Growing plants is possible not only in open beds, but also under cover. This method has the advantages of allowing the harvest to be obtained earlier than usual (which depends on the climate of the region), and where plants are difficult to grow due to the cold climate. Let us consider a description of the main types of protected ground, their characteristics, as well as the construction of protected ground.
What does protected ground mean?
This is an area or room that is specially equipped for growing plants. It artificially creates conditions for the growth and development of crops, which allow them to be grown during periods of the year with unfavorable weather.
Vegetables can be grown in protected soil in early spring, late autumn and winter, when they cannot come from the garden beds. You can grow heat-loving and exotic vegetables in cold regions. Protected soil is used for growing and forcing greens, root crops and bulbs, and ripening tomatoes.
Main types
Protected soil is divided into 2 types - rooms covered with glass, film or polycarbonate, and insulated soil.
Greenhouses
The walls and roof of the greenhouse are covered with glass or transparent plastic, which allows sunlight to pass through and retains infrared radiation, that is, heat, inside. Exotic heat-loving plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables are grown in greenhouses. Growing time: year-round or winter-spring. Greenhouses have become especially important for the food industry in countries with cold climates.
Greenhouses
This is a non-portable structure of various sizes, no lower than human height, for growing seedlings and vegetables, flowers, growing plants in pots, and rooting cuttings. The materials for greenhouses are film, polycarbonate, glass. Greenhouses can be unheated, in which the heat of the sun is accumulated, or heated with gas and electricity.
In a greenhouse you can grow any crops, use various growing technologies that cannot be used in beds, for example, growing plants hydroponically, in bags, on racks.
Greenhouses
This unheated structure, small in area and height, with side fences and a removable top, can be immersed in the soil to a certain height. In greenhouses, seedlings of vegetables and flowers are grown, cuttings are rooted, which are then planted in open beds. Fast-growing early vegetables such as radishes, lettuce or low-growing plants are also grown.
Greenhouses are located in sunny places, since the heat in them is maintained only by solar radiation. They do not have ventilation devices (windows, doors) or artificial lighting. Greenhouses can be portable or stationary.
Insulated soil
These are areas with the simplest covering structures made of straw mats, agrofibre, film, glass, and fabric. Transparent materials are used to cover plants during the day, opaque materials at night. The construction of such structures does not require significant costs, but allows you to grow seedlings and early vegetables, the cost of which will be lower than greenhouse ones.
Insulated soil can be heated by rotting manure or unheated, open at the top (protected only from the wind) or closed, with stationary or portable film shelters. Insulated soil is used for growing early spring products.
Closed ground structures
All closed ground structures differ in the heating method using solar energy and biofuel and with artificial heating with electricity, gas, and hot water.
- According to their design features, structures can be frameless or framed.
- Based on the material used, structures are divided into wooden and metal; concrete and polymer materials, glass, and film are used in their manufacture.
- According to their intended purpose, the designs are for seedlings, vegetables, and flowers.
- According to the growing technology, there are soil, hydroponic and with growing plants on substrates.
Protected soil makes it possible to grow crops year-round or during those periods of the year when the temperature does not yet allow this to be done in open beds. Covering structures are used both on private farms and in agricultural enterprises, from which early vegetable production is obtained.
