Concept design
Analyse and Assess:
This section will be looking at observations, data and
requirements necessary to meet our goals of establishing a productive nursery
system in the tropics;
Nursery Elements:
Roofed potting area / tool
storage and seed saving centre: The
Potting Shed:
This area
will be the heart of the Nursery and will provide an area that is protected from
the elements to carry out tasks such as plant propagation and seed saving. The
area will have electricity and good lighting. It will be divided into three
rooms; A large propagation room for propagating plants and storing bulky nursery
items ie. Seed trays, pots, potting materials/mediums. A seed saving / office;
For the collection, sorting, organising and storage of seeds and the compiling
of information; Log books and data collection with regards to seed saving and
nursery activities. A tool storage area; to store high value tools and machinery
in a well labeled, organised fashion, to reduce time and energy inputs like
spending a long time searching for specific tools. Must be lockable.
The design of this Potting shed based largely on the clients specifications in regards
to size and shape; The client has purchased a large number of concrete posts for
use in building construction around the site. The client wishes to utilise these
posts in the construction of the potting shed and nursery. The client also wishes
to build the roof in a specific way in order to match the rest of the buildings on site.
Monsoon House;
Protected area for growing higher value/input trees, some selected veg and
delicate/fragile plants:
This area will be used for the cultivation of
high value tree crops for sales and for protecting delicate and fragile plants
from the harsh monsoon rains.
I have often observed that the heavy rains in
the monsoon tropics can have an adverse effect on young vegetable seedlings and
fragile plants. The heavy drops can flatten plants and wash out potting soils,
leaving plant roots exposed to the air.
The idea of the Monsoon house is to create an
environment where we have more control over the growing conditions and can
create our own micro-climate.
Factors to consider when constructing a
“monsoon house” in the tropics:
Plants require a roof to protect them from heavy
rains. The roof must be transparent to allow sufficient light for healthy plant
growth.
The building must not get too hot, it must be
passively aerated. Constructing this type of monsoon house is very different
from constructing a pollytunnel or greenhouse in a temperate climate; In a
temperate climate the general idea is to try to extend the growing season by
creating a warmer area for plants so that you can grow your veggies further in
to the winter and grow some heat loving plants that wouldn't do so well outside.
In the monsoon house however the main aim is to construct a type of greenhouse
that doesn't heat up, that remains the same as the ambient outdoor air
temperature and doesn't require the extra input of expensive and high energy
consuming commercial fans.
I've been researching different construction
types for pollytunnels and greenhouses in Thailand. Having spoken to a number of
people regarding the efficiency of different designs. I went to visit a
cantaloupe nursery not far from The Panya Project, near Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Looking at the different designs and walking around them I was amazed that they
didn't heat up and remained the same temperature as outdoors. Having worked for
several years in greenhouses in the UK where entering the greenhouse was usually
a welcome relief from the external bitterness. It came as a surprise to find
myself in a greenhouse that wasn't any hotter than outdoors.
All the different designs at the farm
demonstrated passive aeration techniques, using an overlapping roof that allows
hot air to escape and mesh sides that allow air to enter.
After speaking to workers at the nursery for a
while I discovered their personal favourite; the workers had
been used to working in the greenhouses and observing the conditions over a
number of years and during all seasons. The reason that the chose one design as
their favourite was because it was the most consistent all rounder. Many of the
designs encountered problems with leaking during strong wind and rain storms
with water penetrating the overlapping roof, the design they favoured had the
least problems in this area as well as good passive aeration and relatively
easy construction.
For the above reasons this last design
is the one I've chosen to move forward with for the construction of our monsoon
house.
Mushroom
House:
I've been doing some research field-trips recently to Mushroom farms in the local area, here in Thailand.
We have a mushroom farm growing straw mushrooms very close to us and I've forged
relations with the owners and will shortly be embarking on a mushroom journey
learning all the tricks of the trade.
Straw mushrooms are delicious and fetch
quite a high price at regional and national market.
Some key elements to creating a good
mushroom house are based around climate control; The ability to create
conditions conducive to the growing requirements of the particular mushroom(s)
you wish to cultivate. For example control over humidity temperature and airflow
are very important.
Vegetable Nursery:
The vegetable Nursery will be used for
sowing certain annual and perennial vegetables (ones that benefit from being
started in trays and then transplanted rather than being sown
directly). The vegetables and herbs will be sown in
trays, seed beds or pots and will be transplanted out when they are
ready. Having a vegetable nursery can improve farm
productivity by:Having a vegetable nursery can improve
farm productivity by:
Concentrating a large number of young
plants in one area allowing for more controlled and easier maintenance,
care, watering and fertilisation.
removing large quantities of plants to be transplanted into beds), irrigation
and plants organised effectively eg. Plants sorted by variety, annuals in one
area and perennials in another. Needs to be able to be axpanded for more
production in the future.
The area will be used, visited /
worked in regularly. With a regular flow of plants/pots/seed-trays coming in and
going out. The area needs to be protected from unwanted intruders; Dogs,
chickens, ducks, geese etc.
The Tree
Nursery:
The tree nursery will be an area similar to the vegetable nursery only with slightly more
shade (in my experience working with vegetables and trees in the tropics i've
found that trees prefer more shade than vegetables when they're in containers in
the nursery).
The area will be divided into several different areas depending on the size, variety, whether
they're grown in containers or seed beds (seed beds are more economical in terms
of space and resources when raising large quantities of trees); tree seedlings
can be germinated in beds and then transplanted into containers once they reach
a reasonable size (approx 4-5 true leaves or bigger).
The tree nursery will be an area that is visited and worked in often but less than the
vegetable nursery. The flow of trees leaving the nursery will be considerably
less than with the vegetable nursery as the vegetables will be successively
planted throughout the year where-as the window for tree planting here in the
tropics is much smaller with only about 2 months of the year being optimal (the
beginning of the monsoon). I have observed that even if irrigation is used to
water trees they will always do considerably better when planted at the start of
the monsoon, giving them several months of natural rain to settle in and
produce a healthy root system before the dry season kicks in. The tree
nursery will start off small but will have space for future
expansion.
The chill-out
area:
The owner has expressed his desire to include an area for relaxing into the nursery design as
the farm is currently quite exposed and would benefit from a shaded chill-out
area to relax and
unwind.
The Chill-out area will be used for the purposes of rest and
relaxation, a place for quiet contemplation, reading, meditation, practicing
yoga etc. The space could also be used for meetings, classes, jam sessions,
poetry readings, etc...
This section will be looking at observations, data and
requirements necessary to meet our goals of establishing a productive nursery
system in the tropics;
Nursery Elements:
Roofed potting area / tool
storage and seed saving centre: The
Potting Shed:
This area
will be the heart of the Nursery and will provide an area that is protected from
the elements to carry out tasks such as plant propagation and seed saving. The
area will have electricity and good lighting. It will be divided into three
rooms; A large propagation room for propagating plants and storing bulky nursery
items ie. Seed trays, pots, potting materials/mediums. A seed saving / office;
For the collection, sorting, organising and storage of seeds and the compiling
of information; Log books and data collection with regards to seed saving and
nursery activities. A tool storage area; to store high value tools and machinery
in a well labeled, organised fashion, to reduce time and energy inputs like
spending a long time searching for specific tools. Must be lockable.
The design of this Potting shed based largely on the clients specifications in regards
to size and shape; The client has purchased a large number of concrete posts for
use in building construction around the site. The client wishes to utilise these
posts in the construction of the potting shed and nursery. The client also wishes
to build the roof in a specific way in order to match the rest of the buildings on site.
Monsoon House;
Protected area for growing higher value/input trees, some selected veg and
delicate/fragile plants:
This area will be used for the cultivation of
high value tree crops for sales and for protecting delicate and fragile plants
from the harsh monsoon rains.
I have often observed that the heavy rains in
the monsoon tropics can have an adverse effect on young vegetable seedlings and
fragile plants. The heavy drops can flatten plants and wash out potting soils,
leaving plant roots exposed to the air.
The idea of the Monsoon house is to create an
environment where we have more control over the growing conditions and can
create our own micro-climate.
Factors to consider when constructing a
“monsoon house” in the tropics:
Plants require a roof to protect them from heavy
rains. The roof must be transparent to allow sufficient light for healthy plant
growth.
The building must not get too hot, it must be
passively aerated. Constructing this type of monsoon house is very different
from constructing a pollytunnel or greenhouse in a temperate climate; In a
temperate climate the general idea is to try to extend the growing season by
creating a warmer area for plants so that you can grow your veggies further in
to the winter and grow some heat loving plants that wouldn't do so well outside.
In the monsoon house however the main aim is to construct a type of greenhouse
that doesn't heat up, that remains the same as the ambient outdoor air
temperature and doesn't require the extra input of expensive and high energy
consuming commercial fans.
I've been researching different construction
types for pollytunnels and greenhouses in Thailand. Having spoken to a number of
people regarding the efficiency of different designs. I went to visit a
cantaloupe nursery not far from The Panya Project, near Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Looking at the different designs and walking around them I was amazed that they
didn't heat up and remained the same temperature as outdoors. Having worked for
several years in greenhouses in the UK where entering the greenhouse was usually
a welcome relief from the external bitterness. It came as a surprise to find
myself in a greenhouse that wasn't any hotter than outdoors.
All the different designs at the farm
demonstrated passive aeration techniques, using an overlapping roof that allows
hot air to escape and mesh sides that allow air to enter.
After speaking to workers at the nursery for a
while I discovered their personal favourite; the workers had
been used to working in the greenhouses and observing the conditions over a
number of years and during all seasons. The reason that the chose one design as
their favourite was because it was the most consistent all rounder. Many of the
designs encountered problems with leaking during strong wind and rain storms
with water penetrating the overlapping roof, the design they favoured had the
least problems in this area as well as good passive aeration and relatively
easy construction.
For the above reasons this last design
is the one I've chosen to move forward with for the construction of our monsoon
house.
Mushroom
House:
I've been doing some research field-trips recently to Mushroom farms in the local area, here in Thailand.
We have a mushroom farm growing straw mushrooms very close to us and I've forged
relations with the owners and will shortly be embarking on a mushroom journey
learning all the tricks of the trade.
Straw mushrooms are delicious and fetch
quite a high price at regional and national market.
Some key elements to creating a good
mushroom house are based around climate control; The ability to create
conditions conducive to the growing requirements of the particular mushroom(s)
you wish to cultivate. For example control over humidity temperature and airflow
are very important.
Vegetable Nursery:
The vegetable Nursery will be used for
sowing certain annual and perennial vegetables (ones that benefit from being
started in trays and then transplanted rather than being sown
directly). The vegetables and herbs will be sown in
trays, seed beds or pots and will be transplanted out when they are
ready. Having a vegetable nursery can improve farm
productivity by:Having a vegetable nursery can improve
farm productivity by:
Concentrating a large number of young
plants in one area allowing for more controlled and easier maintenance,
care, watering and fertilisation.
Provides planting material on demand: By planting
the same crops in the nursery every couple of weeks we will have a constant
supply of new planting material to replace crops which have begun to die off or
are no longer productive in our garden beds.
Reducing time/labour and resource inputs;
Watering, thinning, weeding, fertilising, etc.
Reducing growing area needed; by raising plants
in the nursery we can free-up a large area of our garden beds, for example, if
we were to grow say peppers (capsicum anuum) in a 4ft.(1.20m.) Wide bed, with 3
rows planted at 45cm. Intervals we would need 10.8M2.
Of bed space to produce 60 plants. Depending on climatic
conditions the plants may take 2 months before they start to attain reasonable
vegatative growth. We can grow these plants in trays for the first 2 months
freeing up space (in beds) for a short-term crop such as spinach or lettuce that
we can grow and harvest in the mean time.
removing large quantities of plants to be transplanted into beds), irrigation
and plants organised effectively eg. Plants sorted by variety, annuals in one
area and perennials in another. Needs to be able to be axpanded for more
production in the future.
The area will be used, visited /
worked in regularly. With a regular flow of plants/pots/seed-trays coming in and
going out. The area needs to be protected from unwanted intruders; Dogs,
chickens, ducks, geese etc.
The Tree
Nursery:
The tree nursery will be an area similar to the vegetable nursery only with slightly more
shade (in my experience working with vegetables and trees in the tropics i've
found that trees prefer more shade than vegetables when they're in containers in
the nursery).
The area will be divided into several different areas depending on the size, variety, whether
they're grown in containers or seed beds (seed beds are more economical in terms
of space and resources when raising large quantities of trees); tree seedlings
can be germinated in beds and then transplanted into containers once they reach
a reasonable size (approx 4-5 true leaves or bigger).
The tree nursery will be an area that is visited and worked in often but less than the
vegetable nursery. The flow of trees leaving the nursery will be considerably
less than with the vegetable nursery as the vegetables will be successively
planted throughout the year where-as the window for tree planting here in the
tropics is much smaller with only about 2 months of the year being optimal (the
beginning of the monsoon). I have observed that even if irrigation is used to
water trees they will always do considerably better when planted at the start of
the monsoon, giving them several months of natural rain to settle in and
produce a healthy root system before the dry season kicks in. The tree
nursery will start off small but will have space for future
expansion.
The chill-out
area:
The owner has expressed his desire to include an area for relaxing into the nursery design as
the farm is currently quite exposed and would benefit from a shaded chill-out
area to relax and
unwind.
The Chill-out area will be used for the purposes of rest and
relaxation, a place for quiet contemplation, reading, meditation, practicing
yoga etc. The space could also be used for meetings, classes, jam sessions,
poetry readings, etc...
