hiddengarden-thats a great size grhouse! You will have the time of your life-even when you make mistakes-and everyone does-I promise you!
I grow bedding plant annuals for a living-they are somewhat similiar to perennials, but lucky you-you can run your grhouse at a lower temp at night. I run my heaters at 60 degrees at night and the fans come on at 75. I have the thermostats set on the side of the grhouse halfway down. My heaters are forced air, so I get great bottom heat closest to the heater and that is where I start my seeds. I grow almost everything from seeds. Perennials are very easy to start from seed as well, and if you are interested, I can tell you how I do large numbers of one kind.
I think that you will probably want to switch to seeds whereever you can as you will save a lot of money-even with the increase with propane ( perhaps not if you are germinating small amts to start with, but as you get bigger) I also use a large piece of plastic to wall off half of the grhouse when I just have seeds in there, and then when I get ready to transplant-I take the plastic down. That saves some money.

Bugs can be a problem, and you have to stay on top of spraying for them. You can buy expensive chemicals down the road ( they are very effective, and last longer) but Neem oil, horticultural oil and insecticidal soap are inexpensive to use and work fine with most every pest. They are not hard to control. You can go to Kmart and get an end of the hose sprayer and make a solution and spray easily. If you are interested in that, let me know and I will go into more depth.
You might check into BWI and see if they sell in your area.

What size and kind of propane heater do you have?

Terryster, thanks for the advice. Yeah the propane is pretty steep, we heat our house with propane too. This year our electric has went up 50% starting this month:0 My first idea was to do just seeds. However all the books I read made me think without a lot of money put into heat mats w/thermos, I wouldn't be able to grow anything except your basic everyday perennials. All the different germination temps made my head spin. However as much as I have now spent on plants, I probably would have saved in the long run. I had read a thread and someone mentioned putting like a mini greenhouse over my seedlings inside of the greenhouse. I thought that was a good idea and would cut down on heating.

About the bugs-I would love to know more about the solution mix. My husband has a spraying liscense so we can use commercial spray if needed, but I would rather stick to inexpensive mixture that work too. I will be in the greenhouse all the time. So I figure I'll check all the plants very closely. What is BWI?

We have 2 30,000 btu blue flame heaters that are ventless from farmtex. We have 2 fans to circulate air,along w/a large exhast fan and vents. I have thermostats for the heaters but not the vents and fans. I will be the thermostat for that:)

Hiddengarden, I think that you will want to get thermostats for your fans and vents. They will be invaluable to you in the summer.

SB

Stressbaby,
Do you know where to find them for a fair price?

Terryster,

I would be verry interested in learning about starting perennials from seed if you would have time. I would like to start a large amount from seed if it be possibale to do.

Thank you.

Hiddengarden, I don't know if you'll consider the price fair, but here is a single stage thermostat for $34.

Here is a link that might be useful: thermostat

Thanks Stressbaby! I'm gonna check it out.

hiddengarden-I can't stress enough what SB said about getting a thermostat for your fan. You only need one thermostat that you put in the center of the grhouse on the side, and wire it to the fan. Set the temp that you want the fan to come on to and you are done! My fan comes on throughout the day in the winter when the sun is out, and there is no way that I could be in there all the time to turn it on and off. $ 35 is a reasonable price, but you could probably get it cheaper, locally at a Graingers-or some store similiar to Graingers-just Google Graingers and see if they have a store near you.
Same with BWI-which is a large wholesale grhouse/landscaper supply business. I get all my soiless mixes, pots, flats, ferts and other stuff from them. Just google BWI and see where they serve.

What I was talking about above was the sprayer that you could use to spray any type of pesticide. Its only about $4 and its a plastic bottle that you attach to the end of the hose. Its a dilution sprayer, so even though it will spray 20 gallons of solution, the bottle is small, and you fill it with water and the concentrate amt that you need for 20 gallons and spray away. It is the only practical way to spray a larger grhouse. I just sprayed everything in one of my grhouses ( 30x65) and it took me about 20 mins. Kmart has them in 5 gal or 20 gal-but keep in mind that the bottle is small. They are similar to the "dial" sprayer that goes at the end of a hose ( which I can never figure out the rates with the dial).

When you start seeds-you don;t have to keep to the soil temps that they say to germinate the seeds. For instance if the seed packet says 65 degrees and L and 5-7 days-all that means is that if you were to have the soil temp at 65, then the sds would germ in the 5-7 day range. If you had the soil temp at 60, then it would take a few days more. Higher temp would be a day less-give or take. The L means that the seed needs light to germ, so you don't cover the seed with soil. I never run lights at night. The D means dark-and so I use black plastic to cover the seed flat with so no light gets in.

pcdur.....how I germ large amts of seeds at once ( anywhere from 300-5000 at a time of one kind )is first whether I want to grow them as plugs-and transplant them in about 4-5 wks from sowing or in seed flats ( about 300/flat) and transplant them when they start to show their first true leaves ( about 2 wks from sowing). I have a seeding machine that allows me to use plug sheets-but since I don't know if you have one, I'll skip that option.

What I do first is fill the seed flats with a soiless mix-peat based. Then I spray them with a preventative rate of fungicides ( Clearys and Subdue). I remove any sticks or clumps of peat from the top and then I sprinkle about 300 of whatever seed that I am doing over the top all over the flat. I have all the flats lined up ready to go so I do all the spreading of the seed at once in all the flats.
I do not cover the seeds with soil-unless they are huge-which is rare.
I have sheets of plastic that I precut to be slightly bigger ( about 5" bigger on all sides) than 6 flats together (2 rows of 3 flats-so its a square-sort of). I lay the plastic out and on the edge of the top of the plastic I lay the first row of 3 flats, then the next row and then I flip the plastic over all the flats so that the back of the plastic is tucked under the back row of flats. I hold the plastic up while I mist all the seeds and the underneath of the plastic, then drop the plastic over the flats and be sure to tuck the plastic under the sides and front of the flats so it is air tight. You should see condensation on the plastic throughout the day. Each morning I lift the plastic up and mist the seeds and the plastic and retuck. As soon as I see that the seeds have started to germinate ( over 50%) then I remove the plastic and mist twice a day. This is when you may have to water the flats-but only if it looks like the soil is starting to dry out. When I mist-I have a small mister head that fits at the end of the hose and I use really hot water ( to keep the soil temps up)-it won't be too hot if you use the mister head, but once I start to water, I use tepid to warm water. If you were only to use one flat at a time-you could use Saran wrap-but I have smaller pieces of plastic because its easier to tuck under all the sides-thats the key-to keeping the seeds moist when they are germ.

As the seeds start to put out leaves, I start to let the soil dry out some to avoid a fungus and to promote good roots. Roots grow in dryer soil because there is more oxygen in dryer soil, and roots need the oxygen to grow. Also I never water at night because that is when the roots grow, so I wait until the am to water anything that is dry.

Seeds that are not covered with soil germinate faster than when you cover them. That is one reason why I don't cover.

I think that is everything-but I may have left out something, or not done a good job explaining a step-or why I do something a particular way-so please feel free to ask any question. I wish I could post pictures here, but haven't figured it out yet ( well, honestly, I haven't tried yet-just have heard that it is a pain! lol too lazy)

Terryster, I'm printing out everything you wrote. I'm so glad I found this site. You guys are great! I want you and stressbaby to know I'm taking your advice and making sure I get that thermo.

Terryster can you tell me more about the Clearys and Subdue? I have a lot to learn on chemicals.

Terryster, you have to get off your *** and show these folks pics of your (very impressive) operation.

lol thanks for the encouragement SB!!

Clearys and Subdue are fungicides that address different fungus that you might run into while growing. Subdue is one of the best for pytopthera and pythium-both root fungus and there are very few fungicides that will work on them. Its better to try to avoid them by sterilizing your growing equipment and keeping the plants on the dry side. The two other fungicides that will help with the above fungus are Truban and Alliette. They are all systemics and expensive-but you use very little of them at a time and they all last about 30 days.
Clearys is a great fungicide for other common fungus like rhizoctonia ( damping off-seedlings are esp vulnerable to this fungus-so important to come off the water when the seeds start to germ), and it is the only systemic that addresses it. There are others that it treats as well-its best if you google the label and see what it treats, then google those fungus because you will see other fungicides that treat a particular fungus as well, and if you ever do have a fungus-its really important to switch fungicides during the treatment so the fungus doesn't build up a resistance to a particular fungicide. Clearys is a relatively inexpensive fungicide. I use half strength amts when I preventative spray and full strength if I have a fungus. Also with these two fungicides- they get sprayed into the soil as a drench. Other fungicides get sprayed on the foliage-just depends on what fungus you are treating and what you are using. It is a lot of info-but after you spend some time reading about the fungus and figuring out the proper fungicide, it becomes 2nd nature.

The most common growing problems aren't fungus though- its watering and fert, and then improper PH.
Waterng is the hardest job in the grhouse to do properly.

Okay,printer is running:)

So where can I get Truban by mail or phone??