Garden gadgets - automatic greenhouse vents

As the summer gets going and the thermometer creeps a little higher, it’s really important to monitor the temperature inside your greenhouse and adjust it accordingly.  Even on cooler days, prolonged sunny spells can cause the temperature inside a glasshouse to soar too high, disrupting plant growth, or killing off young seedlings.

Shading and humidity can help keep things cool in the greenhouse, and good ventilation is really crucial, as air circulation over the surface of leaves has a cooling effect and can help prevent plants from overheating and wilting.

Manually opening windows, louvres and doors is good – as long as you are at home and can remember to open and close them down again.  This is where automatic vents can be really helpful.  These operate using a wax cylinder which expands and contracts according to the temperature of the greenhouse and will activate whenever the mercury creeps up.

At the height of summer it can still be important to leave doors and side vents open to allow for a constant flow of air, day and night, but auto openers provide a reassuring fallback during the spring and late summer when the weather is more variable and gardeners can be caught off-guard by a sudden heatwave or hot day.