Greenhouse Staging

Every greenhouse owner would agree that you should buy the biggest greenhouse of the best quality you can afford. Once you have your precious greenhouse you will always grow to fill the space that you have and often be left hankering after the larger model that was perhaps just out of budget.

Every gardener uses his or her greenhouse in a different way. For the novice gardener it is somewhere to grow some tomatoes and to extend the season at both ends. For the experienced gardener the greenhouse becomes a plant nursery, a place to nurture seeds and cuttings and more tender plants and a somewhere to raise a crop of warmer climate crops. As the season evolves the layout in the greenhouse changes. In late winter and early spring the greenhouse gardener needs benches and staging to raise pots and pots of seeds. Normally staging is a permanent greenhouse fixture that will remain in the greenhouse all year round, whereas benches are considered to be more temporary, folded up and stored away when not in use. These days they pretty much mean the same thing and come in a choice of materials, usually aluminium or wood and in two basic styles, slatted or solid. Different gardeners have their own preference. Slatted staging allows air to circulate around the plants and is the choice of many greenhouse growers. It helps to prevent fungal diseases such as damping off and promotes stronger plant growth. Slatted staging is the normal choice for greenhouse gardening.

Solid staging is usually made from metal and has a tray-like top with a lip around the edge. The tray system can then be filled with sand or fine gravel and used as plunge tray for pots of seedlings or cuttings. It can be used as a water catchment for automatic watering systems, or filled with sand and fitted with soil warming cables for propagation. Alternatively it makes a useful area to catch the compost when potting up. For a versatile set up choose some of each.

These days you can build your greenhouse staging in stages, choosing the widths of staging required for your needs. Most are a standard height of 2ft 6in so you can add sections to your set up as budget allows.

As the plants mature over the season you can fold away benches no longer in use and use the floor space or growing beds in the greenhouse to nurture larger plants. This is ideal if you want to grow tomatoes or other tall plants that can be trained up into the greenhouse eaves.

Don't forget that most greenhouses can have shelves added at head height to take advantage of the light and space that might otherwise remain unused. These can be fitted above your greenhouse staging or benches at the eaves, just above head height and used to reduce the pressure on precious bench space.

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