Plastic Bottle Greenhouse

Saw a thread on Facebook, followed it to a link, and viola! A new use for plastic 2 liter bottles!

My plastic bottle greenhouse

 

Looks good and has the added feature of insulating the grow area with dead air space.

 

That's what I thought. I live in the city, so getting plastic bottles is not a problem. I find myself wondering, though, if it would work just as well (or almost) with smaller bottles, like the 16.5 oz water bottles you see everywhere in California.

 

Being in Cali I would think it would be worth more to sell the bottles or is that just soft drink and cans that are returned for cash?

 

No, bottles too, but I was just wondering about the greenhouse.

 

A couple of thoughts.

Stack the bottles with the necks up. This does a few things, it gives you a flat base for the first set and it prevents rain from running into the bottles. It also allows your top row to be flat by reversing your last row of bottles and to trim your last/top row. This then allows you to make a top beam of wood and concrete and allows anchor bolts to be placed in the concrete and make a stronger frame/top tie down to the roof.

 

I did kind of wonder why he put the necks down. Necks up seemed to be a better idea. Always room for improvement. Still not sure if I'm going to do it, but I've seen bottle houses made of glass bottles cemented together, so it caught my attention.

 

Might be worth a try, if I find myself with enough bottles to make the attempt.

 

From the text of the article
"After that it was just a case of slotting in the stacks of bottles (tops downwards so that any water would drain out the bottom of the bottles) digging the bottom of each stack slightly into the soil, and using this to give a bit of leeway in the height of the stacks, and having an uncut bottle at the top of each stack."
The bottom of each bottle is cut off and the neck of the next one pushed into the bottle. All water and condensation drains out. Last row uses a complete bottle.

 

Still seems to be the wrong way around to me, and I did read that. I may do some experimenting myself.

 

If you put something up, please consider posting photos for the rest of us to oooh and ahhh over.
thx

 

I'll consider it, but I'm more likely to take pictures of the raised bed I'm making. That's a two or three weekend project, but I'll take pics of that.

 

Another bottle greenhouse...



Via Plastic bottle greenhouses are all the rage in Europe. ... | Gardens

Via: קצת השראה: בקבוקי פלסטיק | בידיים - קח את הקיימות בידיים, עשה זאת בעצמך

The site is in Hebrew, but the pictures are self explanatory...lots of good ideas.

 

Some other fun places built with plastic bottles
Plastic Bottle Homes and Greenhouses
Lots of photos, all outside of North America when building codes are relaxed or don't exist.

 

Excellent site, DK....well found!

 

Thanks. I stumble across all kids of stuff in my researching for my books, glad to post the links so others can have the same fun.

 

Another PET bottle greenhouse project with step by step instructions. Constructed by school children with some adult supervision and assistance.





http://www.reapscotland.org.uk/wp-c...astic_Bottle_Greenhouse_Instructions_2004.pdf

PET bottle structures are capable of quite a bit of design flexibility



Via: Humble Homes Vegetable Nursery Made from Bamboo and Recycled Bottles | Humble Homes



Via: Fizzy Bottle Roof Project

This design would lend itself as a lean-to "glass" house adjoining an existing structure.



Via: Eco Evolution BlogLocal school bottles it!

It occurs to me that if Black poly pipe were threaded through the Pet Bottles into a recirculating loop through thermal mass, such as say, a raised garden bed....the bed could be usefully as a hot bed in winter to start early seedlings off in winter for spring planting...or use the heat to keep the microbial activity up in a compost heap during the colder winter months. A lean-to poly-house could direct a sub-floor heating loop to keep the house or barn, or whatever structure is frickin' freezin' in winter, much warmer.

 

However, these structures will not survive high winds. Most would survive a modest snowfall, but heavy snow, or high winds, and they are destroyed.