Garden 2015

[bacpacker]

I would think, as long as you get adequate sun to heat the water, and have enough mass the buckets would work well. Water is a great source/sink for thermal transfer.
How tall are your arches? I have been debating 4' or 7' centers. Space to heat vs room to grow.

[Sniper-T]

Vodin... I've been looking at your green house again, and am considering setting up something similar next year. I will need a batt operated heater and fan system. preferably off solar... ideas???

[Vodin]

Vodin, how about a simple block heater and a reostat?

I wasnt aware of a block heater outside of an engine block. Please enlighten me.

As far as a Rheostat is similar to a pot (potentiometer) thought those were kinda old school and everything would be onboard in a build.

Would you inform me of what you are thinking of?

[Vodin]

Green house heating possibilities.

Dig deep to the 4'-5' point and line and line the pit with 4" corrugated pipe. Have the pipes go above ground so you can blow air through them on one side and it will go through and exit the opposite side. At that depth the earths temp is a constant ~55 Fahrenheit and by moving the air on one side it can blow out the other side and carry the temp with it.

I cant do that since my raised garden bed is on the easement line on my lot.

My current idea that I came up with is placing submersible fish tank heaters in each water trough. Set the temps to about 80 Fahrenheit this will allow the water temp to remain constant heat will rise off of the surface of the water. The buckets will wick the water and this will 'trick' the seeds into thinking it is time.

The fish tank heaters would be low wattage since the water troughs only contain 5 gallons of water. So the electrical usage should be low. And if your going that far might as well place goldfish in the water troughs.. but that raises more issue than I need at the moment.

Water heaters with a temp setting are the best that I have pondered into thought at this time.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/25W-Adjustab...item43d9da142a

[Sniper-T]

sorry. up here in the north, we use block heaters to be able to start our vehicles. google them. easily converted to 12 V, using a rheostat, you can control the heat.

[Vodin]

Sniper-T said
"sorry. up here in the north, we use block heaters to be able to start our vehicles. google them. easily converted to 12 V, using a rheostat, you can control the heat. "



Thought the block heaters were built into the engine block or oil pan. Did not know they were separate. I will research it further thank you.

[Sniper-T]

yeah, no... it's a small, fist size piece that can be added to anything, including a metal 5 gal pail...

[Vodin]

I would think, as long as you get adequate sun to heat the water, and have enough mass the buckets would work well. Water is a great source/sink for thermal transfer.
How tall are your arches? I have been debating 4' or 7' centers. Space to heat vs room to grow.

My arches are 6' to the fence line. (HOA peeps can get nasty if they see stuff) My raised garden is aabout a 1' high and the pots sit on pallets so I Lose another 6". The pallets sit on about a 6" composted pile that I am working into the soil of the raised bed. The I need to bend over to commandeer the way across the green house.

Go with a 6'-7' height on your arch.

[Sniper-T]

It has begun... snipped my first lettuce and beet leaves from the garden of the year...

Let the bounty begin!

block heater:


or a little bigger, trough heater:


^ that one is already a solar powered one.

check out this:

http://www.ranchtanks.com/files/Horse_journal_ad-1.pdf

and this:

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects.../SteveTank.htm