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My 2 passive ventilated wood greenhouse ( Bell Pepper ) some pics

Milkworkman, it's not my full time job... I'm a Doctor (General) , i'm on a 15 day vacation right now, but I go to the farm 3 times a day... to check on fertigation , schedule of work , talk to the customers and visits...is pretty busy...

but this is to stablish the company for my family(mostly for my Dad and mother and brother) so they can have a secure income weekly...when it's done...i'm going to part on my own with the open field hot pepper project...
 
Man, this is too cool! Gives me so much inspiration and ideas for future long-term projects (overly active imagination, haha). Thanks so much for sharing!

How did you decide which greenhouse design ventilation system to use?
You said that you transplant 5600 plants, are you also starting them all from seed yourself?

Looking forward to hearing about your progress on the Hab field!
 
Phadrus On Fire said:
Man, this is too cool! Gives me so much inspiration and ideas for future long-term projects (overly active imagination, haha). Thanks so much for sharing!

How did you decide which greenhouse design ventilation system to use?
You said that you transplant 5600 plants, are you also starting them all from seed yourself?

Looking forward to hearing about your progress on the Hab field!
Click to expand...

hi Phadrus...

how do I start with that first question...the thing is , in the tropics we called them greenhouse , but it's not the proper term in my case because i'm at sea level, not above like some other growers in my country were they battle against the cold and use vents and heaters and clear plastic covering...it's more of a protective ambient cultivation , it's how we call it because we protect the plants from rain, heat more then anything....
when started researching about this topic 2 years ago, I saw a lot of designs but mostly were european or spanish but there was not a clear picture for the tropics like my case were heat was the problem. A agronomist here started a research and did almost an acre of wood greenhouse..a design of 12 meter wide by 50 long and 4 meters on the side and in the middle around 6 meters (height), as you know it had problems with temps , around 45 C , because it was to short and it was located in the same direction as the wind...so the wind had to travel 50 meters before getting the hot air out...

Taking that to account , there is a spanish company here that does metal greenhouse...they had a design that they were testing in colombia, we sat down, talk about what could be modified, took a wind measurement , modified the heightness, in my case almost 9m(hightest part) vs 6m, put the greenhouse in the opposite wind direction, so the wind jus traveled 18m vs 50m...taking the heat out faster...we don't use any powered vents...just the wind...my wind velocity is 5-6 m/s avg...so it's enough...i hope it answers your question...lately i've been reading about NFT systems...I have some thoughts about converting them to NFT and plant something else...but next year well see, well see..hehehe

About the seed starting...i did not , I bought 6,000 seeds from ruiter seeds of jumilla f1 hybrid bell pepper, send them to germinate with a company that does that here, i went and got them when they were around 4 weeks old to transplant them...they charged me around 300US for the job...
 
Hector, your answer(s) were very informative, because the first thing that I thought when I saw your pictures was, "How is he controlling the high temperatures being in the Caribbean?"

That is very clever of you to use your local winds to help remove the hot, humid air and create the ideal microclimate. I also noticed that you are growing from October through now instead of the traditional Spring/Summer season. That must help a lot with regulating temperatures as well. Is there any other reasons you chose to transplant in October and grow through the Winter?

Overall, you have a very impressive operation going. I'm willing to bet your Hab field will be quite abundant!
 
the most important factor is the UV plastic covering...is known as "cold plastic covering" here...compared to a clear plastic covering, inside the structure is around 4-5 C minus difference..., so it helps alot...
We started on october because the company had problems bringing the insect mesh through customs, they were late, but our plan was to transplant september 10-15, so the first harvest would of been around november 10-15...
Winter in my case from a bussiness standpoint is the best oportunity.... winter hits in template climate, vegetable production starts falling, there is a higher demand of vegetables from countries that export them, and since the production in US, Canada, Europe, could not cover the demand, prices go up... and we export growers get a better pricing...that's why is called high season , december-april, because prices are up and the demand is high...
that's the same reason i want to transplant the habaneros mid august ...so harvest starts late november....starting high season....;)
 
That's funny. Your endeavor inspired me to read alot about greenhouse production, and I just happened to read everything you said about the "high season" here:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs228

As you said, it makes a lot of sense from the business standpoint. Do you think you might be able to do two rounds in one year? I.E. transplant in February and harvest May-July, then transplant again in August and harvest November-January.
 
i could , but they do it because of the climate...when they are transplanting/waiting harvest , i'm in full production (Feb-may) , there is a point that they don't present in the article is about varieties of bell pepper...the pepper variety that is transplanted in august is diferent from the one in february...if you look in catalog of big seeds companies like ruiters seeds, enza zaden, hazera seeds and others, they divide in the catalog the varieties by seasons , early, mid , late..., in my case , in my climate the variety i transplant withstands the temp diference in this climate because the variation is minimum...some growers here leave it 12-14 months...soiless culture....in my case...in soil...i plan to leave it until july...i'm changing to a hybrid sweet pepper (Cubanelle) and it takes one month to clean, disinfect the whole structure, make the beds, check the water system..and so on and on ehehhe

about the article...i have it saved in my hard drive around 2 years ago....it was one of the first articles i stumbled on...
 
thanks mike...

been following your raised bed project...good luck...

are you trying to irrigate by gravity with the 55 gallons tanks? some people do it here like that...
 
Hector,

Yes, the barrels are about 16" above the bed. I will drain two at a time, so I should start with about 100 gallons of water. The pipe will run to the middle of the 40' irrigation pipes and from one side to the other. I don't know if I will have enough pressure or not - hope so! If not, I may need to run two 3/4" pipes into different lines, doubling the water supply.

I know another guy who is into building GH in tropical areas - Ted Taylor. He has some in Florida but is building several on Fiji.

Mike
 
well , I bought the seeds yesterday for the open field project.... like 20 to 25 thousend habanero orange...and 12-15 thousend habanero red..., i'm only missing the greenhouse seeds now...around 15 thousend of hybrid cubanelle pepper...
 
What a wonderful "hobby". I think it is great that you are able to assist your family and have them assist you in this endeavor. Your set up looks and sounds amazing. Very nicely done. I look forward to seeing heaps of hot pepper pods in the months to come. Congrats on a dream realized. ;)
 
well not so good news...tomatogrowers.com does not have enough seeds, they sent me an email cancelling the order because they cannot supply the seeds...

now I have to look for another company that can supply the seeds...
 
You may want to check out http://www.stokeseeds.com/ which is a large seed company in Canada(and USA). I don't know about shipping to where you are but I do know this place sells good quality seeds and in quantity. They carry a lot of vegetable varieties, some of which are hybrids designed for more of a Canadian climate, but they carry many other types too. Good luck
 
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