Does anyone use one of these plastic mini greenhouses?

Carole
by Carole
I just ordered one of these online and hoping to raise some seedlings for the vegie beds and maybe some annuals for hanging baskets and such like. Does anyone use one of these and if so, what was the verdict on it? Any good or a waste of money? This is a similar picture to what I have ordered. It was very cheap and I will place it against a wall for protection from winds.
  12 answers
  • Gama Gama on Sep 27, 2016
    I hope so because I was thinking of getting one myself.
  • Diana Wearing Diana Wearing on Sep 27, 2016
    Good purchase! These protect tender seedlings and speeds up growth :-)
  • C Crow C Crow on Sep 27, 2016
    It looks to be the same one I had and it worked okay for starting seeds. However, unless they have somehow changed the design, you will probably need to glue the plastic shelf connectors to the metal uprights or the thing falls apart easily. I placed mine on some pavers for stability, then used E6000 to glue metal-meets-plastic joints and that helped quite a bit. It does get quite warm inside the plastic cover, so you may want to cut a few vents in the sides for a bit of air circulation.
  • Evelyn White Evelyn White on Sep 27, 2016
    I have one that is a bit larger....you can stand inside it. I love it. It gets very steamy all zipped up, but I guess that is a plus. It's good you protect it from the wind. I use mine for everything. A good buy.
  • Car11717639 Car11717639 on Sep 27, 2016
    I have one, and I love it! I live in northern MN and use it to start seeds for my flowerbeds and a few for my veg. garden. Indoors use only for me, and I glued the leg parts together so it cannot be disassembled.
  • Abr7783339 Abr7783339 on Sep 27, 2016
    Make sure to weight it down. Even though I thought mine was protected up against the wall, the wind still blew it over and I lost a lot of seedlings. Weight it down good. Otherwise I really liked it. The plastic cover dry-rotted after a couple of summers, but you can find replacement covers easily.
    • Carole Carole on Sep 27, 2016
      Yes, I had thought to either try to bolt it to the wall (not sure how that would work with the plastic cover over it though) or weight it down with bricks or something around the base. I can imagine they could be easily knocked down which was a concern of mine.
  • Sue Kiene Sue Kiene on Sep 27, 2016
    thanks for posting this because I have looked at these several times online and wondered if they were worth it.
  • William William on Sep 27, 2016
    Neighbor had a larger one! Fell apart on a windy day. I helped him put it together. This time we glued all the supports, anchored it to the ground with bent wire stakes we made, and screwed it into his garage wall with electrical pipe clamps. Still shifts a little from the wind, but holding up. Very cheaply made. They'd have to pay me to take one.
  • Jay Jay on Sep 27, 2016
    I have used one to start seeds inside my sunroom, which is unheated. I also made a flower pot heater (Google for plans) which I placed on the bottom shelf and then zipped up the sides. Got fast germination. Transpotted the seedlings to bigger pots periodically until it was safe to put them outside.
    • Carole Carole on Sep 27, 2016
      Thank You Jay I will have to look into that flower pot heater idea. Sounds great. I am getting good feedback on these 'greenhouses' so I am quite excited now to take delivery of mine which I think should arrive on Tues next week (4th October).
  • Christina K. Lawrence Christina K. Lawrence on Sep 28, 2016
    I bought one that looks just like this at "The Christmas Tree shop". It was on sale for half price. Mine did not hold up. one of the connector brackets broke, but I was able to reinforce it with a metal bar and wire. the wire racks do not bear as much weight as I needed. I was using it to set my amaryllis bulbs out during the summer and most were in ceramic and clay pots, which added more weight, which if you were doing seedlings, they are probably in plastic. It did want to lean, which would have led to it totally failing. I was able to cable it to a tree, which gave it needed support,
  • Cheryl Clifton Cheryl Clifton on Sep 28, 2016
    Had a larger one than this a couple years ago. Make sure you know which way most of your wind comes from. Mine blew over several times and I just got tired of trying to deal with it. Lost plants, torn plastic. I do think that it works. Just need to set it up in a very protected spot. Good luck. The sunroom idea might be good.
    • See 1 previous
    • Cheryl Clifton Cheryl Clifton on Oct 11, 2016
      You're welcome. I do think they will work fine as long as you have it in a protected area from the wind.
  • May5672846 May5672846 on Sep 28, 2016
    My husband loves his and this is his second year.We have it on the side of the house facing the driveway where it is protected from the wind. It gets warm inside and seedlings grow like crazy.