How to Build a Geodesic Dome Greenhouse - Part 1

This is the first of a series of videos about building a geodesic dome greenhouse.  It is basically an overview of the entire project and each future article will go into details about each area.

Notes

• This is an advanced project that requires many skill sets.  You should consult with the appropriate officials and engineers prior to building a structure like this.
• Prior to any construction project, obtain the proper permits for your location.

General Info (Video transcript)

Hello everyone.  I wanted to welcome you to my winter wonderland. A couple days ago, we received about 2’ of snow.  Here it is, I’m standing in it at about knee height.  Here’s a shot of the greenhouse and the garden.

One of my exciting things that I’ve been working on is to build a new greenhouse.  This area down in here, which is off of one of my main fields, is going to have a 900 square foot geodesic dome, along with an out-building attached to it for heating and storage.  It’s pretty exciting that I’m going to be able to build this.  It’s going the be a big improvement over my 120 square foot greenhouse.  This wooded site  here is where it’s going to be.  All the old farm equipment and trees will be moved and the ground will get leveled off.

It’s going to take me about a year to build it.  I’m going to do everything from scratch – no kits at all.  This is the location again – it’s just off of one of my  fields we use for growing corn.

At the end of my video, I’ll also show you some of the plans for the building and some of the ideas for how the aquaponics will work too.  I also wanted to thank everyone for reaching a 1000 subscriber mile mark.  It’s pretty good for the aquaponics folks.  Not quite like some of the millions or so that some of the other guys get on YouTube, but it’s nice to see a good group of people following along with what we do in the aquaponics world.  Thanks again.

Site Plan

This is the site plan that was needed to obtain the wetlands permit.  It shows the existing land and outlines what type of grading and the types of erosion control that will be installed to protect the wetlands that are near the site.

This particular location was picked because it was near one of the fields and needed minimal amount of excavation work.

Building Design

This is the side profile of the geodesic dome.  It sits on a required 4’ frost wall and will have a shed on the north side that will house a wood furnace.  This also shows roughly how the grow beds will be set up.

The foundation plan shows the 33’ dome, the shed area, and post footings for an open-air  shed  roof which will be used for wood storage.

This plan displays the grow bed locations and how they drain into a central sump tank.  The sump will pump water to the larger fish tank.  This tank will have a siphon that will drain through a swirl filter and into a second tank.  The second tank will be used for extra water storage as a thermal mass.  The water will then be pumped from this tank back into the grow beds.

Buried under the floor will be 4” perforated pipe.  During the summer months, air will be blown through these to get cooler air from the ground.  Over the winter, warm air during the day will be pumped underground into the thermal mass, which will radiate back up into the dome during the nights.  Hopefully the wood furnace will only be needed on extremely cold, cloudy days.

More General Info

That’s all for now.  I hope you subscribe to this channel for future updates.  I will be showing detailed plans on how the entire dome will be built.  We’re hoping to get started this spring once the frost is gone.  And this is our skating ring that we love to use during the winter!