Ctna 'Why Not' sick leaves

[silken]

I wonder if you stopped watering the floor and kept the humidity a bit lower, if your Porta Cool would work better.

[BettyE]

Vicki, when it does get very hot, I also water down the TOP of the greenhouse in addition to spraying down the floor. This does indeed drop the heat inside of the greenhouse without putting more water on the floor. I do this every hour on a very hot day! BettyE.

[VickiC]

I started a thread in the gh section ages ago about my heat problem, but I hadn't thought about doing it this time. Thanks...I will. I know it always helped me (and it certainly still does!) to read other people's thoughts/issues/problems, etc. - so as to help me figure mine out. I'm still having a problem uploading pictures because of a security token issue, so I'll wait to start a thread when I'm able to post pictures at the same time. One of the administrators has replied to me and explained things, but for some reason, uploading isn't working for me today, either. I've only had this problem once in the past, but it "worked itself out" (I guess I could say)...or I did something different when I uploaded the ones in this thread. ??

I agree.....I've found it to be so true that if the humidity is way high than the evaporative cooler doesn't work well. A guy at the company where I bought the swamp cooler from said that it becomes less efficient at 70% humidity. Even though he did, I bought it since I was grasping at straws.

This whole cooling and humidity thing really confuses me. I far from understand the way these two work together - along with outside the gh conditions. Wish I did!

As for the size of my gh, it is 10'3" wide x 17'6" long. As I started moving things into it soon after I bought it a few years ago, the words that many members had been saying sure hit home. Things like: You can't get a gh too big, buy as large as you can afford My goofy husband originally thought that we'd be able to cram all of the lawn plants in there for the winter, but he was oh so wrong. So, back to the garage the larger ones went.
Vicki

Originally Posted by katrina

I don't have a g/h but my g/h friends all tell me the same thing...if the humidity is high their cooling equipment can't cool the space very well.

How big is your g/h?

You might want to post up a separate thread in the g/h section so other g/h growers can share what they do to combat extreme heat.

---------- Post added at 11:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:47 AM ----------

Thanks, Betty! I'm going to try that on the next very hot day. It's much cooler and raining today.

I'm glad watering the top is working for you.....I think about you and your heat in Texas.

Vicki

Originally Posted by BettyE

Vicki, when it does get very hot, I also water down the TOP of the greenhouse in addition to spraying down the floor. This does indeed drop the heat inside of the greenhouse without putting more water on the floor. I do this every hour on a very hot day! BettyE.

---------- Post added at 12:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:50 AM ----------

You're exactly correct. According to the salesman at the company where I bought it, the evap. cooler becomes less efficient at 70% humidity. So, I'm still at a loss. If I don't water the floor and try to keep the humidity at a decent point, the temps go sky high.

Originally Posted by silken

I wonder if you stopped watering the floor and kept the humidity a bit lower, if your Porta Cool would work better.

[silken]

I know what you are struggling with. My greenhouse is about 11 ft. wide and I forget, but 20 or 30 ft. long with a triple glazed corrugated poly carbon roof and 50% or 60% shade cloth. Only windows on south and west side and the other is attached to house and garage. I bought a good sized Porta-Cool swamp cooler two summers ago and ran it last summer and part of the previous one. It helped, but didn't have quite the amazing effect I hoped for. I haven't used it this year as I have been managing without it because we had such a wet spring and high humidity up till now. But now things are heating up and I may have to fire it up. I usually have very low humidity so even if it doesn't lower the temps quite enough it does add some cool humid air moving at a good rate thru the greenhouse where it is pulled out with a good exhaust fan on the other end. I have 3 large ceiling fans running 7/24 as well. It's tough to know how things are fairing when I go away to the lake!

I don't know what to suggest other than buying an actual air conditioner for the darn room

[james mickelso]

Swamp coolers work by blowing air across water, cascading down a louvered screen or sitting in a basin, which evaporates some of the water. Evaporation causes the water in the air to lose energy(heat) which cools the air. When the RH is high, there is less or no evaporation so no cooling takes place. I think a small air conditioning unit would help. If you use a sun screen set up over your roof. make sure you have some space (3") between the sun screen and the roof. Otherwise you trap you just trap the re-radiated heat under the roof.

[VickiC]

Thanks, James...
I do have 60% Aluminet over my greenhouse, but there's no space between it and the roof. A gap is really good idea..thanks. I mentioned your advice to Rodney (my husband) and he said maybe he can put together some kind of frame to do as you said. ?? If you have another suggestion as to how I could create the space, please let me know if you don't mind.

I'm sorry that I've taken so long to reply again to yours and other members posts. I wanted to upload and send pics earlier in the thread, but I've been having problems for some reason. I've never had any issues with uploading before, so I guess there's a first time. My pictures really aren't relevant anymore, I just want to see if I can upload them as a test. An administrator has been helping me, so I'm gonna give it another shot.

If you see photos with this post, obviously uploading worked this time. If not, it's back to the drawing board. By the way, if I haven't already mentioned what the error msg. I got was, it's: "Your submission could not be processed because a security token was missing. Your submission could not be processed because a security token was missing.

If this occurred unexpectedly, please inform the administrator and describe the action you performed before you received this error".

Vicki

Originally Posted by james mickelso

Swamp coolers work by blowing air across water, cascading down a louvered screen or sitting in a basin, which evaporates some of the water. Evaporation causes the water in the air to lose energy(heat) which cools the air. When the RH is high, there is less or no evaporation so no cooling takes place. I think a small air conditioning unit would help. If you use a sun screen set up over your roof. make sure you have some space (3") between the sun screen and the roof. Otherwise you trap you just trap the re-radiated heat under the roof.

---------- Post added at 11:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:37 AM ----------

I just wanted to let you know that the plant seems to be doing fine after 2 treatments a week apart. I hope that I shouldn't treat it more, even though it seems to be past the problem.
Vicki

Originally Posted by Nexogen

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&...70810081,d.aWw

(page 25) Bacterial Brown Spot. Acidovorax (syn. Pseudomonas).

Prevention: Pseudomonas cattleya is a water-borne pathogen that prefers warm, moist conditions. Reduce humidity and temperature (if possible), eliminate overhead watering and increase air circulation.

Treatment: Immediately remove infected tissue and spray the plant with a bactericide like Physan or copper compounds following label instructions. Disinfect growing area with 10% bleach solution.

---------- Post added at 11:49 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:43 AM ----------

You have a very nice size greenhouse...I wish I had that much space. It seems very equipped, too. I bet you have some awesome orchids.

Same here, my swamp cooler is not quite what I was hoping for. It helps some at times, but not a whole lot for the most part as James explained.

Thanks for the suggestion about the air conditioner. I appreciate everyone's advice.
Vicki

Originally Posted by silken

I know what you are struggling with. My greenhouse is about 11 ft. wide and I forget, but 20 or 30 ft. long with a triple glazed corrugated poly carbon roof and 50% or 60% shade cloth. Only windows on south and west side and the other is attached to house and garage. I bought a good sized Porta-Cool swamp cooler two summers ago and ran it last summer and part of the previous one. It helped, but didn't have quite the amazing effect I hoped for. I haven't used it this year as I have been managing without it because we had such a wet spring and high humidity up till now. But now things are heating up and I may have to fire it up. I usually have very low humidity so even if it doesn't lower the temps quite enough it does add some cool humid air moving at a good rate thru the greenhouse where it is pulled out with a good exhaust fan on the other end. I have 3 large ceiling fans running 7/24 as well. It's tough to know how things are fairing when I go away to the lake!

I don't know what to suggest other than buying an actual air conditioner for the darn room