Hello,

There's sufficient information in the area of Green House development
to allow for the ability to grow vegtibles and fruites of tropical
climates in colder regions.

What I'm interested in is the opposite where the Greenhouse is
optimize for hot and dry climates.  I know that the standard
structures can accomodate hot/dry climates, but I have the impression
they're not quite optimized for it and there maybe information on
alternatives.

I would also like to know more about growing vegtibles and fruites in
water where the roots are visible and the water is controlled and its
contents are optimized for the type of plants catered for.

/Lizardnation

In desert climates all around the world, people are using the sort of
"reverse greenhouses" that you're talking about. In a nutshell,
greenhouses can be cooled usings fans, fog, ventilation and
specialized materials.

This catalog offers a variety of specialized products for greenhouse
cooling:
http://www.igcusa.com/greenhouse_cooling_systems_by_i.htm

A horticulture course at Stephen Austin State college in Texas offers
useful information.
On cooling:
http://www.sfasu.edu/ag/horticulture/hrt321/6.%20%20HRT%20321%20Cooling.htm
On construction:
http://www.sfasu.edu/ag/horticulture/hrt321/4.%20HRT%20321%20Structures.htm

This company, Fogco, specializes in cooling systems for greenhouses in
warm climates:
http://www.fogco.com/green.htm

This article from UC Davis offers some ideas about producing
greenhouse vegetables in a variety of climates. Its bibliography lists
several books on the  subject of greenhouse cultivation. It's in PDF
format so you'll need the Adobe Acrobate reader to view it.
http://vric.ucdavis.edu/veginfo/topics/greenhouse/greenhousevegproduction.pdf

Here is another useful article on greenhouse temperature:
http://www.gardenguides.com/articles/yearroundvegetables.htm

This greenhouse builder offers a lot of ideas on specialized materials
and systems:
http://www.bcgreenhouses.com/greenhousecenter.asp

This is an 8-part web page on greenhouses aimed at kids. It has a lot
of interesting infomration:
http://www.kidsgardening.com/greenhouseguide/3b.asp



Growing vegetables in water is called hydroponics. There is a huge
amount of information on the web about this.

Try this link:
://www.google.com/search?client=googlet&q=hydroponics

or these sites:
Hydroponics
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/envirohort/426-084/426-084.html
8 page kids' guide to hyrdoponics:
http://www.kidsgardening.com/HYDROPONICSGUIDE/hydro1-1-intro.asp

---

Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 25 May 2002 19:32 PDT

Just doing a little more research on this one...
On the web site of the International Society for Horticultural
Science, there are  some fee-based articles that might be of interest
to you:
http://www.actahort.org/books/51/index.htm

A couple seem particularly relevant:

"CONTROLLED-ENVIRONMENT AGRICULTURE IN DESERT REGIONS" by  M.R. Fontes
http://www.actahort.org/books/51/51_4.htm

PROBLEMS OF DESERT GREENHOUSES" by H.-J. Daunicht
http://www.actahort.org/books/51/51_5.htm

I hope this helps. Let me know if you need additional information.

Superb work, thanks for the icing on the cake in the comment. :-)

/Lizardnation