Using a greenhouse environment control system or automation can greatly accelerate crop production. With this type of environmental control, the greenhouse maintains constant conditions that are most conducive to maximum yield.Greenhouses are outdoor structures used to house and grow plants. Greenhouses with poly or glass walls allow sunlight to enter, keeping heat from escaping. This allows optimum growth environment for flowers, fruits, and vegetables, particularly in colder places or seasons.
Why is greenhouse ventilation needed
The reason for green house ventilation is to keep the greenhouse environment idea for plants.
The sunlight energy received by a greenhouse's walls turns into infrared energy or heat. Too much trapped infrared radiation or heat will cook the plants from high temperatures. Ventilation is needed to get rid of the extra heat. Yet, too much sunlight is a bad thing. If crops burn, greenhouse operation profits drop.
What is a proper greenhouse ventilation system?
An environmental control and mechanical system are required for ideal greenhouse temperatures. The perfect system for your greenhouse depends on your goals and the region you are located.
The design of greenhouse ventilation is critical in making it achieve ideal ambient temperatures for crops.
Natural and mechanical ventilation are the two methods of greenhouse ventilation.
Both systems operate on the thermal buoyancy principle, employing cold, dense air to push warmer air up and out of the greenhouse.
Greenhouse Ventilation Types
To select the best sort of ventilation for your greenhouse, carefully examine the description and cost-effectiveness of each.
What is Mechanical Ventilation?
When fans are installed in a greenhouse to exhaust hot air, it's considered mechanical ventilation. These fans generate a vacuum, which sucks colder air through louvers on the opposite greenhouse end. When properly engineered, this fan ventilation can maintain ideal inside greenhouse temperatures across various locations and weather conditions.
Several mechanical greenhouse ventilation fans should be placed to provide ventilation at varying rates. Ventilation motors should also have several speeds so that the user can manage the rate of Ventilation.
What exactly is Natural Ventilation?
Natural Ventilation, often called curtain ventilation, employs a network of roof and sidewall vents. Hot air rises and leaves through the roof vents as the temperature rises within the greenhouse. This produces a vacuum, allowing cooler air to enter the greenhouse through sidewall vents closer to the ground.
Curtain ventilation systems circulate air over the width of your greenhouse. Because greenhouses are narrow and long, the new air is better distributed than end wall inlets, as is common in mechanical systems.
Because these systems do not require fans, they are substantially more energy efficient, reducing operating costs. They are also simple to automate with climate controls to boost crop yields and labor efficiency.
Why Is Greenhouse Ventilation Required?
Ventilation is essential in the growing process for four reasons: temperature management, increased air circulation, humidity control, and carbon dioxide/oxygen replenishment.
1. Temperature Regulation
Greenhouses absorb and retain solar radiation, causing temperatures to rise in the growing environment. Temperatures permitted to rise too high, while beneficial to some extent, can damage plant growth and health. Growers can utilize greenhouse ventilation systems to expel extra heat and keep their plants thriving at an ideal temperature.
2. Better Air Circulation
Breezes help plants by increasing transpiration and strengthening cell walls. Moving and blending air throughout a greenhouse helps to regulate temperatures, humidity, CO2, and oxygen, resulting in more homogeneous conditions to which plants respond better.
3. Humidity Management
Humidity will accumulate in a greenhouse if proper ventilation is not provided. Transpiration (water evaporation from plants) and condensation, naturally occurring in the water cycle, raise humidity levels within a thermally dynamic structure. Pathogens, molds, and fungi that can interfere with plant growth are attracted to high humidity levels in a greenhouse. Humidity management can be performed using an automatic ventilation system by replacing wet warm air with cold, dry air.
4. Replacement of Carbon Dioxide/Oxygen
Fresh air from ventilation supplies plants with carbon dioxide, which is required for photosynthesis, and oxygen, which is needed for root growth. A greenhouse ventilation system brings in fresh air and exhausts stale air, improving crop health and quality. Without ventilation, the air within gets overly oxygenated, and plant life suffers.
Furthermore, Ventilation aids in the following crucial components for proper growth:
Plants rely on the wind to disperse their pollen in their natural growth habitat. Ventilation is required in a greenhouse for plant movement and pollen discharge.
Pest Resistant - Inadequate Ventilation weakens plants, making them more vulnerable to insect attack. Inadequate ventilation also generates humid conditions ideal for pests to deposit their eggs.
Which Is Better: Natural Greenhouse Ventilation or Mechanical Ventilation?
Expense is a significant consideration for farmers when selecting the optimum ventilation system. While the initial prices for both greenhouse ventilation systems are comparable, the temperature controllers and roll-up motors used in a curtain ventilation system utilize far less electricity than fans. This enables more energy-efficient and cost-effective greenhouse operations regularly.
Another consideration when deciding between natural and mechanical ventilation systems is the size of your greenhouse. Maintaining a fan ventilation system in a smaller greenhouse, less than 40 square feet, will be inexpensive. A mechanical system would be unable to successfully keep both ends of a greenhouse at an ideal temperature in greenhouses larger than 100 square feet.
Seasonally, each method of ventilation has advantages. A fan cooling system can be especially useful in the early spring when you cannot open side curtains owing to snow accumulation on the ground. Meanwhile, operating a fan in an empty greenhouse to keep your plastic from melting after summer harvesting can waste electricity and raise your utility bill. Natural ventilation allows you to open your curtains, set them, and forget them during certain times of the year.
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