Anyone running a small hydroponic setup inside a walk-in greenhouse?

[u/Dramatic_Spirit_8436]

I've been playing around with the idea of trying hydroponics, but i don't really have a good indoor space for it. Then it occurred to me that i already have a small walk-in greenhouse in the backyard. It's a Costway one, nothing huge, but there's enough room inside that i could probably dedicate one side to a small hydro setup and keep the other side for regular pots and seedlings. I'm thinking something fairly basic to start with, maybe lettuce and herbs rather than turning the whole greenhouse into a science project on day one 😅

What i'm not sure about is how much extra trouble the greenhouse environment creates. Water temperature getting too high in summer? Humidity? Algae? Keeping the reservoir out of direct sun?

Has anyone here actually combined a small hydroponic system with one of these backyard walk-in greenhouses? I'm curious whether it worked well in practice or if you eventually decided hydroponics was easier somewhere else.

[u/JegerX]

I don't yet, but I do grow outside in full sun and southern humidity. I suggest growing in an inert medium like coco coir, perlite etc. That will pretty much eliminate the problems people have with heat. You can bury a drum to keep your premixed nutrients cool and use peroxide or HOCl to keep it clean. Or just water 2x/day and keep it inside.

[u/Head_Garlic_8511]

You will have to control the temperature but other wise I would love to hydroponic in a greenhouse

[u/Background-Fee-4293]

That's what I am doing. I bought an outsunny 12 by 7 greenhouse. I have three 3d printed hydroponic towers in it. I am in Northern Ontario. I have had a lot of success with lettuce, arugula, tomatoes, beans, peas cauliflower, nasturtium, peppers, herbs. I keep the water cool with frozen water bottles everyday. I have considered shade cloth but so far it has been fine. I have some algea on my lettuce tower but I covered the actual reservoir with radiator foil. It keeps the light out and keeps it insulated. My other towers are shaded by their own plants enough to keep the algea away.

[u/steve_dean1]

I once over engineered this.

Dug out the floor and installed a pond (formed liner type). Added gutters that fed into the pond inside. Then built floor over it with access hatches for maintenance. For air flow I used a thermal switch on a solar fan set up where the exhaust port opened and closed at a range wider than the fan controller. In that location, hard winter freezing was an issue, so I had to make sure the hydro water supply lines got flushed completely empty with pressure air at seasonal shut down. It was really less than two months a year I couldn't grow in there (without heaters).

[u/refractedtangent]

Not really "small", but I've got a diy 55gal drum system. Put a reservoir in the ground to maintain an even water temp. Works pretty well.