hi aman & viks
your discussions are making us to think and learn new things.
about foggers – viks —you say that they r not necessary. but using them for along time – may be 5 to 10 minutes may harm the plants. but using for just one minute will definitely reduce the temp at the top portion of the polyhouse. will it not be an advantage ?
Photosynthesis is indirectly affected by RH. When RH is low, transpiration increases causing water deficits in the plant.
Water deficits cause partial or full closure of stomata blocking entry of carbon dioxide . Lower relative humidities can stress the plants by allowing them to spend excessive energy pumping water through their tissue into the air.
VIKS---- your valuable views please.
Hello ak
But the point is who will keep switching on and off the motor for just a minute of foggers. Wont it be too laborious
Plus i have noticed that their is not a single change in temp and humidity till 5 -10 min use of foggers
How do u suggest to use the foggers ?
I do agree that less humidity does affect the plant significantly, but what can be done to keep humidity in check ?
Aman
hi aman,
the same thought struck my mind few years back, is there really a need of the polyhouse we both have to grow capsicums ? you are right and i totally agree about the high quality shadenet houses.
and noone that i know of has ever tried color capsicum in shadenet or open.
now about the foggers, humidity. why are you so confused ?
Mr.Ak, all you that ur saying is very very true. so whats the solution ? i would start creating humidity from bottom. my first PH is more red soil, and less water holding capacity. so it gets dry very quick.
so i water the plants for a bit more time, and twice a day. that solves both my purpose.
vvk
Hi Vivek,
I had sent a message to your inbox, guess you mustn’t have seen as yet.
It’s great to have people like you here. I hadn’t read most of your posts on this forum discussion (came across today itself), but after sending the message have been reading them. Still just reached around page 10. Will probably spend the night going through them!!!
I am looking to setup a greenhouse in an acre or two acres of land in Gujarat (don’t know yet which is feasible, 1 or 2 
). Had contacted a greenhouse manufacturer and he gave me details of the project (cost, subsidy, turnkey operation etc.), but since it’s coming from a person who wants to sell me his product, I dont want to follow him blindly. 
As for me, I am working in a private firm in Mumbai and plan to migrate to greenhouse cultivation full time. Am as knowledgeable about greenhouse as a fish is about aeroplanes!!! You have put absolutely everything that one needs to know to start a farmhouse and more, but I wish to meet you in person coz…(to be frank) there are some things I’v never heard and don’t understand (technical majorly). 
If you do not mind having me over I’d be more than glad to visit and have a first hand experience. Im so inspired just by reading the posts and all, don’t know what visiting would do!!!
Await your revert.
Thanks and COLORFUL regards,
Arijeet Ojha
P.S : Read in one of your posts - you went to goa for a Harley meet!!! Guess you must be owning one too. Is there anything else left for you to do to WOW a person???
Viks
You were thought struck to go greenhouse instead of polyhouse few years back right ?
Then why did u still construct polyhouses further instead of greenhouse ? Did something come up, why did u drop the plan and continuing with polyhouses ? Are we missing something here.
Also, another thought struck me today. That shadenet will perform economically in summer, agreed !! But whats the case during winter and rainy season ? Rain will pour in during monsoon and in winter their will be lack of sunlight and low temp due to fixed shadenet. Which i dont think is a suitable climate for color capsicum. What say ?
Aman
Hi,
I have had reasonable success with color capsicum in the open, in winter season though.
And these are grown free of chemical pesticides.
hey Arijeet,
thanks for the support.
you have a very different name Arijeet, never heard it before, what does it mean ?
well… i dono what to tell, but you should do a bit of homework about marketing/selling so you can narrow down the product and then plan accordingly. as you’ve said your in the initial stage, you can start asking all the possible questions you have after brainstorming, and we can attend to them to begin with.
and Arijeet, you can drop in at any mutual date we agree upon and we can have a merry time, till then let the questions come.
and about the goa trip… Dreaming sweet time man… and yeaa… i love thumpers…got two of them actually, and a proud member of the HOG 
how about u ? are u into cruising too ?
vvk
hey Aman,
the polyhouse vs shadenet thought was an year back, and it was too late and i had already constructed the second PH.
but wait ! thats not it… after that the third phase is a totally different setup… the tunnel house.
now the main reason why i selected this design, i am not telling you 
no seriously, its cheaper than a regular PH, meets all my requirements plus i have a scope of up-gradation, which doesnt come with a regular PH.
my main product is very different, ok lets spill it out… i am targeting tulips, which are very sensitive to temperature. so i can convert my tunnel houses into fan pad setup and grow tulips.
now about the shadenet setup (high tech, good quality) these are very well advanced and more suitable for the Indian climate.
so we agree that a shadenet is better to control the temperature in summer, now about rain and winter right ? this all can also be taken care of.
what damage does the rain actually do ? i mean how does the damage work ? it rains, water gets stagnant and then it jams the root zone, and/or the water keeps on dripping on the leaves for a longer time. to beat rain issues you can have good raised beds, and good drainage. and then open the upper net during the rain so theres no question of water dripping once the rain is done.
i’ve also seen shadenets which have the same UV sheet on top for rain protection.
winter need not be an issue cause normally a lot of growers go for open farming during these times.
we really need to try out open and/or shadenet growing of capsicum to check what happens…
vvk
and now after so many years you are telling us ?? 
>:(
what ? was it like some top secret project or what ? how come u never told this earlier ?
how many plants did you try ? common…share details and experience Mr.Chandra…
vvk
Hi…Viks/Vivek BHAYYA,
Is it necessary to have Poly House/Green House which are more expensive.
This Poly House/Green House is is essential for the Cold Countries like US, UK etc.
This system is Most essential for creating Climatic Controls Particularly for the
Cold Countries as said above.
I am feeling Shade Net 50% or 75% are sufficient for growing Exotic Vegetables .
Cost Point of view Shade net is cheaper about 1/4 cost of Poly House. Kindly clear my doubt sir.
MANNE.SN,
for Vasudha Green Farms,
09133498366
Where super hitech stuff as polyhouses, foggers, mist blowers, hydroponics are being intensely thrashed out, it is almost embarrassing to speak about ultra lowtech open field color capsicum cultivation, isn’t it?! 
Seriously, this was just about a quarter acre I had planted last winter with green, purple and yellow capsicum. I have used drip and plastic mulch and raised the plants from seeds. In the main field, the plants grew no more than 45-60 cm but yielded several kg per plant. As I said, I do not use any chemical pesticides, though some fertigation is done integrated with other sources of nutrition.
The purples and greens also gave me shades of orange and red. With the heat raising, the plants are no more in a good shape now.
I am sure I alluded to the experiment elsewhere on the forum. Now, I am looking to create about 800 sq. m. of ultra low tech shadenet with stone pillars and shadenet cloth to see if I can grow them in all seasons, but am in the process of researching how to do it in house and whether it is worthwhile.
Cheers,
Chandra
mr. chandra
you talk about other sources for providing nutrients to the plants, could you name some techniques and elaborate them here so that all of us can as well benefit from the same. i am sure viks and others will agree with me that the production cost increases due to the application of chemical fertilizers daily, plants and soil is totally dependent on chemical fertilizers which is shooting the production cost upwards.
aman
woohhhh tulips !!!
man viks you got some serious ideas in your head man.
i am going to try an 2000sqmt of greenhouse for my next capsicum and will post the pictures here, lets compare that as well.
also viks, i was recently reading about tunnel houses. according to what i understood, isn’t it too hot in their ? plus the air movement is less compared to naturally ventilated. how are the plants surviving in that, what i read it seems like it is majorly used for raising high quality nursery plants etc.
how is it doing for you ?
could you share your experience with us here, because if tunnels work then why are we spending our hard earned money in something like naturally ventilated. we should go for polytunnels, and save some extra money because comparing it with net houses, it(tunnels) still seems a better option to me.
please give us your views on this
thank you
Aman
Man Chandra… good going… u are doing what is the real need…
i too am more interested in developing low cost structures which will be accepted by the real indian farmers. cause lets face it, we all cant afford expensive setups and the running costs related to them.
i too am doing some trials in open and shadenet along with my regular activities along with some friends.
also you are the first farmer i have come across who has grown purple capsicums… how come u thought of it and how did u get ur hands on the seeds ?
i also got some 4-5 additional color peppers plants, but they are very very little. very excited to see the produce.
i got some assorted seeds from Burpys (guess i spelled that wrong) and placed an online local order for the purple seeds. i find the growth verrry sloowww… maybe those seeds arent meant for the indian weather.
anyways… so u still have the plants ? i am learning how to develop my own seeds, have you tried making your own seeds from the produce u got ?
about the low cost design you are working on… if possible plz share details and how you plan to go about them, so we can learn or maybe add something.
vvk
Hello Mr.Manne,
you are very right about how the whole polyhouse concept started. poly and/or glass houses were designed for cold countries, where as in india… we really dont need all these setups to have certain crops, but for certain crops, yes we do need to have PH.
about the cost part, i am not sure… but roughly an acre of SH would cost something arrund 6 lakhs.
and about ur query about growing exotic vegetables in SH, depends again on the crop you have selected. i have taken trials for broccoli, lettuce, pakchoi, red cabbage in shadenet and they grow just perfectly any time of the year.
vvk
Just some ploughing in of green manure crops, poultry manure, some panchagavya, biofertilizer cultures and neem cake. It gets slightly tricky with the mulch though.
[quote=Viks]
also you are the first farmer i have come across who has grown purple capsicums… how come u thought of it and how did u get ur hands on the seeds ?[/quote]
Just picked them for the novelty, but realized hardly anybody in the market has seen purple capsicums ever, but many got quite interested seeing the fruit. I picked the seeds in the local market.
[quote=Viks]
anyways… so u still have the plants ? i am learning how to develop my own seeds, have you tried making your own seeds from the produce u got ?[/quote]
The plants are still there but aren’t too vigorous anymore. The heat isn’t treating them any kind. These seeds were hybrids and I did not try producing any seeds from the fruit - I suspect that is not going to be a very ‘fruitful’ exercise.
Certainly I would love all ideas and suggestions. Speaking to a few experienced folks tells me shadenet isn’t too bad after all. I am going to visit a few farms to get some first hand info and an understanding of the actual fixing. I am merely looking at 8-10’ granite pillars to which to affix shadenet cloth on the top and sides, possibly with some polyfilm skirting on the sides. I expect the crop to take care of the rain by itself; we don’t get wild rains in this part anyway.
A lot of my questions are here: farmnest.com/forum/new-trends-in … /#msg15587
Thank you Sir,
Thank you Very Much Mr.Vikas for Confirming my View. As you said I also have informed that Poly house is essential for Growing some Vegetable in Lab Test Conditions and for Research Purposes where fully climate Conditions are required. Once again Thank You Sir.!
MANNE.SN,
fore Vasudha Green Farms,
09133498366.
Hey Aman,
errr… tunnels can be used for regular farming also.
my tunnel designs have 2 mtr opening on the top arcs and about 1.5 mtr side curtains… where as in the PH i have about 1 mtr top vent, and side vents are same. if i talk about my sites, the tunnels are a bit cooler as compared to the PH. the main reason is my PH has the width of about 85 mtr and almost similar length. whereas my tunnels my maximum width i can get is 20 mtr. so i have a better air flow in the tunnels compared to the PH.
cost wise, tunnels will always be cheaper, but it doesnt necessarily mean it is suitable for everyone.
my say is that for small setups it is better say upto 2000 sq mtr.
even PH can be made cheaper. who says that the standard height should be 20 feet or 3" pipes, only GI pipes etc etc.
why is it so hard to digest that the normal setups we see are not born in india, but just a copy and paste. a new trend is starting where farmers are experimenting with designs and substitutes.
we have seen pictures and discussed about atleast 5-6 different setups. so for someone a PH is the right setup, and for some like me, tunnels and shadenets are better.
i honestly want to make maximum money with minimum investment and running cost. now isint that the thumb rule for any business ?
Viks
Dear Mr.Manne,
test sites can be in open, or in PH or in a Fan Pad system, based on the tests being conducted.
i am tired of repeating, but every crop is different and needs different level of care and maintenance. some crops do wonders in open, say onions, you cant grow good quality onions in shadenet or a PH in India.
with better techonology come various advantages, one can prevent production losses, but then theres a cost element which comes with it.
vvk
Aman,
lovely topic you have touched… production cost! one of my favourite
Aman, we both are capsicum growers, lets take live case study if you are willing… lets compare our production cost what say ?
and fertigation neednot necessarily mean increase in production cost… remember i asked you once long time back if we can design a fertigation schedule which isint expensive and where we can use cheap fertilizers ?
wait a minute… are you talking about fertilizers or pesticides or both ?
vvk