Chinese Greenhouse Construction

What do you think is better, a Chinese greenhouse or a traditional North American Greenhouse?

While in PRChina I was privileged enough to get to visit a family owned greenhouse. The back wall was basically rammed earth with a mound of earth/broken brick behind it. It was several hundred feet long and the variety of plants being grown was overwhelming.

There’s a farmer in Canada, a chinese immigrant family, he built one in Alberta. His name is Dong Caicai 董菜菜, and running a vegetable farm. I am trying to build one too in Virginia.

In Iran's south we have other problems such a strong hot winds and 50C summer days. Hence, my similar profile design is turned 180 degrees and the blanket is replaced by shadecloth reducing summer heat. Near the Tropic of Cancer and the almosy directly overhead in sumner, i would use the aftenoon sun to evaporate grey or hard water in a trough in the south to humidify the 'cool' house. If the entre structure could be sealed, evaporated water can be used for irrigation also.

I liked the pics with pigs inside the greenhouse, they would produce enough body heat to heat the greenhouse in winter and you can feed them the scraps and use the manure for fertilizer

Interesting with the thermal mass back wall... they shade the wall (with the rolled up insulation) in summer to prevent over overheating. In winter the sun will be low and sneak under the rolled up insulation and "fill" the thermal mass throughout the day. Thanks, a nice, efficient, cheap solution they have.

Two improvements: 1. Install vibrator at the top frame to shake off snow - it saves you from heating up any snow accumulation. 2. Fill in soil for the northern wall - it will release heat during the night time.

Thank you for introducing these Chinese-styled greenhouses to the West. Yes, they are much cheaper to build and IMO, much more efficient than western greenhouses. However, the industrial/ commercial greenhouses called "DaPeng", (bih lean-to" , built with brick back walls, have inherent problems, mainly condensation which causes plants to mold. The original ones back in the 70s to mid-eighties were built with cob (dirt) bricks which allowed them to breathe, absorbing excess moisture. But these were abandoned due to intensive labor compared to the modern brick ones which could be slapped together much more quickly. Until recently, I spent two decades in China, consulting, designing, and building regenerative polyculture farms from the ground up and built over two hundred of these greenhouses all over China, from Heilongjiang in the North, all along the east coast to Canton province in the south and as far as Xinjiang in the west. My newest version is earth-sheltered (mostly in-ground), with solar chimneys for passive cooling in the summer. PM me if you are interested in learning more.

Thank you so much for this wonderful video. A lot to digest and think about. So much to learn from Chinese greenhouse design and deployment model. Hope there's no political backslash/legalization to jack up/ keep the greenhouse cost/price high in the name of our usual things -Attack against inexpensive materials, "made in China", public safety, environmental safety ...etc. Cost effectiveness, simple solution for the farmer, over "tech" soundings, IP protected "products" we promote are so refreshing

This is an idea that I’ve had for the south face of my 45yr old manufactured home using cattle fence panels as structure as it’s available and affordable. I enjoy your channel. -Eric (north central North Carolina)

Thanks you so much for sharing your investigations! I´m about to apply a lot of this making my first greenhouse in south america! Liked and subscribed!!

Talked to a Chinese solar greenhouse owner (Dong on Youtube). Said it is cheaper just to build them here than it is to order from China.

Wow! This really is very good. The bit about thermal mass and temperature only an odd degree below zero was interesting. Climate here in Kazakhstan during winter really is low.

All I can say is, I LIKE IT!!! I'm going to look into this further. Thanks for the video/information!! Great job.

Back in the ancient 1970’s When we built Passive Solar Greenhouses We always had thermal mass in the north walls of greenhouses We always had movable insulation All passive solar designs have glazing & thermal mass Attached greenhouse Direct passive Roof ponds Trombone walls Build your house like a thermos bottle w the open end pointing south

I have read about a similar greenhouse in the 90s in some books from the 70s that used water jugs on the backwall. Same principles but it suggested angling the green house so that the back wall got the most sun during the coldest months of the year.

I think it's worth checking out. Passive heat that keeps greenhouse warm is always worth more.

Thanks I appreciate your time discussing this option

Thank you for sharing this information! There is so much valuable knowledge lost between cultures just because it seems easy to stick with what we know.

I LOVED THE PIC WITH PIGS INSIDE THE GREENHOUSE THATS A GRAIT IDIA FOR SOMEONE WHO START HOMESTEADING AND ITS NOT READY TO SPEND TO BUILTH 2 DIFERENT PLACE FOR GARDENS AND BURN THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR PERFECT IDIAS