the open ground of Yakutia: the warm season is not enough for ripening, the roots either reach the permafrost and the plant withers, or the Sun burns it - the air is clean, transparent, UV burns. A fully hinged greenhouse-house allows you to create a suitable microclimate at the right time for early ripening varieties. True, with heating at the beginning / end of the season, but here the fuel is inexpensive, and the sale of products is ensured.

A drawing with a frame specification for a winter-semi-winter wooden greenhouse suitable for installation on permafrost in a harsh climate is shown in fig. In European Russia, a greenhouse-house can be significantly lightened and its frame can be made from improvised materials, for example. old window frames, see below.

Note: a wooden greenhouse with polycarbonate is by no means at enmity. On the contrary, lightweight but durable polycarbonate takes on some of the operational loads, which silicate glass is not capable of. At current prices, polycarbonate coating will cost less than glazing, and the entire wooden greenhouse under polycarbonate will be stronger and cheaper.

faceted tunnel

Greenhouse houses have a significant drawback, which manifests itself in places with low insolation: when the Sun is low, the angle of incidence of its rays on the slopes is close to optimal once a day for a short time. Simply put, the greenhouse-house does not concentrate the light well and turns out to be a bit dark in winter. In an attempt to solve this problem, a faceted tunnel greenhouse appeared.

It is impractical to make the frame of a faceted tunnel from plastic, because The mechanical properties of PP turn out to be the best in the case when the frame cross-links are prestressed, i.e. if the frame arcs are curvilinear. Therefore, a faceted tunnel is, as a rule, a metal greenhouse made of pipes, sheathed with polycarbonate; pipes can be round, but profile pipes are more often used. However, here the problem of the joints of the frame elements arises.

Welds under greenhouse conditions are intensively corroded, especially external ones, sandwiched between the pipe and the casing. Non-destructive visual inspection in such places is not possible, so the frame is prone to sudden failure.

Note: don't try to make steel frames prestressed - regular rolled steel is completely unsuitable for this use! Have you heard of metal fatigue and fluidity?

In the industrial production of metal greenhouses, welding is generally abandoned, and frames are assembled on shaped plastic connectors, on the left in Fig. These are sold separately, but they are expensive and require an additional large amount of fasteners, so home-made steel frames of greenhouses are still welded, but without external seams: the workpiece is cut at an angle, bent and cooked from the inside, on the right in Fig. This requires special accuracy and accuracy in the calculation of the frame and the marking of the workpieces, but the weakened joints are immediately visible, because. the weld seam rusts faster than solid metal.

Speaking of connections

In greenhouse frames, except for wooden ones, it is impossible to drill holes and drive fasteners into them: a sharp difference in environmental conditions inside and outside will give centers of corrosion and / or dangerous mechanical stresses in such places. Non-wood frames are assembled by welding or special connecting nodes. In plastic branded kits for self-assembly, the parts in the connectors are still fixed with self-tapping screws, because. a set that requires special tools for assembly, few will buy. But serious manufacturers carefully calculate the location of the fasteners, the entire structure is modeled on computers, and the prototype is run through full-scale tests before the series. And frivolous locals, not bothering themselves with painful thoughts about copyrights, simply copy the worked models.

arched tunnels

The greenhouse-tunnel of semicircular arches is the easiest to manufacture, the most wind-resistant and best of all concentrates the light. Pay attention again to pos.3 fig. with greenhouse shapes: most of the semi-circular sides seem darkish. This means that most of the light went inward and did its useful work there. And in the summer, in the heat with a high Sun, an almost flat roof gives the same effect as that of a greenhouse-house.

The material consumption of a semi-circular greenhouse and the cost of its construction are also minimal, however, snow resistance is low, and in places with a large snow load, incidents like the one in Fig. are possible, even if the structure is structurally completely correct. Therefore, in regions with heavy snow, it would be more correct to build an lancet greenhouse. It will cost 3-5% more, but it is easy to make several large vents for summer ventilation, which is important east of the Urals, mountains and rivers.

Any arch shows all its advantages only when it is tense, operational load as part of the structure or previously. For a greenhouse, as a light one-story structure, only the second option is possible. At the same time, the excellent mechanical qualities of PP are fully manifested in parts made of prestressed pipes. In combination with a working polycarbonate cladding, this brings greenhouses from it on a plastic tubular frame to a record ratio of strength, resistance and durability to cost. This implies another record - the popularity of structures of this type. Therefore, a little lower we will deal with them in more detail, but for now we will briefly consider one more arch.

Profile arch

In thin-walled three-dimensional parts, with bending radii characteristic of arched greenhouses, stresses in ordinary steel turn out to be far from its yield strength, on the one hand. On the other hand, galvanized C- and U-profiles for drywall are inexpensive, lightweight, and assembling a greenhouse frame from a profile of this type (see Fig.) seems to be elementary: a Phillips screwdriver and metal scissors are enough. When hardened with struts and crossbars, the “fresh” design comes out quite strong, even stronger than from PP pipes. And the skin can be attached to it not with clamps (see below), but somehow simpler and easier.

However, the first disappointments await the profile enthusiast already during assembly. Firstly, you have to twist a lot of screws and they are expensive. And the fingers cramped into a claw and bleeding calluses simply scream: “Well, buy, finally, you, the owner of such a screwdriver!” Secondly, manually marked and cut without a profile cutter (and there are a lot of them!) Do not connect exactly and the whole frame goes, as they say, sideways. In production, it’s easier, where the computer will calculate, transfer the data to the robot stamp, and the robot will cut it perfectly, it simply doesn’t know how badly.

But the most important disappointment awaits even before the end of the first season: the frame is rusting before our eyes. What, it would seem, should be read immediately in the specification for the profiles - they are not intended, like drywall, for outdoor use ...

plastic arches

Snow and wind...

Correctly arranging and assembling the plastic greenhouse itself is possible only if you know the wind and snow loads on it at the place of construction. The maps in fig. With the numerical values ​​of the loads, as they say, do not bother and do not expect complex formulas in the future: everything has already been reduced to the numbers of the load zones. If one of them is indicated in the text, it means the largest in this place. For example, the greenhouse will be in the 2nd wind and 6th snow zone, or vice versa. Then you need to do it for the 6th zone; features in snow and wind, if in this case they are, are negotiated.

frame

Branded greenhouse frames are assembled from special pipes on shaped connectors (see, for example, Fig.): glasses, flat and three-coordinate crosses, straight and oblique tees, splitters for several angles. They are on sale, but they are expensive and, as a rule, are designed for a specific design. Pushing around in an attempt to adapt it for yourself, you still have to buy the rest to complete the set. Which immediately and entirely would be half the price.

We will go the other way. We will get by with 3/4 inch PP water pipes and cheap connectors for them sold everywhere: straight couplings, flat tees and right angles. We will connect the details, as well as. Renting a soldering iron (more precisely, a welding machine) for propylene is inexpensive, it consumes little electricity (plugs into a regular outlet), and you can learn how to weld PP in half an hour. The finished frame of this design will come out no worse than the branded one, but much cheaper. A novice master will be able to assemble it over the weekend. Since aerodynamics and icing are more important for the greenhouse than the weight of the upper floors, the frame is designed according to aeronautical rather than building principles. Good planes fly, sometimes longer than an ordinary house costs.

Zero cycle

The main thing about preparing the base of the greenhouse has already been said earlier. It is only necessary to add that the site for the greenhouse must be planned with an accuracy of 5 cm / m, otherwise the probability of soil acidification increases. If the greenhouse is not ground, after planning, a soil slope of 6-8 cm / m is formed towards the drain into the drainage. For lightweight greenhouses, the slope is formed before the gravel formwork is installed, and for capital greenhouses, after the strip foundation is poured. The slopes of the drains of winter trench greenhouses and thermos greenhouses are formed by a screed of their floors. Don't forget about slope waterproofing!

The arcs of the arches of the considered design are tightly put on the pins of reinforcing bars protruding upwards by 40-50 cm. It is not necessary to make a ledge less, the arcs will not hold well. More - also not necessary, bent incorrectly. Under the lightweight greenhouse, the rebars are driven into the ground close to the formwork by 1 m or more, and under the capital they are walled up in the foundation for the same 40-50 cm. in the thickness of the formwork boards.

Note: in zones 1-3, the thresholds of the door and window frames are also attached to the formwork with clamps and self-tapping screws. In the upper zones, frames are made without thresholds, and their racks are put on pins from reinforcement, like arcs.

How to make a frame?

Dimensions

The standard lengths of water pipes are 6, 5 and 4 m. From them, semicircular arches are obtained with a span of 3.6, 3 and 2.3 m, taking into account cutting waste and shrinkage of welding joints. These values ​​should guide the calculation of the overall dimensions of the greenhouse. Lancet arches are more reliable if the snow zone is 4th and higher. Then they go, on the contrary, from the size: the arch is drawn on a scale on a graph paper (the upper corner is necessarily straight in this case!), The length of its wing is measured with a curvimeter, a flexible ruler or laying out along the contour of a thick thread, followed by measurement, and transferred to the length of the workpiece. 20 cm are added for cutting-shrinkage. You can also do the opposite: measure a piece of soft wire (for example, a copper winding wire with a diameter of 0.8-1.2 mm) on a scale, bend it as it should on a graph paper and beat off the arc wing profile on it .

Assembly

The arcs of the arches are assembled straight on a flat surface. They are put in place one by one; during the assembly process, a ridge and longitudinal load-bearing beams are mounted - stringers, pos. 1 in fig. Door and window frames, pos. 2 are assembled separately on corners, tees and straight couplings. Couplings - the basis of hinges and latches; sections of frame racks are welded into the nozzles of the couplings. Then, hinges and latches from pipe segments of a larger diameter are attached to the coupling bodies with self-tapping screws. In this case, it is possible, because there will be no permanent loads in these places, and malfunctions of hinges with latches do not affect the strength of the frame and are easily eliminated. The assembly of door panels and vents begins by threading their rear pillars into the hinge holders, then the rest is added by weight. They are sheathed with anything, on self-tapping screws in the frames of the paintings, because and these nodes are not load-bearing.

The lightest frame of this type is shown in pos. 3. Pay attention - the ridge beam, like the stepped stringers, is assembled from pipe sections on tees. In this case, the door and window frames are also fastened on tees flush with the gables.

How often to put arcs?

The installation step of the arcs is determined as follows:

• If zones 1 and 1, take a step of 1100 mm.
• In other cases, put the zone numbers and get the summary number of the load zone N.
• With the largest zone up to the 3rd inclusive, 4800 is divided by N, and the resulting value is rounded to the nearest smaller integer, a multiple of 50, and the step is obtained in millimeters; e.g. for 2 and 3 zones it will be 950 mm, and for 3 and 3 - 800 mm.
• If the largest zone is 4 or 5, 5600 is divided by N; further - similarly to 2 and 3 zones.
• In the largest 6 and 7 zones, 5500 is divided by N.

The dependence of the arc step on the zone, as we see, is non-linear. This is explained by the fact that as the zone number increases, stringers take on an increasing load, see below. So the design comes out a little more material-intensive, but significantly less labor-intensive.

Note 15: The 8th zone, both of which, generally speaking, is problematic. Here, it happens that snow breaks concrete floors, and the wind shifts houses from foundations. Any independent construction here is carried out at your own peril and risk, and this applies to greenhouses in full. How to get out, with a certain degree of risk, will be said later in the course of the presentation.

Gain

You can rely on the lightest frame with some apprehension in 1-2 zones, but even here it is desirable to reinforce it with at least a couple of stringers. The schemes of their location for different zones are shown in pos. A-V. Do not forget only that the coordinates are given for the longitudinal axes of the ties, and the beams themselves are stepped, like the ridge beam. With this in mind (and shrinkage for welding), it is necessary to mark the workpieces.

Attention! Pairs of stringers of the same level are always made in mirror image, pos. E!

In the 6th zone, the upper pairs of stringers are connected with crossbars (pos. E), in the 7th, the ends of the tunnel on both sides are reinforced at the bottom with braces according to the 2-1 scheme (see Fig.) In the 8th, you need to reinforce according to the 3-2 scheme -1 (see ibid), but, again, without any guarantee. It is useless to increase the number of stringers in the upper zones: figuratively speaking, they begin to push loads away from each other and, in general, the structure weakens.

How to put braces without a gusset? Moreover, the angles are fractional? Using homemade galvanized clamps 0.5-0.7 mm, see fig. on right. The workpiece is bent in a U-shape, mandrels are inserted into it from segments of a steel pipe and the ears are pressed with a vise. It is convenient to use 2 pairs of vices: in stationary desktops, they squeeze a long ear, and with smaller adjustable ones, a short one.

After crimping, the mandrel is removed, the clamp is cut to size and shape, and holes are drilled for M6 bolts. Such handicraft crimping is obtained with a shortage, but here it is only for the better: compressed by bolts in place, the clamp and pipes will grab tightly, and it will acquire monstrous rigidity for such a thin metal.

Arrows and legs

The location of the stringers on the lancet arcs is determined based on the basic semicircular with the same span, as shown in pos. E. Please note that this method is only valid for arrows with a 90 degree tip angle! You can’t make the arrowhead single without a gusset, well, you don’t need to. An additional pipe, corners and tees for a two-beam ridge, pos. I. Its halves are performed, like stringers, in a mirror. The offset from the top is the maximum; beams need to be moved as close to it as possible, according to the size of the available tees and the skills of PP welding. By the way, it is easiest to bring out both the chimney and the semicircular arch through the double ridge, it will make it stronger.

If the arches rest on vertical legs no higher than 60 cm, counting from the top of the armatures, then an additional stringer is placed at the junction of their wings with legs, pos D. Reinforcement in zones 7 and 8 is performed according to the same schemes, shifting one cell down, those. there should not be empty cells under reinforced ones. If the legs are higher than 0.6 m - alas! - must be considered especially, because the bottom of the frame will no longer work as a continuation of the arches, but as a separate box.

Door and window

In zones starting from the 3rd, it is necessary, and in the lower ones it is highly desirable to fasten the door and window frames not directly to the arc (slightly beveled tees create undesirable stresses in the frame), but hang them on half-bars and short longitudinal holders, pos. K, K1, K2. Such a mount, to an inexperienced eye, seems rather weak, but remember: a still working sheathing made of durable polycarbonate will fall on the gables. Ultimately, the frame will be no weaker and will last no less than the DC-3 or An-2 fuselage.

And under the film?

The current film greenhouses are not at all the flimsy disposable "polyethylene" of the past. A greenhouse cover made of modern reinforced film will last 5-7 years and will cost several times cheaper than a hard polycarbonate one. The special greenhouse film has another valuable property: hydrophilicity. It retains a layer of moisture up to 2 mm on its surface, which improves the transparency of the coating and enhances the greenhouse effect. Thanks to this, a modern film greenhouse can be seasonal and even semi-winter. It does not cause problems and airing film greenhouses in the heat: it is enough to tuck the edges of the canopy; they do not need a door with a window. In general, for places with a mild and temperate climate, a greenhouse under a film is the best option, but in others it makes no sense to build it.

The frame described above will go perfectly under the film. It has quite an aircraft margin of safety, and when calculating for a film, it is enough to take the zone numbers 1 higher. The pillars of the door and window frames must be left, see Fig., because they take part of the load. You can fasten the Velcro to the racks not with self-tapping screws, as in the figure, but with clamps made of thin soft wire. Not so aesthetically pleasing, but simpler, cheaper and no less reliable. If with self-tapping screws, then it is better to install direct couplings under the Velcro and wrap the self-tapping screws into their thickened cases.

Rigid roof

Film greenhouses justify themselves mainly in cases where they are temporarily installed for a relatively short period of time. For example, someone bought a plot for a forest plantation or pasture for livestock. As now with loans - everyone knows. In order to raise funds for its development, I decided to wait 3-4 years, and for the time being, rent out the land inexpensively. This is where subtenants and a farmer colleague can help out, and it’s not bad to profit from it yourself.

For long-term use, greenhouses with a rigid polycarbonate coating are more profitable. With an estimated service life of 20 years (and this is not the limit), it will cost less than 2-3-fold replacement of the film cover. In addition, you do not need to mess with its washing, removal and installation twice a year and allocate space for its winter storage. So let's take a closer look at polycarbonate.

It has already been said above that the greenhouse, in terms of its coverage, differs from other structures in a sharp difference in environmental conditions inside and outside. A coating up to several cm thick has to withstand the same loads as a half-meter stone wall. Therefore, the methods of working with polycarbonate for a greenhouse are somewhat different from them for and. How to cut polycarbonate for a greenhouse, gives an idea of ​​the video:

How do you attach it to the frame?

We will consider only individual points that are insufficiently covered in well-known sources.

Structure

Cellular polycarbonate slabs are produced in different thicknesses and structures. Plates of the same thickness can be of different structure, and vice versa. The 2R structure (see Fig.) is unsuitable for greenhouses either in terms of heat-insulating or mechanical qualities.

R-type structures (without diagonal connections in cells) are more transparent than RX type, but they hold dynamic loads worse, therefore they are suitable for places where the wind zone is not higher than the 4th one. 3R is used where the average winter temperature is above -15 degrees or frost is below -20 for more than a day no more than once every 3 years. In other cases, you need to take 5R.

The temperature ranges for 3RX and 6RX are the same, but in cases where the wind zone is 5th and higher. For any 8th zone, the only acceptable option is 6RX. 5RX does not need to be taken, it is not very transparent. 6RX and was designed to replace the 5RX in greenhouses.

The thickness of the plates is determined as follows:

• If both zones are not higher than the 2nd, we take 6 mm.
• For other cases, we find the summary number N, as for the frame.
• For the 3rd and 4th largest zones, N is left as is.
• For the largest 5 and 6 zones, we take N + 1.
• If there is a 7 or 8 zone, we take N + 2.
• The resulting value is multiplied by 2.
• The result is rounded up to the nearest higher standard slab thickness.

Thus, for example, for 4 and 4 zones, a thickness of 16 mm is obtained, and for 8 and 8 - 40 mm. However, there are no both 8 zones in the Russian Federation.

sheathing

The standard dimensions of polycarbonate slabs are 6x2.1 m and 12x2.1 m. The general dimensions of the greenhouse are chosen such that an overhang of at least 10 cm is formed above the gables of the arched and faceted houses and along the entire perimeter of the roof of the houses. According to SNiP, the overhang should be at least 15 cm. If the greenhouse is commercial and you intend to obtain a sanitary certificate for the products, please note that the inspectors and the greenhouse will check the entire form.

The radii of curvature of the greenhouse arches allow the slabs of the most commonly used structures 3R and 5R to be laid on the frame both along and across. How would be more correct? And so, and so. It all depends on what loads in a given place are greater, static from snow or dynamic from wind. If the number of the snow zone is greater than the wind zone, it is better to lay it across, on the left in Fig. Otherwise - along, on the right there.

Note: RX structures are only laid lengthwise, otherwise sudden failure of the coating due to material fatigue is possible.

Longitudinal joints are assembled on standard FP (straight) and RP (ridge) connectors, depending on the bending radius in a given place. It is desirable to seal the upper gaps of the joints with building silicone, marked with yellow circles. It is better to take one-piece connectors, they are cheaper and there is nothing to rust in them. In extreme cases, it is still possible to separate the joint by dripping it with brake fluid and pulling the plates along in different directions.

When sheathing across, some of the seams between the plates may be hanging. In this case, the plates are connected in a known amateur way (shown in the inset): strips of flexible plastic 3-6 mm thick with sealing gaskets made of rubber or silicone and self-tapping screws. It is better to take strips and an overlay for a joint from PVC. It is strong enough, reliable and resistant for such a case. But its main advantage is in the junction - PVC quite quickly sticks tightly to the gasket and it never squeezes out from under the lining.

Mounts

Methods for attaching polycarbonate to the frame with thermal washers (pos. 1-3 in the figure) have been described many times and we will not dwell on the details. We only note that if the sheathing is longitudinal, then both ends of the plates must be pasted over with perforated self-adhesive tape and framed with an end profile.

The frame of the greenhouse, as indicated above, is highly undesirable to weaken with holes and fasteners. The skin is attached to it with clamps made of steel 1.5-3 mm thick, pos. 4 and 5. A strip 40-60 mm wide is bent along the mandrel in a U-shape, clamped together with the mandrel in a vice and the mustache is bent. The bend must be done taking into account the thickness of the rubber gaskets, and they, in turn, according to the wall thickness of the cage connectors of the frame. The thermal gap between the plates 3-5 mm wide is filled with silicone sealant.

Hut from the windows

The greenhouse from the frames of unusable windows appeared during the mass construction of Khrushchev. Firstly, then the carpentry for new buildings was of the most vile quality: “Come on with the plan! Val come on! The current generation of people will live under communism!” Therefore, many new settlers immediately changed the windows-doors to custom ones, since the materials and work then cost a penny. Secondly, the workers, i.e. officially permanently employed, summer cottages were then distributed to everyone right and left. Thirdly, penny state prices and availability are by no means and by no means friends. It is appropriate here to recall an old Soviet political anecdote. The chairman of the collective farm "Light of Ilyich" opens the general meeting: "Comrades! We have two issues on the agenda: the repair of the cowshed and the construction of communism. On the first question: there are no boards, no nails, no bricks, no cement, no lime. Let's move on to the second question.

We will move on to technical issues, they are of some use. Now, too, many windows are being replaced with metal-plastic with double-glazed windows, but the frames are still strong. Of these, you can assemble a completely reliable and durable house, if you help the frames a little to carry the load. It’s not worth covering such a structure in Khrushchev’s style with a disposable film, it’s better to spend money on a couple of sheets of inexpensive 3R 6 mm polycarbonate, which, with a greenhouse size of about 6x3 m, will make it possible to do for the roof, except for the gables, with just one roof truss. We will get a completely seasonal and commercial greenhouse for zones up to the 4th inclusive, i.e. for most of the territory of the Russian Federation suitable for agricultural use.

The design of the frame of the greenhouse under the frame is shown in fig. for clarity, the proportions of parts are given arbitrarily. Dimensions in plan - 5.7x2.7 m; internal space - 5.4x2.4 m. It will be needed for it, in addition to polycarbonate and frames, 15-16 boards 150x40 mm 6 m long and 1 beam 150x150 mm of the same length; only 0.675 cu. m of softwood, and about 5 kg of nails 70, 100 and 150 mm.

The foundation is a wooden columnar, of 6 pillars in 2 rows 1 m long. A beam is needed just for the foundation. The protrusion of the pillar at the highest point of the site above the ground is 30 cm; the rest are aligned with it by the hydraulic level. It is not necessary to deepen the pillars according to the calculation of freezing, the structure will play along with the ground for many years, it was checked on Khrushchev's "polyethylene".

The beams of the lower support frame - grillage - and the upper - strapping - are sewn on nails from boards as usual, in a zigzag, pos 1. The driving step in a row is 250-400 mm. The grillage is assembled into a prefabricated spike, and the harness into the prefabricated quarter (pos. 2) is also on nails, 5 envelopes per corner. Trimmings of boards measuring 150x150 dissolve into three, these sticks will come in handy later.

Next, the grillage is mounted on the foundation and 2 boards are spread in three lengths. Here, from the new tree, you will have to go to the old one, sort the frames. 8 solid highest ones (and preferably 10, if there is one), set aside immediately (on the left in the figure), they will go to the corners and, if there are 2 more, to frame the doorway. The rest are scattered over the estimated area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe walls somehow, if only there were fewer holes, on the right in fig.

Now, from a 50x40 rail, 4 racks are cut into the height of the highest frame plus 10 mm and nailed to the grillage vertically at the corners flush with their outer sides. The corners are sheathed on the outside with boards with a height of now racks plus 220 mm (grillage height + strapping height). The strapping is laid in the nest that has turned out at the top and the entire box is finally sewn with nails.

Frames are installed starting from the corners. How to fasten them to the box and to each other is shown in pos. 3-5. Approaching from 2 sides to the places of the future door and swing window, they put the racks of the door and window frames from solid boards. They are fastened to the grillage, strapping and adjacent frames with nails using the same scrap bars. On them, if necessary, you can dissolve another 1-2 boards.

Now it's time for the roof. Rafter trusses are made according to pos. 6. Polycarbonate is laid on the roof along. A longitudinal strip 40 cm wide is cut from each slab. In this case, roof overhangs of about 15 cm are formed, and the strips will go to the sheathing of the gables.

The penultimate stages of work, firstly, close the gaping openings in the walls with foam plastic, and foam all the gaps. Foam in this case is not only a sealant and insulation; it will give the whole structure additional connectivity and strength. Secondly, they measure the dimensions of the door and vents in place and make their frames according to fig. on right.

Before the drainage device and the launch of the greenhouse, it remains to arrange the base. In Khrushchev's times, slate or roofing material was put on it, sprinkled with earth on the outside. It is easier for us: now there is such a wonderful (without irony) material as empty plastic bottles. From they are simply stuffed under the grillage with the necks inside, only the plugs do not need to be removed. You will get excellent thermal insulation with ventilation, absolute manufacturability with maintainability and long-term durability; environmentalists all over the world are ready to howl, what should they do with these bottles. And we are free.

Note: this type of box will also go under a disposable plastic film, only it needs to be reinforced with the same 50x40 rails, see fig:

Bottled

Plastic bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Among the remarkable qualities of this material, there is a unique one: it transmits UV almost without loss. This allows you to enhance the greenhouse effect and thereby reduce heating costs and extend the operating cycle of the greenhouse. Therefore, if it is possible to get at least 400 PET containers, it makes complete sense to make a greenhouse entirely from bottles.

There are 3 options here. The first is to dissolve the bottles into sheets on long winter evenings and sew them on a typewriter with nylon or, better, propylene threads into panels of a suitable size, pos. 1 in fig. Stitching with a furniture stapler, as is sometimes advised, is not worth it: staples will cost more than threads and rust pretty quickly. You can also find tips to sew not with a thread, but with a fishing line. If their authors know where to get a machine that sews with a fishing line, or they themselves know how to sew with their hands at the same speed, then it doesn’t matter - the fishing line both in length and in weight will cost many times more than threads, and the seam will not drag out, because. the line is solid, not twisted.

The second option is to assemble something like sausages from bottles (fig. on the right), string them on steel bars and fill the frame frame with such “kebabs” vertically, with their necks down, so that condensate drains, or horizontally, pos. 2 and 3 in fig. with types of bottle greenhouses. If it is below +10 on the street, there will be no sense from such a greenhouse without sealing the gaps between the bottles, but with spring warmth it will give a greater concentration of light, which will accelerate the development of plants.

The third option - the bottles are stacked horizontally with their necks inside, pos. 4. Thermal insulation and light concentration are maximized (even houses are built this way), but you need not hundreds, but thousands of bottles. They are connected with glue or cement, which is laborious and expensive, so bottle greenhouses, so to speak, horizontal, are rare.

Is it possible in winter without heating?

The greenhouse loses a lot of heat, and its heating costs a pretty penny. The marketability of self-heating greenhouses is very limited by an excess of nitrates in the soil. In order to obtain products that meet modern sanitary standards without winter heating, a thermos greenhouse was invented.

It was invented not at all by Ukrainian craftsmen today, as ukrnet is broadcasting with might and main, but in Israel more than half a century ago. By the way, it was for thermos greenhouses that we had to come up with the same cellular polycarbonate and special thermal blocks that combine good insulating and mechanical properties. From a bare idea to a workable design, most often it takes a very long time ...

Israel is the world leader in greenhouses. Greenhouses are built there in deserts and mountains. In summer, the ground surface heats up to +60, and in winter it can be -20 for a short time. And the idea itself is that in the soil at a certain depth a constant temperature is maintained, equal to the average annual temperature in this place; in the subtropics it is about + 18-20. With an increase of 7-12 degrees from the greenhouse effect, we get just the optimum for plants up to pineapples.

The thermos is only the upper belt of the underground structure of the greenhouse, see fig. Lower, ordinary concrete, in essence air conditioning. In winter, mother earth warms it, and in summer, hot light will not flow into the pit with cool dense air. As a result, the temperature in the greenhouse can be regulated only by vents without the cost of heating and air conditioning. To enhance lighting in winter, we orient one roof slope to the south, and cover the other from the inside with aluminum foil.

In the temperate zone, the situation is different. Firstly, although the average annual here is about +15, however, heating depends not only on temperature, but also on the incoming heat flow. In order to get to the “air conditioner” of the required power, you have to go down beyond the freezing depth by at least 2 m. Already in the Rostov region, this requires a pit of 2.5 m. Secondly, peak colds do not last hours, but days . Therefore, the volume of the greenhouse needs a large one. In the same Rostov region. the minimum dimensions of the pit in terms of - 5x10 m.

With such fifty, indeed, in our area you can harvest 400-600 kg of pineapples and up to 1.5 tons of bananas per year. How to sell them? Okay, let's say we live in some distant kingdom, where consumer control for a moderate bribe in the national currency is always ready to willingly and joyfully sell heroin as a food additive, and weapons-grade plutonium as children's toys.

But half a ton of even small pineapples per piece will give about 1000 fruits. How much is 1 (one) pineapple? In a supermarket, with a branded sticker and a quality certificate for the batch? How often and how many pineapples are bought? When, in this scenario, will only the excavation of 120-130 cubic meters of soil pay off? In general, a backyard thermos greenhouse in the boreal zone can be classified as a project in which common sense and sober calculation are completely replaced by an indefatigable desire to achieve something uterine, contrary to the obvious.

Of much greater interest is a small ground-based thermos greenhouse with its own heat accumulator in the form of a heater, operating on the principle of a solar oven with a heat storage device, see fig. on right. At -5 outside, its interior near Moscow can warm up to +45. Therefore, in the arch there is a sliding hatch-temperature regulator with a clapper valve and a deflector that diverts a cold stream from plants to the zone of greatest heating.

The upper clapperboard should be triggered by the slightest breath back and forth, so its sash is made extremely light, freely moving and spring-loaded to zero balance in the closed position with a thin, 0.15-0.25 mm, steel wire. The cracker still does not save from frost, so the hatch-regulator must be closed manually at night.

The indicated dimensions are minimum; the greenhouse can be made bigger. If it is made in the form of a ridge, but for every full and incomplete 1.5 m of length along the front, you need your own hood with an air duct so that the heater warms up evenly. So, a greenhouse 2 m long should have 2 air ducts and 2 hoods. You don’t need to pull the hood high up, it’s still not a stove; the thrust here is minimal, if only the heated air seeps through the heater.

When to Minimize

The mini-greenhouse is used firstly in city apartments. Here, a part of the insulated balcony or loggia is taken under it. It is better to make a partition from the same polycarbonate. Boxes with earth are hung on the wall; at the same time, it is possible to grow exotic flowers and supply the family with radishes, strawberries, and greens in winter.

In crop production, mini-greenhouses are used to create special conditions for a certain group of plants. In an ordinary box greenhouse, for this it is enough to nail arcs from a metal-plastic pipe to the boxes and cover everything with a film, on the left in Fig. For potted crops, you have to make small copies of large greenhouses, in the center there.

In the country garden economy, a mini-greenhouse made of bottles will be an excellent help, on the right in fig. higher. Due to the high concentration of light, it can be transparent, and fresh air has a beneficial effect on plants in the early phases of development. In addition, with such no hassle: he took it out and put it.

There are also types of highly productive mini-greenhouses available for self-production. Here, for example, in Fig. on the right is a greenhouse made of tires. Despite the clumsy appearance, it is high-tech: a two-stage greenhouse effect and drip irrigation are used. With skillful selection of varieties, one rack of "auto-greenhouses" can produce up to half a bucket of tomatoes or 700-800 g of strawberries per day.

So what about in winter?

A small winter greenhouse can pay off either north of approximately the parallel of Kotlas, or in the very south, in the Krasnodar Territory and Stavropol Territory. In the first case, the matter is decided by rather high prices and demand, in the second - a mild winter. Both there and there, for a small private trader, in general, 2 designs are possible.

The first is a classic trench greenhouse-greenhouse, only covered with polycarbonate, see fig. below. Because the frame is fully load-bearing, when calculating the coverage, the zone number is taken 1 less. In winter, flowers and onions are grown. By the end of February, when the mulch is almost overgrown, tomatoes and cucumbers are sown and harvested at the end of April. In the summer they “greenhouse” as usual, and in the fall, when the soil crop is cheap, the trenches are refilled; this is not a matter of one day, because fresh biofuel warms up very strongly at first. Then the cycle repeats.

The second is a box greenhouse-dugout without drainage; next diagram. rice. Dugout is a relative name, because. concrete floor screed will not hurt her in any way. Excess water flows into the trays, where, under the influence of heat from the heating registers, it evaporates and humidifies the air.

It is advisable to insulate the basement and blind area of ​​the dugout greenhouse, but the foundation does not need to be insulated. In the positive belt around it, the soil will not fall asleep for the winter, which will provide additional heating in low light. In this regard, the dugout can be considered a semi-thermos greenhouse.

How to get warm?

Heating, as already mentioned, accounts for the majority of winter greenhouse costs. If the heating is water from the boiler, then the optimal system layout will be. It was specially designed for industrial premises, therefore it does not fit well into residential premises, but it is simple, inexpensive and very economical at the required temperature up to +16 degrees, and in the greenhouse the greenhouse effect will add heat to the optimum.

However, the best option for heating a greenhouse is a stove from a heater-heater such as Buleryan or Buller. Its convector nozzles placed obliquely upward direct hot air onto the roof slopes; here he does not let them freeze, and he cools down to a comfortable temperature and falls on the plants with a warm veil, creating the effect of the height of spring. You can learn more about the features of furnace heating of greenhouses from the video below.

Video: furnace heating of the greenhouse

For a greenhouse with an area of ​​​​less than 10 square meters. m, the smallest buller turns out to be powerful, because. at a very low fuel load, the efficiency of bullers drops sharply. In this case, a potbelly stove will help out from a gas cylinder of 12 or 27 liters, the efficiency of potbelly stoves is just quite high with a weak firebox. As for long-burning stoves, they are unsuitable for greenhouses: they create a weak convection center and a strong heat radiation that burns plants. Spring is like a desert.

About lighting

Greenhouse lighting requires a separate detailed discussion. Let's share a little secret here: 1 special phytolamp for 24 W can be replaced by 3 ordinary housekeepers of 13-15 W with spectra at 2700K, 4100K and 6400K. Power consumption doubles, but is still three times lower than that of incandescent lamps.

One such triad under flat conical reflectors provides sufficient illumination of an area of ​​4-6 square meters. m. Lamps should be hung in such a way that the same spectra do not coexist either in a row or between rows.

Finally

To summarize - what kind of greenhouse to build? For starters, bottles. It will quickly, simply and cheaply allow you to learn how to run a greenhouse business and feel its benefits.

Further, in a temperate climate, greenhouses made of polycarbonate on a frame made of PP pipes definitely dominate. In harsh places, a wooden roof is also preferred with polycarbonate. It is also good in that it itself has a minimal impact on the environment. On permafrost, this is vital.

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