ECO-FRIENDLY GREENHOUSE

Caoimhe O’Dea and David Noonan

Our Idea

• We noticed there was a demand for something that allowed budding gardeners to benefit from the advantages of a greenhouse without the expenses.

• We researched how we could build our own greenhouse. We discovered that we could use polyethelene sheets, recycled plastic bottles or old windows to build a greenhouse.

Our Solution

• We decided to use recycled two litre bottles to build our greenhouse. We did this because they were the easiest to source and also the cheapest. It also meant that our greenhouse was helping the environment.

Procedure • 1.We drew up our plan for the greenhouse and decided what materials we needed to

purchase and where we could get them.• 2.We contacted KDI, a local recycling company and asked them if we could collect

bottles from their site to use in our greenhouse.• 3. We went to the recycling site and collected as many 2l clear bottles as we could.• 4.We brought the bottles home. We removed all of the labels and tops from the bottles.• 5. We cut the bottles in varying places depending on which part would allow the stack

of bottles to be straight.• 6.We started to stack the bottles we had onto willow sticks. We discovered we would

need 9 stacks for each side.• 7. We made 9 stacks for the first side and then discovered we needed more bottles.• 8.We cut the pieces of wood into 91 cc, 92cm and 1m pieces.We assembled the pieces

so that they would make 1m squares.• 9.We placed the first 9 stacks into the first side by drilling holes in the bottom piece of

wood. The stacks fitted into the holes.

1. 10. When the stacks were in the holes we drilled corresponding holes in the top piece of wood except this time they went the whole way through the wood.

2. 11.We placed the top piece of wood on and screwed it into place.

3.  12. We then cut off the excess pieces of willow sticks so that the top of the greenhouse was even.

4.  13. We had to collect more bottles as we had run out. We returned to the KDI site twice to collect as many bottles as we could.

14. When we didn’t have enough bottles as a result of this we asked in both Ballylanders NS and Cloverfield NS to collect bottles. We also asked the first years in our school to bring in bottles for us to use.

6.  15.When we had all the bottles collected we completed the other 3 sides in the same way as the first side.

7 16. We also made a 1m x 1m square wood frame for the roof. We attached chicken wire to its underside. We then stacked the shot glasses we had collected. We stacked 20 glasses in each which made about 92 cm and fitted into the frame.

8 17.When we had the shot glasses stacks in the frame we used silicone to keep them together.

9. 18.We then attached the 4 sides together with brackets. (one with hinges at one side and a lock at the other instead of brackets so that it could open easily allowing simple access) .

1019.We added the roof in the same way.

20.When this was all finished we used silicone to close up any gaps that were allowing air in to the greenhouse. It was now ready to be used to plant in. We had our very own Eco-Friendly Greenhouse.

Experiments

• We got thirty petri dishes and lined them with cotton wool. We then put ten peas in each petri dish.

• We put ten petri dishes in our Eco-Friendly Greenhouse, ten in a commercial plastic greenhouse and ten in a commercial glass greenhouse.

• We left them there for ten days and observed them daily at 6pm. We watered them every second day with ten millilitres of water.

• We recorded them in relation to no germination, a crack in the peas or a visible radicle.

No Germination

Crack in Pea

Radicle

Results

We discovered that the number of peas to reach the radicle stage of germination was greatest in our Eco-Friendly Greenhouse. The next best greenhouse was the commercial plastic greenhouse. The worst perecentage of peas to reach the radicle stage of germination were in the commercial glass greenhouse.

Final Results

The pie chart shows that after ten days 97 peas out of a hundred had visbile radicles. 3 peas were at the crack stage of germination while no peas had not reached any stage of germination.

The pie chart shows that after ten days in the plastic greenhouse 91 out of a hundred peas had a radicle. 5 peas were at the crack stage of germination while 4 peas had no germination at all. It is clear that the Eco-Friendly greenhouse is better than the commercial plastic greenhouse

The pie chart shows that after ten days in the glass greenhouse 76 peas had a radicle. 5 peas were at the crack stage of germination while 19 peas had no signs of germination. It is clear that the glass greenhouse was the worst out of the three and that the Eco-Friendly Greenhouse worked best.

Conclusion

As a result of carrying out our project we know that plastic bottles are a very good material to build greenhouses with. We know that plastic is a better material to use in greenhouses than glass. We also know that a huge amount of money does not need to be spent on greenhouses to reap their benefits.

Recommendations

If we were doing this again we would work faster to allow for more time to be spent on the testing and experiments part

of the project. We would also try to leave fewer gaps between the bottles so that less silicone would be used and therefore the cost would come down. We would also try to collect the bottles faster so that we could get the building

side of the project done faster.