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How Do You Keep Your Greenhouse Healthy and Pest-Free Year-Round?
A thorough fall cleanup—including disinfecting surfaces, protecting polycarbonate panels, and cleaning benches and pots—is essential to maintain a healthy greenhouse. Maintaining appropriate night temperatures based on plant needs and controlling pests with soapy water, sterilized soil, insecticidal soaps, and yellow sticky traps prevents diseases and infestations. These best practices ensure a productive, disease-free greenhouse environment ready for every growing season.

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There are many plant varieties and they all require different night temperatures to sustain their growth.

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Maintaining ideal fall greenhouse temperatures involves using heaters with accurate thermostats and maximum-minimum thermometers, ensuring proper air circulation with circulating fans to prevent disease, and utilizing automatic vents to manage temperature fluctuations while supplementing light for healthy plant growth.

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You can feel the cool and crisp air in the morning as soon as the calendar says October. Night temperatures are dropping not only outside but also in the greenhouse. Now is the time for planning and preparedness.

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BC Greenhouse Builders offers wind-resistant upgrades that reinforce greenhouse structures with enhanced bracing, larger roof purlins, and wind-resistant vents, engineered to meet local building codes for wind speeds up to 140 mph (225 KPH), ensuring durability and safety in extreme weather conditions.

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Leading in Greenhouse Strength

BC Greenhouse Builders is leading the pack on was to build and maintaining a greenhouse in almost any climate. 

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Sterilizing your soil, pots, and trays is essential when starting seeds in a greenhouse to prevent disease, improve seedling survival, and create optimal growing conditions—use commercial seed starter mixes, sterilize reused containers with bleach, and consider homemade sterile blends or soil baking for best results. 

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Sterility in the greenhouse sounds somber but in a few instances, it truly matters and saves gardeners from hassle and disappointment. Here is where I heed caution.

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Elevate the beauty and biodiversity of your vegetable garden by planting fragrant Sweet Pea ‘Matucana’, vibrant Clary Sage, and long-blooming Hummingbird Mint—three easy-to-grow annuals that attract pollinators, complement edibles, and flower from summer through fall.

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Last Summer I realized My little food garden was looking dull- prolific - but dull. To remedy the tedious rows, I decided to try three uncommon annuals to improve the appearance. To my surprise, they all flowered for five months. These plentiful flowers did so much to spiff up the vegetable Greenhouse Garden that this summer, they've made their debut in the flowerbed.

We really do build greenhouses in any custom color! This periwinkle greenhouse was shipped to Oregon and the picture are from during that installation process. Would you pick a color as wild as this one? Or something more classic?

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What’s the best location for my greenhouse to ensure optimal plant growth year-round? For best results, place your greenhouse on level ground with south-facing exposure to capture maximum winter sunlight, while factoring in seasonal angles, partial summer shade, and access to water and power. How does greenhouse placement affect light, temperature, and productivity? Strategic orientation and site selection help regulate temperature, extend your growing season, and reduce maintenance—setting the stage for long-term success in any climate.

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How to Pick the Perfect Spot for Sunlight, Temperature, & Long-Term Success

Believe it or not, where you place your greenhouse can make or break your growing success. The right spot helps your plants thrive year-round—while the wrong one could leave you fighting shade, heat, or cold.

Good news: we've done the homework for you. Here are 9 key tips to help you choose the best location for your greenhouse.

Forcing Bulbs

For the friends with the winter blues, or being impressive on Valentine's Day, consider forcing bulbs. "Forcing" sounds ruthless, but it's the process of condensing the bulb's winter and spring, so the flowers bloom in early winter instead of mid-Spring. A greenhouse makes this easy, and foolproof.

This is the new rooftop greenhouse at Indiana Wesleyan University during the installation phase.  At 28x75 feet long, this commercial rooftop greenhouse will serve the Division of Natural Sciences.   Greenhouses for schools are certainly a growing trend and we are happy to be a part of this new exciting project for IWU!

Are you looking for this type of greenhouse? Contact us today to learn more about our commercial options.

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Think fertilizing is optional? Think again. Even the laziest greenhouse gardeners will see bigger blooms, healthier seedlings, and more resilient plants with the right fertilizer routine. Whether you’re starting cuttings or transplanting seedlings, container-grown plants need consistent nutrients due to frequent watering and limited soil volume. A simple system—like color-coded watering cans and diluted fertilizer solutions—makes regular feeding easy and effective. By using a light but frequent approach, even busy or forgetful gardeners can ensure robust root growth, reduced transplant shock, and thriving greenhouse plants from season to season.

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Truth be told, I can easily ignore a bit of soil spilled on the benches or an occasional unsterilized pot for seedlings. I don't always wear gloves, or fastidiously wash labels. I like the results in my greenhouse. My Sweet Peas bloom early, my tomatoes grow fat on the vine. A little mess, a few germs - my plants and I are no worse for the wear.