My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

As of December 2018 I have a 30’ wide x 72’ long x 17’ tall greenhouse. 2,160 square feet for the sole purpose of Musa research and to test speciality and premium fruit sales. This structure is custom made for Musa! Very tall, slow sloping roof at the peek is 17’ tall and offers plenty of room! The shortest area on the sides is 9’. Both entire sides roll up 8’ and stay up during the whole summer!

I am using an extremely high denisity planting method to pack as many plants in as possible! There will be roughly 100 varities growing inside!

I will add a few photos below with more to come once planting is closer to being completed!

The purpose of the structure is to test the sales potential of specialty type fruit and any/all fruit potential. So yes I will be selling all fruit from the greenhouse for the next 4 years. Locally and possibly selling sample boxes of fruit online!

Due to Musa disease, TR4, climate change, and success of short cycle trials I have been given this opportunity! I believe there is potential in the southern US states for specially/premium banana fruit sales! Over the next 4 year I hope to prove this!

I am only allowed to use heat in short-term emergency situations! This structure is more of a way to extend my fall and spring growing seasons rather than having a constant perfect tempature like some greenhouses! Again it is to test the profit potential! So expenses must be kept at a minimum!

I welcome any and all feedback and suggestions! This is the first Musa research greenhouse for this purpose in the US! If you have comments or suggestions please email me! I welcome any and all help! This is a very exciting project!


Musa greenhouse 30x72. 16’ tall in center by Ty Taylor, on Flickr


Greenhouse 100% completed!! by Ty Taylor, on Flickr



Greenhouse 100% completed!! by Ty Taylor, on Flickr



Greenhouse 100% completed!! by Ty Taylor, on Flickr

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

break a banana on your endeavors. all the luck.


I like the little green :ha: house and chair. nice touch. I know what the chair is for

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

Good luck with your project.
We can't wait to see it packed with plants.

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

Ty bro,



Wooohoooo!......Ty’s Nana Oasis Greenhouse is looking awesome!......Done did it bro!.....Job well done!.....Finally you posted!.....LOL.......I know you will have success!.....No doubts on that!....








:2723::bananarow::2723:

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

Look into "inflation ". Another layer of plastic and a fan.

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

Good luck, but, if I were in your shoes, anticipation of cooling problems would prevent me from trying it. Ideally, you want about an 87 deg. F. temperature and direct sunlight. During the Summer, you would have to shade the greenhouse and/or spend a fortune in electricity to cool it. I have seen tunnel greenhouses with aspen pads covering the entire wall at one end, with water dripping through them, and exhaust fans at the other end, but, this evaporative cooling was used in combination with shading.

Or, maybe, you could just remove the covering to the greenhouse during the Summer.

What do you plan to do about cooling?

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

Hey Ty! Pretty cool!

Might need some ventilation in the upper third to minimize heat getting trapped even with the sides open in the summer time.

How will you handle irrigation/watering? Rainwater is free but irrigition costs money.

Hope your project works in zone 8 because Zone 8 land around here is way cheaper than Zone 9 and 10.

Good luck!!

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

We just finished the actual structure. We figured no rush on the cooling until next year. Especially since we have been racing winter to put it up! But here is the plan below. Some already purchased and some will be purchased after inspection and I get the rest of the funding.

I already have two big 4’ tall box exhaust fans ready to go in this spring. They will blow outside! On the other end will be 12-18 foot of evaporative cooling material. There will also be four 24”-36” circulating fans and one or two ridge exhaust fans for the trapped heat in the very top.

We plan to see how that works. I was hoping not to use shade cloth but I’m expecting it to be required. We have worked very closely with the USDA so it should do great in 8b.

Irrigation will be drip tape lines every 2’-3’. (Drip tape is the best stuff ever!) We have a well so the water is close to free. The little pump doesn’t use much power at all. Combined with the drip I plan to run 2 lines up top. Most likely the black coil pipe and use some sort of sprinklers. Either the spinners with weights or the normal down spray kind. I may also run a misting line. Who knows.

Also we did look into an inflator for the top part but our consultants told us the benefits are minimal in this area. It works much better in colder areas and without roll up sides. Since you couldn’t inflate the roll up sides. If I had a greenhouse without roll up sides or if I was in a colder area I would have the inflated poly 100%.

Thank you for all the support and feedback! It is all very welcomed! This is my first commercial size greenhouse so I need all the help I can get! I view this greenhouse/project not just for myself but for the entire sub-tropical Musa community! This could open a huge door for the southern US. Zones 8-9.

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

Ty

I'm glad you finally managed to build your large greenhouse, what are exciting project this is going to be for you, are you going to have electricity in there for watering and growlamps, also for heating are you going to use gas.

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

That is so wonderful! I hope you find that selling specialty bananas in your area is a profitable enterprise. Eventual online sales would be helpful in deciding what people around here decide to grow - you can't beat a taste test!

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

Ty,
Amazing. Congratulations! I know you have been working so hard on this. Thank you for sharing this with us and thank you for all you do for Musa and the community.
How fantastic!!
John

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

Good luck Ty! That looks nice. Hopefully you find some good performers out of those 100 varieties!

Erik

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

Very good size green house. Will be any heating control and ventilation systems build in later on ? Green house that does not have good ventilation,then it could be a breeding ground for mold . Have fun with your project.

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

Awesome build! My wife and I are saving for a large chunk of land to build a small farm, and horse stable. This was one of the things I wanted to do - not just for bananas (I've got a bunch of other stuff going). I can't wait to see how you do!

Also, have you thought of using geothermal heating/cooling? My local soil temps (at 2ft!) are ~72 degrees in January. I'm about 40ft above sea level. So, if you're looking for a way to heat, and have enough clearance above sea level, you could consider it. It does take power though.

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

Wow... Great thing to do, man... If it works I may be interested in hosting phase 2... Growing specialty bananas for sale is something I would like doing.
Seriously, awesome, man.

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

Thank you everyone for the comments! It has been a lot Of work getting it all planted and going! Steve I did plant about 8 or so GM Paggi in there! I can’t wait to try them. Some should bloom this spring!

I have considered geothermal! We have a similar geound temp here as well! And yes we do have plenty of ground on top of our hill! If we expand my thought is having 4-5 greenhouses connected together all running with geothermal fans and the black 4” coil drain pipe! I left room so it could be added easily! If anyone is curious or has greenhouse go on YouTube and search geothermal greenhouses! You can easily heat and cool with just fans and drain pipe!

I will not have any lights. However I will have electric! Most winters we have mild temps in and lows in the 40s. When cold fronts hit the temps will spike down to sometime the mid 20s! Usually only for the last few morning hours before the sun comes up! Then it warms up. My thoughts is just using my 50k btu forced air propane heater just to get the temps up around midnight or so. Then hopefully it will hold out until morning. I am not allowed to use any permanent heating! At all! But I am allowed to use portable “emergency” heating. I’ve also though about running the sprinklers overhead with the well water. Which will be ground temp! Just an idea. Not sure how effective it would be.

Today we had our first high winds since we built the structure! Wow i was worried a few times. We had gusts today upto 40mph! I know it’s made to handle it but being around it during the wind makes you very nervous! Lol.

I’m very excited and it should be a fun learning experience! The planting is going great! I’ll get some update pictures in the next few days.

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

:woohoonaner: .... Glad to see you got it built. Now it's time to grow Bananas!

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

Woooohooo!......WOW!......8 Paggi's (GM Subgroup) transplanted to the Greenhouse!.....Definitely Steve is moving to the Greenhouse!.....LMAO!......:ha:......Just joking Steve, don't get serious!.....





:2723::bananarow::2723:

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

got any friends in air conditioning? water to air heat pump? put it on wheels

Re: My New 2160 sq ft Musa Research Greenhouse!
 

If it works out I might move to the gulf coast and buy one... Getting away from pests and diseases sounds like a good move. Put me down for some of those Paggi when they are ripe.