21 replies to this topic

[UniqueShroomer]

When I first started reading here and around the OMC I wanted to jump right in and get some mini-greenhouses right away, but decided to wait and first get the hang of growing some magic first. So after my first few grows I decided last week to upgrade and get the greenhouses I wanted, humidifier etc...

I am planning on basically following Hippies Greenhouse build thread he posted earlier this year. http://mycotopia.net...ouse-build.html

So far I have the following:
Two 4 Tier Mini-Greenhouses 28" W x 19" D x 63" H
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1223918908

My Ultrasonic Humidifer (holds 6L of water)
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1223918908

I am about to run out to Home Depot and/or Lowes to grab a timer for the humidifier, and instead of a grabage/plastic to wrap up the bottom I plan on getting an under the bed storage bin/plastic to fit the greenhouses into. Also picking up a good hygrometer while out.

I also plan on elevating the greenhouses a couple feet off the ground to get the lower shelves as far away from contams as possible.

I am hoping to have the build complete by sometime tonight or tomorrow and will post some more pics as i go along.

Once complete I'm going to test out the greenhouses for a day to make sure humidity levels are constant then start moving in trays that are waiting in incubators.

I welcome anyone with suggestions, advice, or comments on the build as I am very appreciative of all your help so far from the information here. Without all of you I wouldn't be where I am so far, so a BIG Thank you to everyone here!

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[UniqueShroomer]

Ok back from my shopping trip.

I got all my pvc ready for construction.

Although a thorough search of Home Depot, Lowes and some other stores lead me to believe that there are no plastic storage bins(underbed) that the greenhouse will fit into so I may build a bottom out of plexiglass or go with a high grade plastic taped to the bottom.

I'll take some pics later tonight to show my progress.

[golly]

That's gonna be a nice setup US...
May want to consider a small circulation fan to keep all levels uniform...

[UniqueShroomer]

Thanks golly I appreciate the suggestion. I was just pouring over various greenhouse posts/threads and was contemplating that, but still trying to figure out where in the greenhouse to put the little box fan and direction to point it in. Trying to take into consideration that all top three shelves will be filled with trays I was thinking of placing the fan on the bottom shelf and pointing up one of the sides of the greenhouse so there's no direction air current on the casings.
Anyone who has a fan inside their greenhouse want to chime in on what they did?

For tonight at least I will be building what I can and post some pics later after I'm finished.

[UniqueShroomer]

Ok, slight change of plan in the design/build process for my greenhouses.

I decided to go ahead and build small platforms with raised edges in order to put both of the greenhouses into. They both will be made out of wood and water sealed then lined with heavy duty plastic. The raised edges will be approximately about 4" and will allow just barely enough room for the plastic greenhouse cover to form a tight seal and then reinforced with duck tape, only leaving the front flap free to be unzipped and open.
Seeing as I am planning on sealing the bottom as much as possible to keep my RH high I realize I am also leaving very little avenue for CO2 to flow out the bottom.

What does anyone with a greenhouse think of me adding some cut outs around the bottom sides of the greenhouse covered with Tyvek to allow for gas exchange? Am I possibly going overkill with the Tyvek as the opening at the bottom of the front flap will be enough to allow for CO2 to escape?

[golly]

The fan should be on the opposite side to the humidifier, about half way up and blowing up...The mist will tend to pool in the bottom ,so ya don't want any electronics down there.

I would just use the open zipper for a vent..Tyvec won't do much really..

[UniqueShroomer]

I can't thank you enough, golly!

I think I can tend to want to go the extra mile and perhaps started to over design thinking of the tyvec.

I will work out a fan around midway up in the greenhouse and face it upwards.

I should have the stands built tomorrow for the greenhouses and will take pics then. Until I build the stands I won't know the right lengths to cut my pvc, so no more building for the night.

[UniqueShroomer]

Ok, so the stand for the greenhouses got put off another day, due to the full moon and wanting to hit the drum circle held on the beach!

A few good friends, a cute girl or two and we were all off for nice tripping evening dancing to the drums under the moonlight for a few hours.
Met up with a few more friends while out there and enjoyed being able to dose everyone with the fruits of my labor. A couple people made me take 'donations' to help me with my hobby, which was appreciated but not expected.

ok, well my buddy took my plans for my stands for the greenhouses and insisted on helping me by making them at his wood working shop today. So hopefully i'll have them later today or by tomorrow. I'll take some pics as soon as they arrive.

[Frizzaper]

I'm going to have to disagree about the Tyvek. A few small patches won't make a big difference, but a large surface area can have a large effect on air exchange and humidity. I recently revamped my greenhouse before a new wave of casings, and took the time to look at the effects of Tyvek on RH. Using a single Tyvek mailing envelope as one large surface, I set up my greenhouse with a coolmist humidifier and filtered intake fan set on a 30min/4hour cycle. With the Tyvek covered by plastic I was stuck at 99% RH. With the Tyvek uncovered my RH would hit 90% then dip down to 70% before the next cycle. Covering different areas (1/3, 1/2, & 3/4) yielded proportionate changes in RH.

I'm also using a small fan for internal circulation (pointed up and slightly angled at the front wall), without one you will have a hard time keeping all layers at anything less than 99% RH.

[UniqueShroomer]

Frizzaper, Thanks for your imput. I haven't gotten any fans for circulating air inside the greenhouses yet, but plan on doing so before this weekend. Once I have this completely set up and tested to check the RH all around, then if needed I'll cut some tyvek vents at the bottom of the greenhouse.

Unfortunately my buddy got loaded with tons of paying orders for jobs at his wood shop so my small table/stand for the greenhouses was put on hold for the past week. But may have it today. I"ll take pics when it arrives.

[UniqueShroomer]

Ok, so the stands for my greenhouses never showed up and my friend who was making them is completely MIA. I suspect he is overwhelmed as I know he's been working overtime at his carpentry shop for paying customers.

I have done a little more work on the greenhouses but really can't finish without the stands. Hopefully i'll have them in a day or two and be able to take pics of the project so far.

For the moment and those who were reading this thread.. here is some pin porn for your eyes..
This is a tray of Malaysians on it's 4th flush the pics where taken earlier today.

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[UniqueShroomer]

OK so the missing friend who was MIA has been successfully found! LOL He called, apologized, and as I suspected he was swamped with work for his shop. I should have my stands for the greenhouses tomorrow.

Still with some lingering feelings of a great trip with a friend to go see the Aussie Pink Floyd tonight!

Here is a pic of those Malaysian Pins as of a few hours ago... mmm who's that? My very own mushie protector watching over the flush...

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[suckerfree]

Here's mine after a tear down, clean, and rebuild.... the humidistat is not where it goes and nothing is plugged in...
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1225112432
http://mycotopia.net...=1&d=1225112432
got mine up off the floor and it's easy to move ... :)

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[UniqueShroomer]

Suckerfree, thanks for those pics. The stand my friend is building will put the greenhouses approximately 10" off the floor but won't be mobile. I could put some caster wheels on the bottom legs of the stands when I get them, but for now the entire set up will be in a closet with no real need to be moved.

For now also I'll just be using a timer to run the humidifier but do plan on upgrading to a good humidistat soon.

Back to work for the moment...

[UniqueShroomer]

Ok so after my friend, who was helping me with the stand, went MIA(again), I just couldn't wait to get the greenhouses functional at least somewhat due to casings that needed to be put into some sort of FC.
As I mentioned when I first started this I was basically following Hips post from earlier this year on a similar greenhouse build.
In front of the closet is an air filter that also has an ionizer on it running 24/7.
Ultrasonic is connected to a 2" to 1.5" PVC
1.5" PVC is run straight up to a T connector and with tightly fitting PVC to holes in the top of each greenhouse.
I am still in need of getting some small fans to circulate the air inside of the greenhouse. After hitting a few stores no one had something i would find suitable to clip inside while not taking up much room. Tomorrow I'll hunt down some more stores for that.
The Ultrasonic is set to run for 20 minutes with a 3 hour break between cycles.
The PC florescent light is an old aquarium light run on a 12/12 on/off cycle.
The entire setup with cleaned first with
lysol and rubbing alcohol, then left to run a few hours with a very diluted bleach/water solution through the humidifier.
The bottom of the greenhouses are standing on thick plastic garbage bags but hopefully will have the stand shortly and will then be elevated off the ground.
Sorry about the last two greenhouse shots on their side. They are upright on my comp but each time i upload them they rotate right.
Hope you all had a great Halloween!

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[roc]

Nice job!

You have done your research well...

[UniqueShroomer]

Roc, Thanks however i have run into one problem that a lot of people may not want to deal with. I really do like my Ultrasonic Humdifier, as you can refill its reservoir without removing the tank. But, after testing it through the day/evening yesterday I noticed a problem with it not coming on according to the timer I had hooked up to it. At first I thought it was the timer, then upon closer inspection it turns out that due to the digital on/off button the unit needs some minor electrical work to turn on once the timer goes to on and gives it electricity. Turns out the unit will power up, but will not immediately turn on even if left set to run continuously. So looks like I'm going to have to pull out my old soddering iron and do a little electrical work to bypass the digital on/off switch.
Unless you're willing to deal with this little problem I would suggest making sure your Ultrasonic humidifier has an analog on/off switch so you don't run into this problem.

For the moment to ensure I have a high enough RH I have put to large pans of Perlite, one in each greenhouse, for humidity. For the moment I've been manually fanning and will be setting up to do the fix on the humidifier today or tomorrow.

[golly]

Cool...What's the mist output like when raised 4 ft to the nozzles..?

[UniqueShroomer]

Cool...What's the mist output like when raised 4 ft to the nozzles..?

The mist output is very strong. Puts the entire greenhouse at 100% humidity within a matter of just a few minutes. I'll see if I can get a small video of the mist from my cell phone later and put it up here so you have a more visual idea of how well it works.

[UniqueShroomer]

Ok so I attempted and accomplished my goal of bypassing the digital on/off switch for the humidifier I had originally. However in the process I somehow disconnected or did something which caused the air blower to quit working. I am simply going to replace it with a small box fan to do the same job and have it up and running sometime this week. In the meantime I picked up a simple Vicks Ultrasonic with an analog on/off witch an adjustable mist control. It fit all the plumbing and height I needed so no other pvc pieces were needed to be cut.
I decided to buy the second humidifer as I was going to get a lil larger greenhouse and have to get a second one anyways.

I will also be upgrading to a decent humidistat within the next month but will make due for now with it on a timer.