Design in the Greenhouse

1
Design in the Greenhouse

• Bench Types
• Bench Arrangements
• This presentation is from Virginia Tech and has
  not been edited by the Georgia Curriculum Office.

2
Bench Types

• Raised benches
• convenient working height for employees
• comfortable shopping level for customers
• adjustable
• Ground beds
• built on floor
• filled with a soil media
• used mainly for cut flower production
• hardly used today

3
Bench Types cont.

• Moveable benches
• designed to roll sideways, where legs and frame
  are stable but the bench top slides left to right
• eliminate need for several aisles
• most space efficient
• commercially available
• Ebb Flow benches
• raised bench
• 3-6 inches deep and capable of holding water
• crops absorb water, which is then dumped into
  storage tank underneath
• important where waste run-off is not allowed
• can have ebb flow moveable benches

4
Bench Types

• Some operators grow their plants directly in the
• greenhouse floor
• Very unsanitary - poor plant growth, diseases
• Unappealing to customers
• Uncomfortable for employees

5
Material used for bench construction

• Concrete blocks
• durable
• inexpensive
• easy to move
• Wood
• most common
• cheap and easy to work with
• Redwood lath - rolled out over concrete blocks as
  a lightweight bench
• Wooden pallets
• can be obtained free of charge
• strong bench top

6
Bench Arrangements

• Parallel benching
• run length of greenhouse
• not space efficient
• Peninsular benching
• one major aisle in center of greenhouse
• other aisles run perpendicular to center aisle
• most space efficient