Portable Greenhouse – Mini Greenhouses – Start Plants in a Portable Greenhouse

Many gardeners would like to be able to start their plants early. We all know a greenhouse is one of the best ways to do this, but who can afford a real greenhouse. In addition to the expense, a regular greenhouse takes up a lot of room. But a portable greenhouse can give enough room for the average gardener to get a great start on their plants each spring, but is small enough that it can be moved out of the way most of the year, or even to the garden when the timing is right.

Actually the term portable greenhouse can be a little misleading. Generally, once you get a greenhouse set up and have plants started in one you are not going to be moving it around too easily.

What makes them portable is that they can easily be transported by one or two people, and in many cases after the spring plants are out and you no longer need the greenhouse for that season they can easily be taken down and put out of the way until the following spring. However, nothing says that you have to take your greenhouse down, and you can leave it in place.

Styles of portable greenhouses vary, and the best will of course be a function of how you plan to use it. Some are really just cold frames, that is a box with a glass or plastic door that sits over plants that are already in the ground in the garden. These need to be lightweight enough to lift out of place once the cold weather has gone. For severe climates, some of these are even heated to provide a really good jump on the weather. The interior can be cooled on hot days by opening the door of the cold frame. These are generally low enough and have a small profile so wind is not much of a problem.

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Another style resembles a bookshelf wrapped in some clear housing, usually a PVC or polyethylene sheet which is sometimes reinforced. These cover often has zippers or some other way to open up or even roll up the cover for those days when the temperature is high enough, so the risk of overheating is reduced. These are small, often around 20-40 inches in width, and 4-5 feet tall.

Finally there are the miniature popup style greenhouses. These are just large enough that a person can walk in, and they have more than one shelf so that it represents a big step up in the capacity of the greenhouse. And it is a little more expensive, but even at $200-400 they are much less expensive than a traditionally built greenhouse.

Cons of Portable Greenhouses: Since they usually use polyethylene (perhaps a reinforced polyethylene) they will have a shorter lifetime than a glass windowed greenhouse. And of course, they generally are much smaller than even a hobby greenhouse, and certainly smaller than a regular greenhouse. One other possible issue is that of climate control on a portable greenhouse, since they have no real way to cool when the temperature climbs other than to simply open the zipper or door depending on the style. If you are using it indoors that’s not likely to be a big problem, but it’s worth noting for outdoor usage. Finally, the shelf spacing on some units only provides for plants around 1 foot tall, which if you have some healthy tomato plants may get a little cramped. And there is the problem of wind. Anchoring these and preserving the plastic is the challenge, you really need to make sure the larger units are anchored adequately.

All it takes is one spring where you’ve saved all the work you’ve invested in your spring garden to make one of these portable greenhouses a great investment.