Greenhouses effectively extend growing seasons

To provide products to consumers, modern, large-scale agriculture operations utilize various machines and technologies — greenhouses being one of the resources used to help plants thrive.

Greenhouses are not new, even if today's incarnations have technological upgrades over their ancestors. The first attempts to grow plants in greenhouse-like structures likely date back to ancient Egypt, but there are writings from the Romans as early as 14 BCE explaining greenhouse operations. The Roman emperor Tiberius wanted to eat cucumbers all year long. Roman winters would not allow cucumbers to thrive when temperatures dropped below freezing. Rolling carts used to grow cucumbers into sheds only did so much. Someone came up with the concept of making sheds with sheets of selenite, a transparent rock, to let the sun in and help keep cucumbers growing indoors warm. The idea took off from there.

Greenhouses are comprised of walls and roofing materials primarily made of transparent material. The greenhouse interior exposed to sunlight becomes significantly warmer than the external temperature, helping protect plants inside from extreme conditions and enabling plants to thrive even when weather conditions are not optimal. Through the years, greenhouses also may have incorporated some form of additional heating.

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Source: Pamplin Media