Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this greenhouse to create an environment for growing mushrooms, and I also grow quite a few veggies under lights. My purpose in this review is to describe the advantages of this greenhouse for both purposes and for uses both inside and outside. The initial setup of this greenhouse was pretty easy, but you need to make sure that all of the pieces are completely seated. If you don't, the greenhouse will not sit squared. My husband and I put this green house together in about 45 minutes and used a rubber mallet to make sure all of the posts were completely into the joint pieces. Once we got it together, it was quite stable. Although it does come with cables and stakes to stabilize it for outdoor use, we didn't need these for use in our basement. The features that I like about this greenhouse are: - It has windows on each side to allow airflow when open. These windows are useful whether the greenhouse is used indoors or out. If used outdoors, heat from the sun may build in the greenhouse to scorch your plants without cross ventilation of fresh air. For growing mushrooms, fresh air is necessary to reduce the buildup of CO2 produced by mushrooms. - The frame includes a bar at the top that may be used for hanging a light fixture, as we did, or for use in hanging plant baskets. - The greenhouse cover has a flap all around that may be folded either inside the greenhouse or outside. If the greenhouse is used indoors, the flap might be folded inward to contain an environment. If used outdoors, the flap might be used to help weigh the cover down with bricks. - Both the windows and the doors can be tied up to allow ventilation. The windows are covered with a fine mesh to keep bugs out when the windows are open. - The plastic cover is very heavy and reinforced with integrated netting. For indoor use, it will provide many years of service. I can't attest as to how well the cover with withstand weather if left outside. - When no longer needed, disassembly would be easy so that it can be stored in a small space. If you plan to do this, I would leave the code tags on the parts and keep the instructions. The following are modifications we made to suit our purposes that may be useful for others considering this greenhouse. - The provided shelves are very flimsy, are not level and wouldn't hold much weight. We replaced the supplied shelves with shelving bought from Home Depot (as pictured) and secured them with plastic ties. - The unit supplies two levels of shelves that leaves a lot of wasted space. We used the same shelving to install an additional shelf at the back of the greenhouse. This extra shelf was easily secured to the framework of the greenhouse. Additional shelves could be added to the sides of the greenhouse, but would require a couple parts from the seller that they won't supply. This is the reason for a 4-star rating instead of a 5-star rating. Considering all, I am very happy with this greenhouse, and would definitely recommend it. UPDATE 2/27/20: My endeavors to grow mushrooms in this greenhouse were semi-successful. I found that requirements of some of the different mushroom species make it difficult to grow the through fruiting in a enclosed area. Although I could supply plenty of lighting, without fresh air circulating from outside, it was difficult to control a buildup of CO2. Mushrooms, like yeast, give off CO2 and when this builds up, some growing mushrooms abort. Some require high temperature and humidity when pinning, and then less of both for fruiting. Others like cooler temperatures and aren't quite so sensitive to CO2. I had good success in growing Lion's Mane, Shiitake, King Oysters, and Chestnut mushrooms in this greenhouse, and had the most problems with Oyster mushrooms such as pink, golden, and blue oysters. Last spring, I put all of my mushroom blocks outside in a semi-shaded area around my patio and they all produced like crazy until fall. Since then, I have converted the greenhouse to grow vegetable and herb seedlings that I grow indoors under lights. From here on, my mushrooms will live outside. I have added some pictures of my mushrooms growing outdoors, mushrooms that grew well in the greenhouse, and also a couple of how the greenhouse is set up now. I hope this review was helpful for you, and will update my review if my opinion changes.