Chinese greenhouses: description and reviews

Most people have the opinion that Chinese goods are always consumer goods that do not have high quality, and their technology is either far from perfect or borrowed from someone. Chinese greenhouses completely destroy these stereotypes. Their design is very simple, material investments are minimal, and the results are staggering. With the introduction of these unusual vegetarians into the agro-industrial complex of China, it became possible to provide yearly half a billion population of the country with cheap fruits and vegetables. Greenhouses from China, having proved in practice their high profitability, began to conquer the world market. Now they are popular in all countries of the temperate climate, including Russia.

Principle of operation

Chinese greenhouses, although they came to us from China, but have a Russian counterpart. Back in the middle of the last century, a simple physics teacher, Alexander Ivanov, invented helio-vegetarians, that is, designs that use the energy of the sun. The Chinese have slightly modified this model, leaving the same principle of work. Their first greenhouse appeared in 1978. It works the same way as the Ivanov vegetarian, due to the free energy of our luminary. In any part of Russia (except in the Far North), the sun shines all year round completely, only in the summer its rays fall to the Earth at an angle close to 90 °, and in winter the angle of their fall decreases to 20-40 °. A small discrepancy in the values depends on the geographical latitude of the terrain. At a small angle of incidence, the rays seem to glide over the surface, so they do not give it heat. If you make a wall of a greenhouse with a slope that allows you to catch all the energy of the winter sunlight, they will warm this wall just as they warm the earth in the summer. This principle is the basis of Chinese vegetarians. In addition, it is necessary to heat such structures only in severe frosts.

Chinese greenhouses: description

We are used to transparent greenhouses on all sides, because plants should receive as much light as possible. Arched or in the form of a house - it does not matter, the main thing is that all their walls let in the sun's rays. The Chinese left only one wall transparent, and the rest is built of brick, cinder block, concrete, clay or earth - anything, the main thing is that they are massive. Their thickness is maintained within 1.5-2 meters, depending on the climate of the area. Where winters are relatively warm, for example, in the Krasnodar Territory, you can build walls up to 1-1.5 meters thick. Outside, they must be covered with some kind of insulation (foam glass, foamed polymers with a thickness of 150 mm, mats with straw). The transparent wall is made with a slope and has the appearance of a semi-arch. For its construction use a reinforced film or polycarbonate. As you can see, Chinese greenhouses have a somewhat unusual and at the same time simple construction. The photo captured one of them from the inside.

If landscape features of a site allow, such vegetarian can be built in an earthen hill. This option has two significant advantages:

1. The thickness of the earth will be very good to protect the greenhouse from the cold.

2. Only two side walls need to be built, which means that it is essential to save both money and labor.

It is even more economical to attach a greenhouse to the wall of a residential building.

When choosing any option near one of the sides, it is necessary to build an auxiliary pantry. In it, the Chinese store tools, fertilizers, chemical reagents for processing plants and other necessary things.

Internal heating features

Chinese greenhouses, where additional heating is used, are built in regions with severe winters. For this purpose, use a conventional stove-burzhuyku, working on coal or wood, electric or gas heaters. In regions where the winter is not colder -15 ° C, you can only manage the energy of the sun. From dawn to dusk, its rays penetrate into the greenhouse, heat the walls and the earth, and at night the accumulated heat is given to the air and plants. In some designs, additional heating is provided without the use of a stove. It is done like this: around the perimeter of the greenhouse lay plastic pipes with a diameter of 110 mm. They buried in the ground about 300 mm, but so that from the side of the transparent wall two ends protrude from the ground. In them from the room comes warm air. In the opposite wall, where there are also tube openings, put the fans, which cause the air to circulate through the system. These devices partly solve the issue of ventilation. Alternatively, near the northern wall, water tanks, painted in black, are installed. All day they are warmed by the sun, and at night they give heat to plants.

Features of external heating

In addition to internal heating, Chinese greenhouses are equipped with outdoor equipment. On their vegetarians, the Chinese are installing a special system, working on the principle of awnings from the sun. Its design includes a roll of protective film from rice husks and a manual or automatic swivel mechanism. In the evening, the film is unwound and covered with a greenhouse, and in the morning they are rolled back into a roll. Instead of a film of rice husk, it is allowed to use panels made of reed. They are made light, because they cover only the transparent wall of the greenhouses. In addition, the thickness of the cane panels should not prevent them from rolling into a roll and maximize the preservation of heat.

The kladovochka attached to the end wall also helps to protect the warmth in vegetarians, because when workers enter it from the street the frosty air penetrates only into this small utility room, without reaching directly to the greenhouse.

Internal arrangement

Chinese greenhouses for growing strawberries, tomatoes, any other vegetables necessarily have a system of drip irrigation. Inside the vegetarians, a moisture and temperature monitoring system is placed. The beds are often arranged with the use of agrofiber, which provides additional heating of the plant roots. In industrial greenhouses , space is allocated for compost pits or both plants and animals, for example, pigs, are grown. These features of operation make it possible to obtain organic fertilizers. The beds are made by the Chinese in the direction south-north, with a slight inclination from the rear wall. It is believed that with this arrangement the soil heats up in the best way. For strawberries on the back of the greenhouses are built racks in several rows. They are placed at such a level that each plant has the opportunity to receive the required amount of light. The rest of the area they plant low-growing crops.

Location of the best location

Since Chinese greenhouses use the energy of our luminaries, they need to be located on the site so that it is possible to take maximum heat from it. The back wall of the vegetarian should look to the north. They make it deaf, without a single window and without doors. It can be drowned in an earthen hill or be common with a house. The transparent wall should look to the south. Two sidewalls are located respectively in the western and eastern directions. We have the most polycarbonate for greenhouses because of its strength. The Chinese prefer to cover their vegetarians with a milky blue super-strong film, whose service life is 3 years or more. It is believed that it not only disperses the light evenly across the room, but also passes only rays with the necessary wavelengths to the plants. It is important to find a place for the greenhouse that its southern wall does not block anything, for example, a high fence or other structures on the site.

How to build a solar vegetarian

For what the Chinese greenhouses were intended for - for cultivation of cucumbers, tomatoes or cabbage, they are erected on a single technology. Ideal is the option when a vegetarian is attached to a residential building. In the Russian market, it is basically such designs that are sold. A detailed diagram and assembly instruction comes in the kit for the greenhouse components. Separately, you can buy a protective film, which is sold per meter. If there is a desire to build a Chinese greenhouse from improvised materials, it is important to make the right angle of the slope of the transparent wall, which should be the less than the north of the terrain. Also, it is necessary to provide sufficient ventilation in homemade vegetarian food without compromising its tightness. If you comply with all the rules and do not violate the technology, the greenhouse created by your own hands will be no worse than that acquired from Chinese manufacturers.

Reviews

Russian farmers are just starting to test Chinese greenhouses. Reviews about their performance are still few. Notable advantages:

- the ability to harvest in winter and summer;

- a relatively low cost of erection (if possible, attach the greenhouse to the house);

- less fuel used for heating.

Notable shortcomings and difficulties:

- it is difficult to buy the necessary components;

- in the suburbs and other areas with severe winters, it is necessary to further heat the greenhouse, which reduces its profitability and increases maintenance costs;

- Without using the fuel that emits when burning CO ₂ , you need to look for another source of carbon dioxide that plants need for life;

- a warm blanket (a film of rice husk) weakly holds heat;

- in regions with a warmer climate it is necessary to arrange additional ventilation.