There are no propane or electric heaters, just a small motor that runs the small fan. A fan moves air through the tubes and into the greenhouse when it gets too hot or cold. Perforated plastic tubes make a circuit underground outside the greenhouse in a trench 8-feet deep where Finch says the temperature remains a steady 52 degrees year-round. The only heat source is the earth’s heat at 52 degrees at 8-foot deep.” “All we try to do is keep it above 28 degrees in the winter,” Finch said. But even in a cold Nebraska winter geothermal heat keeps the orange trees comfortable. It doesn’t stay hot in the greenhouse all the time. Using energy costs of about one dollar a day, Russ produces hundreds of pounds of citrus fruit every year to sell at local farmer's markets. He designed and built 'The Greenhouse in the Snow,' a greenhouse that runs only on a small fan that circulates geothermal heat. We can grow practically any tropical plant.”Ĭan the Midwest grow citrus? - Russ Finch lives in northwestern Nebraska in the town of Alliance.
“We just put it in and if it died it died, but most everything really grows well. “Any type of plant we saw we would put it in and see what it could do. You don’t often see orange trees in Nebraska, but Finch says growing citrus was a way of showing that his geothermal greenhouse could work. The original, which he built more than 20 years ago, is connected to his home. Russ Finch, a former mail carrier and farmer, designed the greenhouse, which he calls the Greenhouse in the Snow. And it’s only possible because it taps in to the core of the earth’s own energy, geothermal heating in the winter and cooling in the summer. High on the Nebraska plains, there’s a citrus grove with trees holding up a canopy of lemons, grapefruit-sized oranges, green figs, and bunches of grapes. It's a geothermal greenhouse and draws heating and cooling from the earth. It's a year-round greenhouse that uses just a trace of energy even in the cold of winter and heat of summer. There's a unique sight just outside of Alliance in Nebraska's panhandle, besides Carhenge.
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