This week I got the vent doors finalized for manual operation and sorted out bugs in the irrigation system. The irrigation seems to be working fine, when the slab of 3 plants transpires 500 g of water, the irrigation sends 550g more. This slowly brings the slab up to saturation which I think is what I want. Any how, it worked in the paper “Irrigation Strategies for Greenhouse Tomato Production on Rockwool “ Saha 2008. The plants look fine, lots of fruit developing and quite tall (5 ft). I also covered the inside walls with white silage tarp, which isn’t quite as reflective as aluminized mylar, but a lot more durable. The albedo is like 90% which I think it probably good enough to see if they can produce all winter.
The vent doors are simple sliding doors that seal with a neoprene foam gasket. For now they are manual, but the parts are on order for automation. Good thing they are in place because the nights have been getting colder than 15c, so the heater is kicking on. The blanket project to keep it warm without heating is on hold because the plastic I ordered got lost in the mail… still waiting on fedex to find it.
Sun Aquasystems 