Wire for greenhouse racks?
 

We will be building our greenhouse over the next 2 weeks. One of the things we were concerned with is the wire for the shelves/racks we are going to be building.

Is galvanized wire a worry? Will it harm the plants? We were looking at basic 1x1 or 1x2 fencing wire. This is a heavy duty farm wire for pens, etc.

If this isn't a good wire, then what should I use?

If roots grow out of the pots, they can come into contact with the wire and be poisoned by the zinc. I have used hardware cloth in the past, and that was my experience.

Secondly, you're mesh is too coarse. Something along the lines of 1/2" square is better.

When I rebuilt my GH, I went with plastic bench panels, and I've never been happier. Do a google search for "Dura-Bench".


Ray Barkalow
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Thanks Ray, I was concerned about that. I'll check the durabench

Holy Cats! The shipping is crazy! I'm going to check around locally to see if I can find something comparable.

I have been using this shelving:
Regency NSF Epoxy Green Wire Shelves and Posts - The WEBstaurant Store
I use it to make multi level shelves but it would also work for single tier shelves. On my last couple of orders, shipping was quite reasonable. On my last order I bought 4 - 24"X48" shelves and 4 - 86" posts; material price was $100 and shipping (to Southern California) was $35. I have found the same items locally but, even with the cost of shipping, this internet store was cheaper.

Hi Liana,

Look for leftover bread trays from the grocery store. I got mine free when they threw out a bunch of them and they work great for shelves.

Thank you for the advice! That's a great idea.
I had a rather lucky streak today. I went to visit a local man with a greenhouse. He is moving and selling all of his stock. Much to my surprise, he had some of the dura-bench style shelf tops and sold them to me for a song. I have enough to do both sides of the greenhouse and a short run in the middle.
I bought some pots too. They are soaking in a 10% bleach solution.
I think I need to buy a lottery ticket.....

I have the wire mesh on my benches it works great! Make sure you put enough supports if you have wide or long benches.

Bonnie

I use hardware cloth exclusively. I recommend getting the 1" square cloth, and I buy it in 3' rolls. Anything wider and its too hard to reach.

I have orchids with wandering roots attached to it, so no problems here. And heck, all the wire goods we use, hangers, rhizone clips, are all galvy.

Like noted, space your supports no more than 16".

Here is some of my work...
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...pics-work.html

btw, building another GH that's 20' x 40'. Will start a thread on that soon...

Nice work. Looks like an awesome place.
We just finished my 10X12 greenhouse. I'll have to post pics of that once we get them all together.
(Just finished grouting the marble top on the potting table.)