By looking ahead and giving yourself time to properly prepare your greenhouse for the fall, you can save large amounts of money and prevent future headaches. It is no surprise that your crops adjust to the seasons, and ensuring your greenhouse follows suit is the most sure-fire way to maximize your profits and secure its long-term sustainability.

Prioritizing proper preparation and maintenance is the key to minimizing equipment failures and maximizing your greenhouse’s efficiency. By proactively addressing problems and making sure all equipment is properly maintained, you can more easily plan for future capital and operational expenses.

With the transition into fall coming soon, it is a good idea to create and adhere to a fall maintenance checklist that includes the checkup of all greenhouse equipment and systems. An investment in maintenance is an investment in growth.

Your checklist for greenhouse structure maintenance should include the following:

Your checklist for environmental controls should include the following:

Your checklist for irrigation system maintenance should include the following:

While this list serves as a guideline, it is important to make sure your maintenance list includes all areas of your greenhouse that may not have been mentioned. It is also important to document/track your maintenance and identify areas that will need future attention (e.g., age of poly film or polycarbonate) so you can budget accordingly. Failure to do so can result in detrimental consequences such as dead crops and plants that will yield high replacement costs.

When in doubt, remember the cliché: It is better to be safe than sorry. Proper preparation and upkeep of maintenance will allow you to smoothly transition from the summer to fall.

Originally built on emergency repair and recovery, LLK has grown into a consolidated solution provider that creates personalized greenhouse and controlled indoor environments to help producers through design, consultation, building, and maintenance. See all author stories here.

The Voice for Controlled Environment Production