Dehumidifier in green house and heating

[Joakim B]

I got myself an easy plastic green house
I added extra bubble wrap to insulate it
I am using old milk cartons filled with warm water as frost protection when there is risk for frost
I see that the greenhouse is getting mould. I mounted the greenhouse when it was wet so all the bauble wrapp got wet.
Have anyone tested bentonit dehumidifiers?
Why go for a 10 euro per kilo solution when 10 kilo bentonite cat sand cost 5?
I was first thinking of using normal sand but when I saw the dehumidifiers I started thinking cat litter in an open container? It could be dried in oven or micro so could be re used I presume?
Anyone having any thought on this?
Thanks for the input
Joakim

[ArnoldT]

 You can paint the milk cartons black to take advantage of some heat storage when the sun goes down.

You can store 8 BTU's per gallon of water when the temperature rises above the temperature in the greenhouse.

So if a five gallon milk carton is two degrees warmer than the greenhouse at night it will give off 80 BTU's.

I used it for a bit with black plastic paint containers.  They were under my bench on the sunny side of the greenhouse.

[Joakim B]

Great to heat about the use of milk cartons as sun absorbers as well as using them warm from the beginning!
We do have very little sun during these days due to rain but I will use as dark as possible to take advantage of the sun if it shows itself again
Has any one tested Cat litter as de humidifier? Bentonite seems to be used in the cheap reusable dehumidifiers so cattlitter of bentonite seems to be a cheap source o de humifier?
Do anyone use any sort of non electrical dehumidifiers in their greenhouse?
Thanks
Joakim

[ArnoldT]

Here in the North Eastern USA we have generally much too low humidity.

Folks spray the floors of the greenhouses to raise the humidly level in the space.

[Joakim B]

Due to strong winds the tests went to pieces
I would expect all that have weak winters around zero to have high humidity
I presume that is why Ian in his bulb log take away flowers that is past their best
As I was able to get the greenhouse back fairly well and with 25 kg stone and 3 25 litre cans filled with water I hope to keep it in place
Some openings also relieve build up lift due to strong winds.
Luckily we have not so cold so I will wait to tight the gaps until the winds wind down
I also put some de humidifier in the car so will see if this works. They do have lids in the car but were open in the greenhouse

Interesting that you have dry climate in the greenhouse Arnold maybe due to cold winters?

[ArnoldT]

Joakim:

Our winter are cold and very dry as far as humidity goes.  We get a fair amount of rain and snow.

Humidity at the moment is 47%.

Ian removes his spent flowers to discourage the fungus formation.

Are you in Portugal or Hungry?

[Joakim B]

Me and the greenhouse is in Sweden but the south part that has quite mild climate with “normally” only few weeks below zero so quite humid.
Portugal has more or less not below zero a full day so very humid but Hungary has quite continental climate with both cold and snow so garden under quite different conditions. Coastal, continental and Mediterranean:) so try to grow the right stuff at the right place but as I am mostly in Sweden I want most things there.
The fungus and mould is it not a result of high humidity?

[ArnoldT]

The things you need to grow mold and fungus are a substrate (something for the mold and fungus to get nutrition from), temperatures and moisture.

You are probably providing all three.  You can clean you greenhouse surfaces with a bleach solution or get good air movement with fans.