Civilization101Blueprint

Protected growing

Glass, film and stored heat that move the growing season: the cold frame and manure hotbed, the glasshouse on a sunny wall, then the plastic tunnel, the heated glasshouse and the passive solar greenhouse. A cover gains heat by day and loses it by night, so venting, heating and pest control decide the harvest as much as the structure does.

Food Levels 3–7 4 steps written
3
Level 3 · Mill · 1 of 3 in this track

Frames, hotbeds and the glasshouse

t3-glasshouse GuideBuild

Cold frames, hotbeds and the glasshouse

Raise transplants before the last frost and keep tender crops growing after the first, under glass warmed by the sun, by rotting manure and by a wall that holds the day's heat.

Needs first: Plant staples, Woodworking and the first machines (Tools), Glass (Materials)

Choose by what you have. Tick what is on or near the site. The options you can build move to the top; nothing is hidden.

Nothing ticked: every option is shown in the site's order.

  1. Cold frame and manure hotbed Build: Cold frame and manure hotbed →
    boardsglazed lightsfresh horse manure

    Starts seedlings weeks before the last frost; the rotting manure warms the soil from below.

  2. Lean-to glasshouse Greenhouses: Choose the type →
    a masonry wall facing the sunglasstimber

    The wall shelters the glass and gives back the day's heat at night.

Unlocks The modern greenhouse: film, glass and climate control
5
Level 5 · Current · 2 of 3 in this track

Tunnels, the climate-controlled greenhouse and soilless growing

t5-hydroponics GuideBuild

Soilless growing: hydroponics and substrates

Grow greenhouse crops with their roots in a flowing nutrient solution or an inert substrate, with the solution's strength, acidity and oxygen measured every day and held in the crop's range.

Needs first: The modern greenhouse: film, glass and climate control, Polymers (Materials), Synthetic nitrogen (Materials), The generator (Energy), Acids (Materials)

Choose by what you have. Tick what is on or near the site. The options you can build move to the top; nothing is hidden.

Nothing ticked: every option is shown in the site's order.

  1. High tunnel (hoop house) Build: High tunnel (hoop house) →
    steel tubegreenhouse filmtimber

    The cheapest covered ground: unheated, vented by roll-up sides, the crop in the soil.

  2. Passive solar greenhouse Build: Passive solar greenhouse →
    brick or earthinsulationgreenhouse filma night blanket

    Winter vegetables without fuel in cold, sunny climates; shaped for one latitude.

  3. Heated glass or polycarbonate greenhouse Greenhouses: Heating →
    steel frameglass or twin-wall polycarbonateheatingelectricity

    Year-round production in cold climates, at the highest cost in energy.

Unlocks Vertical farms and controlled environments
7
Level 7 · Frontier · 3 of 3 in this track

Vertical farms, for greens and not for grain

Everything in this track

Every guide, build, reference sheet and book reached from the steps above.

Field guides

Level 3
Greenhouses

What a greenhouse is for, which kind to build, its parts and how to size them, and how to run its climate: from a cold frame over manure to a heated glasshouse and a solar greenhouse that needs no fuel.

Builds

A cold frame against the sunny wall of a mountain hut in the Alps: a boarded box with a glazed light, propped open for the day.
Level 3
Cold frame and manure hotbed

A glazed box that starts seedlings weeks early, and the same box over a pit of rotting manure that warms the soil from below.
A high tunnel before its film goes on: steel bows set on ground posts and tied along their length by purlins.
Level 5
High tunnel (hoop house)

Steel bows on ground posts under one layer of greenhouse film, with sides that roll up: weeks added to both ends of the season, in the field's own soil.
A walipini (pit greenhouse), 6 × 12 m, in Utah: sunk into the ground, earth banked against its walls, and a steep glazed roof facing the winter sun.
Level 5
Passive solar greenhouse

A greenhouse that heats itself: a heavy, insulated wall on the side away from the sun, film on the sunny side, and a blanket over the film at night.
Hydroponic lettuce at Ecotone Farm, Fellsmere, Florida (2021): a Red Oak lettuce lifted to show the bare roots that grow in the solution.
Level 5
Nutrient-film bench for lettuce

Eight covered channels 6 m long on a bench falling 2 %, a pump in a covered tank, and a film of solution 1–2 mm deep: lettuce without soil in 30–50 days.

Books and archives

Other tracks in Food & Agriculture

Wild foodCrops and soilLivestockAquacultureStorage and preservation