Polyhouse Floriculture
Today, let us go through Polyhouse Floriculture benefits, ideas, and tips.
Growing the plants in a polyhouse is a pride for a home gardener. You can not only grow new plants from your present landscape but also get a very good start for your flower garden or you can also grow it in the indoor environment by making use of a polyhouse. Though the plants will grow to their best in your polyhouse, they will completely depend on the setup of the polyhouse. There are few suitable plants to grow in polyhouse as per their climate.
Polyhouse gardening is one of the methods of growing plants in a protected environment. The usage of polyethene plastic is done for covering the structure. This will enable the cultivation of high-value plants in the polyhouse structure.
Few polyhouses have natural ventilation whereas few are completely under the systems of climate control with ventilators and screens which are motorized.
Polyhouse is attaining great significance in recent days. This proves to be advantageous to the farmers since it gets enabled.
Floriculture is a concept which completely belongs to gardening and is motivated towards the understanding and the improvement of all the factors of creation of buds and flowers which involve nutrition which has to be given to plants, watering, management of pests, lighting requirements, etc. The main aim of floriculture is the improvement of plants so that they will yield large buds and flowering times which are the best.
All the flowers cannot be grown in all the seasons. This is a major disappointment for gardeners who love to have beautiful flowers in their gardens. Hence, polyhouse floriculture has come into existence where the flowering plants can be grown in polyhouses irrespective of the varieties and also the season.
Polyhouse gardening flowers:
Ornamental plants can be made a group into annuals and perennials which are shade-loving and they can be divided based on their requirements for humidity and other features which are unique. Few popular ornamental and landscape plants are Geranium, Petunias, Caladiums, Ferns, Chrysanthemums, Impatiens, and Poinsettias.
Read: Raised Gardening Tips.
Benefits of Polyhouse Floriculture:
Polyhouse floriculture is advantageous to the gardeners mainly to those who will prefer organic gardening. Below are some advantages of polyhouse floriculture
- The plants can be grown in temperature which is controlled which would, in turn, lead to less damage to the plants.
- The growing of the plants can be done all around the year and a gardener need not wait for any specific season.
- There is less number of pests and insects in a polyhouse garden.
- The outdoor climate will not have that much of impact on the plant growth.
- The size and quality of the flowers grown is higher in the polyhouse garden.
- There would be very good aeration and also drainage.
- The ornamental flowers can also be grown without much efforts in a polyhouse.
- Polyhouse will provide correct facilities to your plants irrespective of the season.
- The yield of the plants will improve up to 10 times the actual.
- The growing period will be less.
- It would very easy to apply the fertilizer and is automatically controlled by drip irrigation.
- This will make sure that the production of all the plants goes across the year.
- There would be the production of flowers which are free from blemishes.
- There would be less water required.
- Labour which is required is also less.
Types of Polyhouse:
Depending on the climatic control system, polyhouse is of two types:
Polyhouse with natural ventilation:
This type of polyhouse will not have any climatic control system except enough ventilation and fogger system for protecting the plants from harsh climatic conditions and also from pests and diseases which occur naturally.
Polyhouse which is environmentally controlled:
These are built mainly to increase the period of growth of plants or to enhance the yield in the off-season by regulating the temperature, humidity, and light, etc.
Read: Benefits of Garden Permaculture.
Polyhouse Floriculture tips:
- In the first place, you will need to maintain the correct temperature in your polyhouse. The temperature in day time should not be more than 32°C. In order to maintain this temperature, you will need doors and windows in the polyhouse so that they can be closed and opened to give the flowers ventilation mainly during hot climatic conditions.
- At nights, the temperature should not be less than 10°C. You can make use of several ways for the maintenance of temperature during night time but it will be completely based on the location of the greenhouse. One simple method to follow is to fill few 6-gallon buckets with water and keep them in the polyhouse so that they will be able to make use of them in the day time. In this method, heat will be restored and the polyhouse will be warm in night times. Make sure that you are placing the water buckets with lids on them so that they will help in the prevention of insects from reproducing in water.
- To get good circulation of air and also ventilation. You can make use of a circulating fan. The circulating fans can be utilized when the doors and windows are closed. Circulation of air is very essential as it helps the plants to grow in a proper way.
- Prepare a schedule for watering the plants and make sure that you are following it on a daily basis. If you have a polyhouse which is small, it would be sufficient if you water the plants one time a day, but if it is larger, then you will have to water the plants more often. Also, keep in mind that the requirements of water will increase when there is an increase in the temperature.
- Tropical plants will require humid conditions for the sake of their growth. If you are growing tropical flowers in the polyhouse, you will need to ensure that you are providing them with humidity trays. It is very simple to make a humidity tray as any plastic tray with pebbles and filled with water can be used as a humidity tray.
- At last, you have to be careful about the fertilizer requirements of your plants. The plants in the polyhouse can be fertilized with ¼ strength of the fertilizer which is soluble in water. Ensure that the plants are fertilized on a weekly basis.
If you follow all the above tips, you will get the ability to grow several varieties of flowers in your polyhouse. Few of the well-known flowers which can be grown in a polyhouse are zinnia, marigolds, snapdragons, poppies.
Read: Information on Soil Acidity and Alkalinity.