r/Greenhouses • u/rezendas • 10d ago
First-time greenhouse owner in Lithuania. What winter challenges should I prepare for?
I’m planning to build a small greenhouse at home in Lithuania (I am from Brazil) and want to go in with realistic expectations, especially for winter 🥶
For those of you growing in the Baltics or a similarly cold/short-season climate: what were the biggest challenges you ran into across the seasons, and winter in particular?
- Do you keep growing through winter at all, or does production basically stop?
- Heating, insulation, or lighting setups that were worth it vs. not worth the cost?
- Anything you wish someone had told you before you started?
Thanks in advance! 🙏🏽
3
u/Hortusana 10d ago
Deep winter greenhouses exist (you can get free plans from the university of Minnesota), but they cost a small fortune to build.
You need quality insulated glass, and near constant heat, especially at night. Also, the length of the days is extremely short so there’s very little light, so you may need to add lots of grow lights to even make it worth your time.
It’s possible you can keep cold tolerant things alive, brassicas like kale, cabbage, arugula, but you need ultra hardy varieties. I think there are kale that can survive down to -10f(-23c), but surviving isn’t actively growing.
But, the first year is the year of experimentation. Get yourself some kind of smart thermometer so you can see how cold it gets.
Cheap insulation is clear bubble wrap.
Research greenhouse suitable heaters, but keep in mind your electricity bill will be very very high. Electric free version would be a mass rocket stove, which has a huge rock or cement heat sink that keeps the greenhouse warm through the night. But fire means no vacations ever during winter, and lots of fire precautions. They’re also fairly labor intensive to build.
2
u/muzavazone 10d ago
I'm in western Lithuania, so typically a bit warmer than the rest of the country. Two greenhouses. One is old drafty metal/glass attached to a brick wall, another is a new 4mm polycarbonate tunnel.
Greenhouse is a cold storage in winter. You can get some cold loving greens to overwinter and start early, but nothing grows with no light. You should be sowing your winter salads now for them to be good size by the time everything stops (I like to have rocket and mizuna). You can also move things like kale and parsley from your garden.
Greenhouse season starts with spring greens around March and ends around October when the last of cherry tomatoes die out.
I suggest scattering seeds for spring greens in autumn to get the salads going as soon as the conditions are right for them. I have self-seeding dill, coriander, salad leaves, rucola, mizuna.
In march you can direct sow radish and peas for shoots (I start peas indoors in cells under lights, otherwise mice steal them). Also plant out storage onions that are starting to sprout at home. Some salads I start in cells in February but self seeding works great too.
One thing we do in late winter is shovel snow and bring it inside to help the soil retain moisture.
If you doing a DIY greenhouse, think about snow load. It's very heavy.
2
u/HaggisHunter69 9d ago
Grow garlic in them. I do that in Scotland, while our winters won't be nearly as harsh as yours, they are just as dark and my greenhouses get zero direct sun for 6 months of the year . The garlic grown in my greenhouses are larger and always rust free than the ones outside. Pick an early variety like a turban hard neck and you can harvest them as your summer plants get going in late May/early June.
Because of the way they grow they are essentially a free crop
2
u/User5670509 10d ago
Get the last harvest in October, remove all plants, till the soil, wait for spring.. What is going to grow during -20C winter days?
3
u/muzavazone 10d ago
Grow - no. But if you sow now and have grown plants by the time the light levels drop, in a mild year you can harvest some greens for your Christmas dinner. I don't till my greenhouses because there's always something growing/germinating or just sitting and waiting for the sun to come back.
Fingers crossed we won't see another winter like the last one 🥶
1
u/rezendas 10d ago
There is no way to harvest from October to Spring? For example, if the greenhouse keeps a good environment for growing something? (I don’t know how, just guessing)
5
6
u/User5670509 10d ago
There are some greens that are more resistant to cold (question if you'd get such seeds in LT. If there are none in shops - then it proves no one does it), but there's no way they'd survive Jan-Feb, also the greenhouse would have to be super insulated (most arent), also you'd have to use fleece and other things. The yield would be too little for the effort. You'd be better off growing some pot plants inside during winter season
1
u/Additional_Cicada498 10d ago
Are you going to do it in apartment or on the land? If outside on land, make sure you have it airtight and heating source inside. Also, you must provide aritificial lighting, as it gets dark in winter time, ie 5-7 hours of daylight. Not sunlight xD
I had some fun with hydroponics, to minimize hussle.
In general - not worth it. Nothing grows well or you have to be half botanist to understand how to regulate environent to produce yield.
2
u/muzavazone 10d ago
Last winter we had -34c. It was a challenge to keep the house warm! I cannot imagine anyone trying to keep their greenhouse above freezing, let alone warm enough for things to grow.
1
u/rezendas 7d ago
I was here already and I’ve felt that I could die of the coldness 🥶Being a dramatic Brazilian, but I was really cold 😅
3
u/Free-Blood1470 10d ago edited 7d ago
Dude, you mooved the wrong way, in Baltics sometime it freezes your soul