This is my first year growing my hoyas in a greenhouse atmosphere, and I am not doing well! It gets pretty warm in there during the day, in between 70 to 80 but then it drops to about 60 at night. The hoyas get dry in the warm so then I water, but then when it gets cooler at night, I guess the roots don't like the moist and cold. I've lost a few, and now I'm very frustrated!!!! We are getting the insulation this weekend but that won't replace the hoyas I've lost already!!! Boo Hoo, I just feel like weeping!
Thanks for listening to my rant....
Raven
Learning the greenhouse curve....
Raven, I am so sorry to hear of your loss. It always hurts when you lose something you love. Time will heal. How do you like the greenhouse? I sure would like to have one. But between the hot summers and no yard. Don't think i will ever have one. Binky :(((((
Janice...
When it is the hottest in yur GH, feel the leaves of your plants. They should be cool. If they aren't, they are stressed...
Most hoyas are OK with temporary drops to 60 deg....but....others may stress. Here is a list that will soon be on my web site. Those that need to be warmer...maybe you could switch them to a warmer part of the GH.
IF you water very early in the morning....the soil in the pots will warm up during the day, and that warmth will carry thru the night...till you water again. Liddle's sprinklers go on at 4a.m. and in the winter his temps can get low....so can mine. I get down in the upper 50's from time to time. Photosynthesis stops mid morning (when they need the water) and the plants just sit until later on the day/evening when they start to use the water again...and the nutrients. Perhaps, you could water and brush your teeth at the same time... You don't want them wet and then going cold when the plant kicks into its feeding frenzy....
Hope this helps.
I tried to attach it...didn't work. It will be up on my site within the next couple of days.
Sorry.
Raven do you have enough air movement?In the hottest time of the year the fans get kicked up,but they need air movement all the time even more so in greenhouses.Under my shade cloths I have a huge fan that blows out under my shadecloth and I water everyday.We have been planning to build a rather large greenhouse(it will take up my whole back yard and I have been told by many to invest in comercial grade fan and heating and when I do visit greenhouses the breeze way blows my hair.Keeps the leaves nice and cool.Carol what you think about air movement in a greenhouse?We will be having lows in the 50's next week and most will be left outside I will have to move about thirty in under lights but I run two fans in the grow room all the time even in winter and when it gets in the 30's the fans stay on and I run a heater by one of the fans.First year I moved them in I didn't run fans and I lost a lot.But now that I run these fans everyone thrives during the winter and still send out leaves they slow down but still remain healthy.
Dianne
Raven, It does take alot of experiementing to get used to GH growing. It may be best to keep more fragile plants in the house until you get a better feel for GH growing. Lucky for me I started growing Philodendrons first & have lost everything two different years due to the heat going out!
My climate is warmer than Oregon most likey, I'm in mid-Georgia and am considered zone 7 I think.
My GH gets up to 80-100 this time of year in day and with no heat on yet has got as low as 48-50 at night. In winter it still gets quite warm in daylight hours
but dips to 40 some nights.
Could you be overwatering?
I say that because when the nights are cold I only water once a week if that often, maybe once every two weeks. You are right cold and wet don't mix!
(most are all mature & potbound plants)
In winter I never water with the water hose, my water supply is a well and the water temp is quite cold. I collect water in milk jugs and store them near my heat source. Even in the jugs next the heater the water still feels coolish. I run one of those electric oil filled heaters as a back up in case the propane runs out. I keep a couple of metal watering cans 1/2 full on top of it & fill it the rest of the way before watering (probably not nesessary, but makes me feel better)
Actually to save water every time I run dish water, bath water ect... I turn the hot water on and fill a jug, by the time it's filled my water is warmed up. No precious water down the drain! Every time I go to the GH I lug a couple of jugs with me.
Carol has a good point about watering in the morning, the day time temps heat the soil up which probably does carry over into the night.
Another thing I'm wondering, are the plants you are losing mature and pot bound or freshly planted cutttings or recently repotted?
Last winter the only plants that suffered in my GH were two Exotic Angel plants that I'd washed the soil off the roots and repotted into new soil, I think the extra soil stayed too cold. The ones I overwintered in the house didn't show a single sign of stress (both were Hoya brevialata & DS-70 (tsangii).
Do you have a thermometer / humidity meter? I found one at WalMart for
about $10.00, it gives the humidity reading and temp. It also tells what the lowest and hottest temps were. One night my propane ran out I'm guessing in the early morning, it got down to 34o.
Diane has a good point about running fans to keep the air circulating. Since I just have two small hobby GH's connected to each other I have the heater
by the door that goes into the smaller one. I hung two fans one blowing into the small (8x10) room the other blowing into the bigger (8x16) room. Both are small osculating fans bought on clearance last fall. I keep them on low in winter to keep the warm air circulating.
Goodluck!
Thanks Binky, Carol, Dianne and Lesli,
I really appreciate the info and support!
I think what happened was I got too busy there for a couple weeks and I watered in the evening when it was already starting to get cooler so the poor hoyas had already gone through the hot during the day, and then they had the wet to deal with in the night. I knew it was a mistake when I was doing it, but I was hoping that just the couple times I did it wouldn't really hurt them, now I could just kick myself for not listening to that little voice!!! I lost my precious macrophylla, erythrina and pentaphlebia, and those aren't readily available so I can't just replace them! UGH! I am very irritated with myself, I'm off to sit in the corner and punish myself now!
Raven
Nononono - don't beat yourself up. We all have been there and will probably be there again!!! Part of being human!! There ARE replacements, Janice...everything can be replaced!! Life is abundance!!!
Carol
Dianne...YES...air circulation VERY important!!! Sounds like you have it worked out.
This message was edited Oct 27, 2004 9:48 AM
Thanks Carol,
It's nice to know that I'm not alone!
Everything looks better now, my little cat just hatched into a wonderful, beautiful butterfly, so life is lovely again, at least inside my little heart!!! ;o) His pic is in the plant trading forum if anyone wants to see, I think he is wonderful!!!
Raven
Raven, just reading quickly through the post and a comment I can give that it may not be the cold and wet condition alone but the combination of dried out soil and then cold&wet condition that did you in. Roots on most Hoyas will sustain damage or even die off if the soil completely dries out, cold and wet conditions thereafter create the perfect breeding ground for bacterial/fungal infections on the weakened root system.
Milan