Propagation: first attempt at growing hibiscus from seed, 1 by starlight1153

starlight1153 wrote:
Mike.... Thanks for that bit of info. Be just my luck I would come out and see my box and.or plants going down the road to the neighbor s house. LOL... If anything strange weird, unusual or crazy can happen , it wil to me. : )

The idea sounds good to me. Especially in the winter, the sun warming and aborbing heat would surley keep the root s from being damaged and thats the most important thing. Only thing I can think of that I would worry about is that the temp doesn't get too high, but doesn't stay too low. Temps between about 150F to 160F are good for killing any bad weed seed s or organisims and wil produce beneficial ones to keep composting. I would make sure my compost going in the boxes had at least reache d those temps, to make sure the bad guys are killed.

You would have to either I think maybe stir the mulch onc e in awhile or figur eout how to ad d some nitrogen to keep good microbes from dying and the mulch smelling and rotting. When the mulch sittign out in the open it can dry , but if it in the sealed box then the moistur elevel gonna rise and it just possible it might become a breeding groudn for fungi and bacteria if proper air flow and temps aren't maintained.

At night it would be a fantastic idea for heat, but durign the day, you'll wanna watch to make sure if temps get up to about 80F and no more than 86F that the box gets vented. Above those temps the plants will start stressing and can die.

I was raised on a corn farm when I was little up North and I remember when we moved into the city my dad stil used to make cold frames for his veggies. he'd dig a hole about a foot to two feet deep. lien the sides with wood and find somebody who was throwing a window pane out and use it for the top.

I've never built a heat from from compost before. Usually come winter I gather all the plants in pots together in a section I know gonna get the most sun durign winter and then mulch the whole thing over with the Oak and Hickory leaves that fall off the tree. I just use the fresh of f the tree leave s and so far I have never had a problem. Maybe I ought ot whisper that, don't nee d no bad luck.

Way back in the begining of January , on the tre e and shrub forum or maybe it was the fruit and nut forum, ( I forget) we were discussing somethign and cuttings. Gloria125 had used Christmas rope lights for a hot bed. I don't know to do a search here on Dave's to se e if that specific thread woudl come up. You might try and dmail her and ask her about her hot beds with the rope lights. Come to think of it , I need to too, cuz I got the rope light s ot giv eit a try, but been so long now, I forget what she said to do.

Might try both ways and se e which and what propagates the best.

Now the intertube idea is pure genius. : ) It will giv e ya lot s of heat and with it being black will hold the heat longer. I didn't know trucks had removable inner tubes. That shoudl work alot better than the water towers and plain ole buckets of water. You could put plants in the center and all around and get better coverage of lots of plants instead of just a few.

Have you seen this one using straw bales? Only thign is worry whethe r mice and rodents and snakes might try nestign in it too. The mice don't worry me as much as the snakes. ( shiver.. shiver.. shiver)

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_seasonal_fall/article/0,1785,HGT...

on this site from Virginia at figure 4 is a detaile d pic for putting a manure hotbed together as far as the way to set up the compost and sand layers.

http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/envirohort/426-381/426-381.html

here another good article for a manure bed.

http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/hort/g06965.htm

I don't know how cold your winter gets and how much bad frost and light snow days you get, but think maybe the rope light s and your inner tubes would do the most good and hold the heat the longest. Are you gonna fill the inner tube up full or just part way?

One of thos e article s I sent a link to says that manure bed only good for sprign and fall as it doesn't hold the heat that well durign the winter.

I do know that it is going to be interstign to se e what works good and the best of the different things your trying. I love always trying new things especially when ya can make it out of used materials and scraps and others junk. : )

Checke d on the Pink Hibscus pods and they coming along fine. Hopefully maybe if thes e temps keep up they should be ready to harvest and share in a week. I move d them under some Hickory trees during this heat wave so it takign them a bit longe r to ripen.

If ya all want mor e of the Luna White seeds, let me know. Be glad to sen dya some more and then I gonna off er the rest to folks on the seed forum. I got Luna White seeds comign out my ears. LOL

This is the inside of the poly house I and my friends Jo and Jerald helpe d me build. Everything but light bulb fixture all came from throw away stuf f in people's and busines s trash . Did a bunch of hauling and pulling of nails, but only thing had to buy was nails to staple the plastic and one roll of plastic so I could have double thickness. The door was built from a piece of solid wood fencing that was boke somebody threw out and I just covere d it with plastic and put on a coupel of hinges.

Not fit for anything to be in it during summer. It hotter than an oven and not hot enough durign winter for propagation just for keepign plants from roots freezing. I'd liek to figure out how to heatit cheap, but so far haven;'t come up with anything.