Is the greenhouse full yet?

I managed to clear off a couple shelves today on the right, after I took this pic to make room for some brugmansia cuttings, but the sun was shining in so hard that the brugmansia 's that were in gal pots were wilted badly and they were still wet, so I had to move them back into the shade again. I put tivak up over the windows to seal out the cold we've had some cold nights, once it got to 36, and my basil didn't like it. The tivak gives a little shade, I'm thinking of putting it on the outside and down the right side of the greenhouse to give that side some shade. Cause leaves are turning brown from the sun beating in on them.

That big pipe on the top is something my dh rigged up, to pipe the heat from the stove to the middle part of the greenhouse and the other end. IT's connected to a big blower fan.

and the woodstove is in a seperate room off to the side of the greenhouse but all open, so I can walk into the stove area from the inside of the greenhouse.

The well is on the other side of the greenhouse, and there's a hose connected to the well, that I keep in the greenhouse for watering. It works well for me. I have no complaints what so ever about my greenhouse. Except, I wanted a shade cloth and dh wasn't spending any more money, but said he'd put the tivak up on the ceiling for me, on the outside. I'm thinking it should go down the right side , the hole length of the right side, cause the tivak that's up over the windows provides shade right where I need it, but not enough. Would tivak up on the ceiling provide too much shade? It is white, but what's over the windows does produce shade, so it's proving that it does work for shade cloth. And we have lots of it. Compliments of job leftovers. What do you think?

the tomatos are at the other end of the greenhouse, going through their change now since I just put them inside, it might be a tad hot in there during the day, today it was oh , probably close to 90 in there when I went out there at ll:00 and opened both end doors and turned on the fan that's in the front up high, it's a high powered fan.

kathy_ann

Mine is ,but I see all kinds of room up in the rafters for hanging baskets!LOL!

Hi k_a , What is tivak ?

Scoterbug Tivek is opps I am not KA sorry Ernie

oh good grief ernie, I don't care, you can explain it better than I can LOL, you come back here now, LOL

they wrap houses with it, to help with insulation, don't know what kind of material it is, but dh gets it free, it's fantastic stuff though. looks like paper but it's not. ok ernie, help me here

it does have lettering all over it though, so I'm thinking of putting the lettering side down so no one can see it LOL

and tivak is probably spelled tyvac or tyvak not sure which have to go look at the stuff hanging on the windows in the greenhouse to make sure.

kathy you did fine I will just add it is a moisture barrier that is breathable all the lettering is not just mfu advertisement it is to let everyone using it know which side goes out to the weather.It allows moisture to escape but not enter. When I say moisture barrier I am not saying this is a good subsitute for a tarp. This material is the same as those disposable white coveralls are made from. Every house built in the North west today employes this material in place of tarpaper. It comes in several widths making it faster to install as you can cover most walls without a joint.

I see you did get water to the gh lol did you employ the restricted menu program to get it there lol. Ernie

Ah Ha ! ........ we do know what Tyvak is , thanks.

kathy_ann, your gh looks great. How large is it. Sure looks larger than my small 10 x 14, which is pretty full allready. What will I do when it is time to start seeds.

Eweed, like your pictures. Were you looking out over the sound with the water picture. Donna

Eweed, water was already in the greenhouse, he just built the greenhouse right next to the well. LOL Sooo, I actually didn't get any water, or wouldn't have if it wasn't already there.

Thanks rutholive for the compliment, it's a l6x32 and not quite big enough LOL,


see what I just did, I put the tyvak on the outside between the two windows, to give my brugmansias some shade, and it worked, it's nice and shady in that one area.

kathy

here's the inside nice and shadey

Wow Kathy,
..................Neat GH. How about a visitor from the frozen tundra (Wis.) for about 3 months ?

I'll bring a hammock so as not to take up any floor space ... LOL

sounds like a plan LOL

kathy

Calling all Northern dg ers all those needing lodging and meals thru the cold Months there is a party going on At Kathy Anns this winter internet hookups will be avaliable to the first six people who email reservations counter lol.

Ruth yes that is one of the most northern places in Puget sound Cananada is just two three miles north of there Ernie

They'll have to sleep in the hammock, LOL

wish I lived close to canada I'm envyous

kathy

Well I guess that goes to show you the grass is all ways greener and it is pretty green here mostly to green like twice a weeks worth. It is so green here when I go to the store to get Lawn mower gas it now takes about fourteen bux to fill the mower gas cans and some one who lives here who shall not be named to protect the innocent seems to run the mower outta gas lol.

I have been a little Lazy and have not brought one thing in yet probably this week end I will begin cutting it back so much for the remodleing and water stations I have been going to add, There is allways next year right. One benifit to this is less bugs will come in this year and every thing gets a serious haircutt and spraying with the hose. Last year I let it all grow un trimmed and while it did look neat to see lots of stuff blooming all winter it also gave me aphid city. Ernie

boy I'm hoping i don't have that problem, I just brought it all in untrimmed, and will have to watch out for aphids I guess.


kathy

Kathy that is so neat im just getting my small one finished but yours is big and well full i bet mine will be in a few days after we finish it

Your greenhouse looks great, kathy ann, lots of room. Here is mine.
Doesn't take much to fill a 10 x 12 greenhouse:
Wondering "what am I going to do next spring?", too, since I have crammed a bunch more plants in since this was taken.
I keep 50% shade cloth on since most of these plants do not thrive in full hot sun. Will remove it in December probably.

This message was edited Oct 28, 2004 8:57 AM

Here is the other side:
I lose a lot of space on the bottom due to storage of soil, pots, etc. Need to build on a potting shed, I think.

Errrr, no my GH is nowhere near full. Actually, I'm kinda hoping it WON'T be as full this year going into winter, as it has been in year's past. (It's an indicator of whether my spring plant sale did well or not, as well as how much progress I made on new beds this year. The fewer the holdover plants, the more progress I made ;o)

I have ~ 60 daylilies to winter over for a sale next spring. Plus about 15-20 larger pots of trees and shrubs that are in a coldframe just outside the GH. A flat of (new) hostas from a co-op got potted up several days ago, and I have roughly 2-3 dozen miscellaneous pots of "stuff" (some hardy, some borderline) that will overwinter in or around the GH. A few tender pond plants will make their way into the a large horse trough/mini pond....and that's pretty much it.

That leaves me with a LOT of room for spring seedlings. Which is great because my seedbox runneth over. Apparently I went a little seed-crazy last spring, lolol.

Toxicodendron,
How do you heat your greenhouse in MO........ doesn't it still get pretty chilly where you are...... ?

Hi vs71099,
It really does not cost much...it is a Northern Lights greenhouse that is insulated on the north side and is double-glazed everywhere else. One or 2 small electric space heaters keep it plenty warm. It costs about $100 per winter, best I can tell. I have had some winters when I did not use it, so I have compared electric bills. I got the greenhouse 15 years ago and it has held up pretty well. Way overpriced when I got it...I made payments for 2 years! Planned on growing our own tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, etc all winter but it is too cloudy here in winter and nothing would ripen before mid-May. So I just store my tropicals in it now. I wish it was attached to the house and I advise others to get an attached one if it is just to grow ornamentals.
Do you have a greenhouse? Where is Osage City?
Boy, that Tropicman from Wichita sure shows everyone that Kansas can be tropical, doesn't he? Our muggy summers are good for something.
Here is a picture of the outside of the greenhouse last summer...we have put Lexan on the sloped part because a hailstorm put a couple of holes in it (which we patched to keep the airtight insulation layer).

Wow that looks great !!!! I am still in the process of putting together a little 6X8 greenhouse I bought from Harbor Freight. I have all my brugs and ears in the basement right now, I'm not sure I'm ready to take the chance of a freeze with our Kansas weather.... Osage City is south of Topeka about 100 miles Southeast of Kansas City.......

Tropicman's photos do look nice and give us all a little hope... RootDoctor in KC invited me up to get some brugs and his tropical garden was awesome too........ I think that's were the tropic bug bit me. I've been looking at tropical books to see what else we can try here...... so far my castor beans have been as tropical as I get but they do well and I'm anxious to get the castors, ears and brugs in the ground again next spring....

I always let the frost get my EEs (I only have the big colocasias) and then dig and dry the tubers and restart them in March. Anyway, that saves me some room in the greenhouse each winter. Until March, that is, LOL!!!! So far we have not had a killing frost, only a teeny one that nipped the coleus a bit. It is so nice to go out in the winter and look at flowers, it is worth all the trouble and expense. I know you will enjoy yours.
I don't have any brugs right now...but I think I am getting the fever!

Terry, I envy you the extra space! I won't be able to turn around in mine by springtime.

Toxi, your gh looks so nice and neat. Mine seems always to have leaves and soil on the floor. And I think mine if more croweded already than is yours. It gets quite cold here in winter and I have already had to start my electric heater going. It is expensive for me to operate the gh in the winter but for me it is worth it. I keep the HID light on for about 16 hours a day. The exhaust fan and near ground louvers are covered with plastic now to keep out some of the cold.

Is the tall plant in the back a bouganvillea. It looked like a few b. blooms on it. I have four potted bouganvilleas, 3 hanging and 1 a standard type. None are much in bloom right now. In the gh I have five large pots of brugs which take up a lot of room but they are all in bloom so will keep them there until bloom stops then store them in another part of the garage, i call my bonsai room, where temp with heater when necessary stays at about 40 to 50 degrees. Donna

Hi Donna,
My GH floor gets dirty, too, LOL! I keep an old broom and dustpan handy to clean up periodically.
The tall plant is a mandevilla 'Lipstick' (formerly classed as dipladenia). I had the pot buried out in my yard and rooted a few cuttings from the plant to save. But later I just dug up the whole thing (stake and all) and repotted it in a bigger pot. It was very heavy and I did not notice that the stake had rotated 180 degrees, so the entire top was facing a different direction when I got finished. Sometimes, you really need a helper, you know? It bloomed profusely all last winter in the GH, along with the anthurium you can see on the left. I wish I had a basement or garage to keep brugs in for winter, but I don't! (Maybe that is a good thing?)

Taxi: Very nice pictures! Your plants look healthy and happy!

Is that a Rex begonia in the lower right of your 2nd picture? I've been getting small soft spots on the leaves of one of my RBs, and I don't know what's causing it. Any ideas? I don't seem to be able to keep my RBs alive. I've killed at least 3 "Raspberry Swirl" and "Lalomie" plants and am almost inconsolable about it. Now another "Raspberry Swirl" is looking sickly, and I don't know what to do to help it.

I keep all the RBs in a 60 degree max lean-to GH with high humidity and try to watch the watering. The plants are in partial/bright shade for most of the day. I grow streptocarpus and orchids in the same area, and the other plants are all happy.

- Kathleen (Zone 6, NW Rhode Island)

Hi Kathleen,
Check out this website for a few cultural tips:
http://members.aol.com/Btbegonia/index.html

My greenhouse temps fluctuate a lot...from 50 at night to 90+ in the day occasionally. I let the RBs (I have 4) dry out a bit between waterings and avoid getting water on the leaves. You may have a bacterial leaf spot which will spread, so get rid of any damaged leaves. Or it could be that ice cold drops of condensed water from the ceiling could be falling on the leaves and causing the damage. Similarly, water drops on the leaves while the sun is shining brightly can cause this kind of damage. Keeping the leaves dry, allowing the soil surface to dry between waterings, and perhaps having a small fan blowing could all help the situation I think.
Good luck!

I just bought a Rex from Logees, Venetian Red, a small leaved one and very red from their picture. I haven't grown Rexes since moving here. At my other place I had more than 100 differnt kinds of begonias, belonged to the society and had work sheets. Then got more interested in other plants, so this is the first one in a few years. So I am hoping for a pretty Rex, it is very small now tho. Donna

Hey, I usually do not have luck with starting begonias from leaves, but I stuck an 'Escargot' leaf in the soil by the "Mother" plant (ha, it is only 4 leaves) and lo and behold, I got a baby! I used to cut the leaves in pieces, slash the veins, etc and never had any luck. This time I just stuck the whole leaf petiole in the soil and trimmed the leaf back to about 2" across. I did not cover with plastic or anything.
Sorry Kathy Ann, I have hijacked this thread, I think.