Why does a greenhouse get hot

That it why you should not mix heat loving plants with hardy plants. So, what to do if you want to have a mixed collection? Simply divide a section of the greenhouse with transparent material for warm loving plants. You can also line the sides and roof with bubble wrap to trap the heat. Place a heater in the warm section. Use this guide on the cheapest greenhouse heaters to run. The temperature in a greenhouse rises in late April or May. These temperatures can result in fatal damage to plants.

When plants get too hot in a greenhouse the lower leaves start to wilt and edges turn brown. Also, flowers are short-lived and start to fall off. Dry heat is more dangerous for plants that moist heat. You must keep the day-time temperature fairly constant during growing season.

You can grow a variety of warm loving plants in summer when a greenhouse is hot. Ideal temperature for Chrysanthemum is Industry roundup: Case introduces N Series backhoe loader enhancements.

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Photosynthesis is the combining of carbon dioxide from the air and energy from sunlight to make simple sugars, which the plant then uses as food. You might use a cheeseburger to get big and strong, well a plant uses the sun. On average, plants need about six hours of sunlight per day, although this varies depending on the type of plant ; placing your greenhouse where it will get full sun all day will ensure that the plants inside get enough light.

The plastic or glass that makes up most of a greenhouse's exterior is great for letting in the maximum amount of light, but it's a poor insulator it doesn't hold heat well. This means the heat energy travels though it eventually to escape to the outside world. As long as the sun is shining this doesn't matter because light energy comes in faster than the heat can get out.

But at night, all that heat energy will quickly leave, which will leave your plants at the mercy of lower nighttime temperatures. In order to protect your tender plants, you need to either store excess heat during the day or use an artificial heat source at night.

Different materials take different amounts of energy to heat up bricks take longer to get warm than dirt or gravel , a characteristic known as thermal mass. The higher a material's density, or how packed together it is, the more energy it takes to raise the temperature of that material. So, high density materials can store a lot of heat.

Examples of high-density materials include:. Adding a brick floor to your greenhouse means that it will take longer for the building to heat up during the day, but during the night, all that extra heat energy will slowly be released into the air inside the greenhouse. This will keep your plants warm and toasty even after the sun goes down. Some enterprising greenhouse owners multi-task by keeping large fish tanks inside their greenhouses. The water in the tank provides lots of thermal mass to store heat, the fish grow faster and are more productive thanks to the extra warmth, and the waste retrieved when cleaning out the fish tank makes excellent fertilizer for the greenhouse plants.

If adding more thermal mass to the greenhouse isn't an option, you can always resort to putting in an artificial heat source such as a space heater. Ideally, you'd want a heat source that you can link to a thermostat so that it automatically keeps the temperature inside within the desired range. Greenhouse supply stores carry many types of artificial heaters designed specifically for use in greenhouses.

While greenhouses are highly efficient at their two strong points - providing light and heat - your plants will still need your help to meet their other needs.

This cycle raises the temperature inside the greenhouse more rapidly than the air outside, creating a sheltered, warmer microclimate. In temperate climates, the sun might do all the heating in the greenhouse, but where the temperatures plummet, artificial heat may be necessary to maintain temperatures above freezing. Where some greenhouses have access to central heat from the main building, others have to rely on natural or bottled gas, heating coils or heating fans.

These will usually work in conjunction with a thermostat. Because heat is one of the biggest expenses of keeping a greenhouse, other sources of energy are always being explored, like the use of solar batteries or animals as heat sources.

There are also other processes acting on the air inside a greenhouse. The sun's energy can travel through greenhouse glass easily, but the radiation emitted by the plants and soil that have absorbed the heat doesn't get out as easily, helping to trap heat inside. This makes it possible to keep a greenhouse warm, but it also can cause problems with overheating.

In order to keep plants from getting too hot, some method of heat control is necessary. Vents that allow the lighter, hotter air to exit the greenhouse near the roof and cooler air to enter closer to ground level act as air conditioning.