Tropicals & Tender Perennials: A Cool House for my Brugs, 1 by GordonHawk

GordonHawk wrote:
Veronica... OH..I'd imagine it would be difficult to keep it wrapped in the wind.. and would the wrap keep the tips above freezing at 27* in the wind... here they wrap the fig trees.. but they are big limbs.. I believe they use a layer of burlap to keep it drier aganst the bark.. I'd imagine the humidity would be great just wrapped in plastic.... A plumeria grower..not a nursery. in Houston .. was showing me an acre or so he was planning on installing underground heating pipes in. to keep his plants warm in their inermitant cold snaps...pumping through hot water to keep the soil temps high.. he had alot of projects. so I don't know if he ever got it in the ground..
you got me thinking on the problem though.. perhaps a 2' deep hole brug planted in the bottom.. with an enclosure on the top.. for geothermal heating... but there would be alot of water in the hole during a rain... you'd need a gravel trench with the plastic drainline with the holes in it.. like a leaching field/septic system running away downhill..to keep the hole dry..
humidity tonight isdown to77%..now that the heater is running more.. before the fan there was one pot ith about aninch of light fluffy mold on the top of the soil.. like angel hair.. appropiate I thought.. but it has cleared up with the drop in moisture..
it is becomming abit defoilated inside... some new growth.. some of it looking like the white asparagus from growing in darkness.. a little tip die back... but I'm getting a little of that on the ones inside also.. the beauty is I've missed five or six waterings up there..that I had to make for the ones inside.. and no running expencive lights.. no insects...but no hope of a suprise flower either.. well I've no bugs inside... since my black fly watering with the BT.. mixed with the disolved mosquito dunk... aword of caution here.. the mosquito dunks are made with a cork or other fibereous item which as the poison on it... so it would never disolve... and would clog my sprayer I used to drench the soil.. got to soak it for a few dyas to remove the poison from it.. then strain out the fiber.. then the dunk water can be sprayed... I've never had anything kill the soil knats like that combination did... Thanks...
Note* Passiflora is also still green in the foreground...


This message was edited Dec 23, 2008 1:01 AM