New Barrel Stove in New Greenhouse and Free Wood Scrounge

[hardypalmguy]

I build this greenhouse over the last few months. It's 18' x 8' with a 4'x5' concrete room that houses my wood stove. I plan on heating it exclusively with wood to keep it at least above freezing in the winter. I live in southern WI where it can get darn cold for three months or so. Here are some pictures of my setup.

Outside looking at the front.

One side - you can see the stove flue in the back.

Looking in through the door.

Finally, the wood stove. I can adjust the air in take with the PVC valve. Uses 100% outside air for combustion.

Here is a picture of the wood loaded up. This is half of what the guy has for me. Picking the other half up Tuesday.

Split and stacked. Back row is about 7' high, middle row almost 4 feet high and front row just a few layers high.

Luckily having a barrel stove, as long as it's under 10" in diameter it fits in whole. A lot less splitting than with a conventional stove. My work also has 200 pallets I'm bring home that I'm going to use to supplement with this larger wood.

Thank you Craigslist for the free wood.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Your greenhouse has a nicer storm door than my house!

I'm jealous. I'd love to have a small greenhouse or cold tunnel to start plants in.

Matt

 

[rideau]

Nice greenhouse. Good luck!

Why do you stack between trees instead of on some of those pallets that are available to you? Not very good for the trees....

 

[hardypalmguy]

Nice greenhouse. Good luck!

Why do you stack between trees instead of on some of those pallets that are available to you? Not very good for the trees....

It's not good for the trees? I figured it would all be gone by spring when the trees wanted to start growing and it wouldn't matter. I don't want to hurt the trees, but I figured they would be free "posts" to hold my wood in the winter.

I have yet to get the pallets home, so I stacked this pile on 2x4s.

 

[fossil]

Lots of folks stack wood between trees. I've done it. We see pictures of that all the time here. Never once heard of anyone who thought their trees had suffered any sort of damage because of it. Rick

 

[rideau]

The advice I've seen is not to put anything even leaning against trees long term. Best not to plant under trees when they are in your yard, but to keep the area around the trunk grass and plant free with mulch. Don't imagine much water gets to the roots on the stack side of the trees. And the weight stacked there isn't too great for the roots....but to each his own. They aren't my trees. It's an easy way to stack. If you want to do it, by all means go ahead.

 

[begreen]

I'll be curious to see how that works out for you. Our little Jotul will move the temp about 20F in an hour in the greenhouse when it's in the mid 20s outside.

What it the main crop growing in the cups?

 

[hardypalmguy]

The crop in the cups are Chinese Windmill Palm seedlings. Almost 1 year old. They look like this grown up. Yes, I go through extensive winter protection measures to keep it alive and growing well.

 

[begreen]

That palm looks pretty healthy. Looks like you are doing a great job. The banana plant however looks like it wants to bust out of Dodge. I put ours in the ground year before last. It reached about 10 ft with a few pups this year.

 

[fespo]

I will have to send you a couple of my fig tree cuttings if you would like. They would so great in there come spring. I LOVE that greenhouse. Just one question, why don't you have the stove up off the ground to get more air around the stove. Just asking, not trying to put in down by any means. Have fun with it.

 

[thetraindork]

wow, what the set up. and to top it off, you can watch trains from the yard. is that rail line active? nice job!

 

[brian89gp]

You might look into the double barrel stoves. Same as your setup, but it has another barrel sitting on top, the top barrel flue exit is in the front. You would keep what you got and just add another barrel on top.

My dad heats a roughly 1600 sq/ft with a double barrel setup. Granted, this is Missouri so it is more temerate then some places and on cold nights it is a full load every 2 hours, but it will keep the whole thing in the 40's. The single barrel wouldn't cut it.