Hi all, I'm a first-time poster with a need for advice. I am working in the Utah Rockies this summer doing revegetation and have been placed in charge of a small greenhouse. It's 16x10 feet and all glass. The story is that this greenhouse was slapped together by last summer's plant technician and still has some bugs, the largest one being that it overheats way too quickly. We have a misting fan (a floor fan with four nozzles and a rotating head) as our cooling system, but it doesn't keep the temp below 80 F and even worse, it completely soaks the foliage. The plants are dripping wet all day long and I'm starting to see damage such as rotting leaves. If I turn the water off and just use the fan the temp begins to skyrocket.
Here is our setup: we have four ceiling vents, an exhaust fan at one end and two floor vents (louvers) at the opposite end. The louvers are at ground level. The misting fan is at table height and stationed in front of the louvers. Aside from the ceiling vents, everything comes on at once and turns off at once. In other words, the louvers aren't open until the misting fan comes on, etc. When using the misting fan, I close the ceiling vents. I do have shade cloth up but it's inside the greenhouse -- I could put it on the outside, but unless that's going to significantly lower the temp it would be a hassle because there is no current way to anchor it. I wanted to take off the glass panels on the roof and have it be an open-air greenhouse for the summer, but apparently the structure is too flimsy to hold without the glass in place. We are at 5500 ft elev and temperatures have been in the 70's and 80's, but it will be mid 90's in August. The plants that I am raising are used to dry, sunny foothills and mountain brush communities and I would like to raise them to be somewhat drought tolerant. I'm at my wits end and would appreciate any suggestions! Thank you, Merran Owen Biological Science Tech Timpanogos Cave National Monument
