Advice for greenhouse irrigation and how to keep the raccoon away

[Baby Grand]

When I was younger and still living with my parents the only raccoon repellent we found that worked every time for the sweet corn was a black lab. Lights, radios and traps didn't work but our dog did.

Yes, black lab deterrent is unmatched for raccoons.
For the skunks ... not so much.

 

[rogerius]

Just the first link that popped up on the search

So tell us some more about your "automatic" watering plan/idea. Are you thinking of using timers or just turn it on and walk away for awhile and hope someone remembers to turn it off..that happens a lot to us

Greenhouse watering most times is a judgment call, so many variables can be factored in such as cloudy vs sunny days, or damp rainy weather, excessively high seasonal outdoor temps. Controlling the water especially on tomato plants lets you slow down excessive early growth. Good air flow is very important. So is heat control. Its all learning curve. At 12 x30 you should be able to watch it quite closely.

We have about 40 poly tunnel structures in varying sizes up to 100ft where I work. some are spiders, some are hand controlled drips someone turns it on and off

Most all rest are still hand watered believe it or not. Even the plants outside. Bet you never think you could you see someone watering plants in the rain :shocked:

We are weekend warriors so during the week nobody will babysit the greenhouse. This is the reason why we need an "automatic system", but nothing special; just some timers to open and close the water lines during the night and the same for vents; open and close based on inside temps.
We already have a gravitational drip system in our new orchard: 4x55gal barrels, 4 lines with 20 emitters/line connected to a timer so we know is a reliable system but we don't know how is better to water the plants: with sprinklers overhead or drip system on each plant.

 

[davesl708]

I'm not sure about your watering problem, but don't depend on a radio or a light to keep coons away. I tried that once to keep them out of my sweet corn. It wasn't long before I'd find corncobs laying right beside the radio.

If you can't keep them out physically, get a big dog.

Did you play rap music? lol That keeps me away.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Yes, black lab deterrent is unmatched for raccoons.
For the skunks ... not so much.

Actually our black lab would kill skunks and it was fun to watch. As soon as he saw one it was full throttle at the skunk. It didn't even have time to turn around and lift it's tail. The dog would get his nose under it and toss it in the air. Then it was four wheel drive to get turned around before the skunk landed and figured out what was going on. He would then grab the skunk and bite and shake it to death. Once that was over with then it was to the pond to go for a swim. Within 2-3 days you couldn't smell that he had tangled with a skunk. I saw it once and it was an awesome show!

 

[DFB]

but we don't know how is better to water the plants: with sprinklers overhead or drip system on each plant.

Considering the constant humidity levels in a greenhouse the less wet the leaves are the less problems you will have with fungal diseases especially tomatoes and peppers. Greens not so much a problem with water but they hate to be water logged. Geez we market these huge planters full of lettuce and greens really popular but one time some help didn't realize the drain holes weren't punched open on some of the pots (drowned them all )

We grow tomato inside the greenhouse all summer planted in soil bags using individual drip emitters at each plant. Still can have some disease problems though not blight.

 

[TnAndy]

There are no friendly raccoons. They carry a lot of pests (round worms/etc), rabies, and the bite from some of them can cause Polyradiculoneuritis (coonhound paralysis). Neighbor's Lab got into it with a raccoon, and dang near died of the paralysis. Took him a year before he could get around decently.

Best way to deal with them is a Conibear 220 spring trap and bury the carcass deep.

Here's one that managed to get past my chicken lot fence, and is headed toward a 220 in a bucket set, with sardines as bait.

 

[Rotax]

We had terrible trouble with raccoons at our farm, going into buildings and tearing them up. We did notice one thing though, my brother spread mothballs around one of the larger buildings there with vehicles to keep mice away and thats the only building the racoons never went into. Might be worth a try spreading some of theme around outside of your greenhouse.

 

[MossRoad]

We are planning to build a 13'x30' greenhouse once the snow is gone and right now I'm looking for ideas how to irrigate the plants. My goal is to have an automatic system for watering. I see so far 2 methods, drip irrigation and over head using sprinklers. Some people are saying the overhead method is not ideal for plants (the plants needs to cool down in order to irrigate, otherwise the leaves will be burn). Do you have any recommendations? How you watering the plants in your greenhouse?

The second issues are the "friendly" raccoons. We have a few around us and they are too friendly sometime. How I can keep them away from the greenhouse? I'm thinking to leave a radio on all the time and in the night to have the light on inside. Will be enough, or they will be used to after a while?

Thx.

Racoons like rock and roll, so put on some country music. Everyone knows hunters like country music.

I'd go with drip irrigation. Its much easier to control which plants get how much water. Plus, if you have overhead, that means you have overhead pipes. The pipes can heat up the water when in the sun to a pretty hot temp. If you put that scalding hot water on your plants, it wilts them, or kills them, depending on the heat.

 

[MossRoad]

One more thing about tomatoes and overhead watering. We have some disease in our soil. When we watered overheat, the water droplets would hit the soil and splash it up onto the leaves. Then the bottom leaves would die, opening up the next layer and so on. We switched to drip for that reason.