How To Heat A Greenhouse Without Electricity

Comments

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    In addition to this you can heat your greenhouse with chicken. Put some chicken in your greenhouse for over wintering. They will produce heat as every living being and keep the greenhouse above freezing if the numbers are right.


    Another option is to have a huge compost pile outside the greenhouse adjectant to the wall and the heat will seep through the Wal but the CO2 will not. In addition you can run pipes through the pile and into the greenhouse as a kind of heat exchange system.

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    Yep - old Mollison stuff, but most people still don't know it. I take it that it was new info for Mike.... but, that is cool, it presents it to a new audience in a very clear way, with photos and all.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I plan to use chickens and rabbits to heat my smaller greenhouse. My only concern is would it draw in mice? Mice can be an issue in greenhouses and cause a lot of damage

    My one friend had a greenhouse cat for the months of February to May. It did not damage plants but I have had cats damage or know over my seedlings in the house so that is another concern.

    In the greenhouse I volunteered in (30 by 300 foot - I loved it!) they had a ground hog issue that they battled for years. And the ground hogs outsmarted them every year

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    Chickens are usually pretty good at killing mice. But, if not, perhaps a few guineas for pest control?

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @judsoncarroll4 I would love to have guineas but they refuse to stay out of ther road and I have a direct road from Pa To NY in front of my home. I have to be very careful that no animal gets in the road.

    Thankfully when the goats get out they go to the one chicken hotel and hang out.

    And yes, chickens are good at killing mice.

  • Gail H
    Gail H Posts: 359 ✭✭✭✭

    I know people used to make hotbeds by putting fresh horse manure under the soil.

    @Denise Grant My cats are completely untrustworthy around soil and plants. They dig and worse in everything. I trash pick baby gates to put over my seeds that I start. They wobble a little and the cats don't like walking on them, plus they can't reach the soil.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Gail H When the one guy I was talking to said he had a greenhouse cat I wondered if he had any plants left. My cats never chewed on them or dug in them but they would knock nnew seedlings on the ground if I did not have them protected. This was when I started more in the house

    Hot beds work very well to help a bed stay warmer.

    I alos use jugs filled with water and another small grrenhouse or hothouse in a larger greenhouse for those [plants that need extra protection

  • nksunshine27
    nksunshine27 Posts: 343 ✭✭✭

    ive heard a big compost bin but what if you put fresh manure in troughs and make a heat bed

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @nksunshine27 Heat beds will work well too.

  • jowitt.europe
    jowitt.europe Posts: 1,465 admin

    My greenhouse is deep frozen in winter but in spring, when I already have plants there and it is freezing during the night I burn candles. I have read that one can put a terracotta pot over a burning candle and it works like a little stove. But, of course, it is a temporary solution. If the plants are small, I additionally cover them with jars.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @jolanta.wittib I have used a terra cotta pot if I knew I was going to get that one horrible cold night in the spring and had to have just a fraction more heat.

  • Tave
    Tave Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Great ideas.

    The worst problem I have is cats. They love to play in my plants (breaking stems and crushing seedlings) and dig in the dirt, using it as a toilet. Chicken wire has helped, but there are still casualties.

    When I was a kid, there were some farmers in Michigan that used rabbits to heat their greenhouses in the winter.

  • NarjissMomOf3
    NarjissMomOf3 Posts: 113 ✭✭✭

    Interesting information. So nice... Always learning.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    We have chickens and have friends with cows...might have to see what we can do usiing those to heat a greenhouse to extend our short Alaska season.

  • John
    John Posts: 163 ✭✭✭

    Great info-thanks everybody-awesome, awesome, awesome. :)

  • Cornelius
    Cornelius Posts: 872 ✭✭✭✭

    I have read that if you sprinkle cinnamon powder on the soil of pots that cats will leave them alone, as they do not like the smell.