Mine is full and still have more to put in it. Waiting for plastic to arrive. Jerry
HOW FULL IS YOUR GREENHOUSE?
Side view.
MY smaller greenhouse.
Amazing !
I have alot of questions for you. lol.
What zone are you ?--- how low do your temps get ?
Are you having to heat all that ?????
If so, what temp do you try to maintain in there ?
This is my first year for my GH, and I have alot of tropicals, but am afraid to put them in it. I know that's crazy, but don't think my temps will be 60 - but more like 40 in mine when our weather stables out.
Yours looks like a jungle !!! Love it !!
Looks really nice. I like that large Siam Ruby looks good.
I just don't know how y'all do it .... moving all those plants (and some so huge) back and forth, in and out each season! I don't have a greenhouse and I guess I'm glad I live in an area where I don't have to move much inside in the winter! I do move the orchids into one of the bathrooms if we have real cold weather. Everything else stays put and gets covered in old blankets and sheets. We are fortunate that we rarely have freezes or low temp's for more than a few hours. But, when it does get real cold all the yards down here look like it's Halloween in the middle of January with so many plants covered up in blankets and stuff!
So, you cover those frames with plastic? How do you heat them?
n2birds, Zone 8 i guess. Dec. to March anywhere from 80 to 20 degrees,Texas you know. I try to keep it at 50 at nite, but on real COLD nites it's hard to do it! I use natural gas and boy did it go up in price last winter! The '05-'06 winter cost ran from $150-$175 per month. '06-'07 was $425-$475 per month!!!!!!!!! It could be cheeper just to send them to FL. for winter,but if i did i would go with them and not come back to Texas. Jerry
Brian, It should it came from you. Jerry
PLANTLADYIN, You are lucky. It's getting harder andharder every year, not as young as i was once. I have about 15, 30-45 gal. pots. when i start moving them oh my ACHING back!!!!!!! But i would not be with out my plants. Just can not wait for the BIG EAR FEAST in '08. More big EE's Jerry
Now that is true dedication ! Pretty amazing and great collection you have there.
I guess all my delicate EE's will stay in the sunroom. My DH would do the big D word if our heating bills climbed up to those figures !!!
This is my first greeenhouse, with friends Matt and Camerion helping with the heavy pots.
We have a few more pots to go.
Note to those anticipating the Big Ear Fest: the little Ears I'm readying for you to get in Spring 2008 are really growing fast! Now's the time to be thinking about expanding your GH to accommodate some extra huge Ears come Fall 2008. Also, if you want to get extra large Ears to start with, let me know so I can grow them for you.
My favorite greenhouse, most everything is in the ground.
This message was edited Oct 31, 2007 9:02 AM
I am waiting on a new greenhouse. I had to cut down a 30 ft. live oak tree to make more room for big ears. I hope that it comes before a freeze.
I have a new greenhouse that i'm still finishing... I've put most of my plants in there, but they are still going through shock ( so they are not any thing to brag about...). I do have a rather large Robusta that never went through shock when i planted it, instead it took off, and if I don't lose it this winter it might rival LariAnn's. here is a pic from a few weeks ago. That's Kameron and he is Six foot tall, so it kind of gives you a scale.
These are the pics from today. We had a few nights in the lower 40's and the Robusta was unprotected... I think it got to it. LariAnn... do you think it is just going dormant, or rotting? Anyways, the leaves have started to lean... they don't seem to be dying, or rotting just falling over...? Here is a pic from the back of the greenhouse you can see the Robusta in the Middle lopped over.
here's a side pic.
and a pic of my Amorphophallus corner!
Well, I regret to inform you that your Robusta isn't going to rival mine now! The symptoms are exactly what happens when Robustas are exposed to temps that are too cold for them. Especially now that you are just entering into the winter, expect your plant to go backwards. It may produce some additional leaves, but they will be distorted and probably smaller than what you have now. Hopefully, it will survive the winter for you.
If there is any way you can get some soil heating cables down around the root mass of that Robusta, and keep the soil at 70 to 75 degrees all winter, that will help a lot. I had one in a large pot with a heating pad underneath the pot and that really helped, until too much moisture (but no ferns!) led to rotting late in the winter. This year, I'm ready! By Big Ear Fest, hopefully, 8 to 10 feet? At the very least, blooms in spring and more hybrids!!
well I'm praying that it perks up! It would kill me to lose it!!!!! after those two days of 40's i got my heater in there and it hasn't gotten below 68☺ since. I'm waiting to see the next leaf, and the pups at the bottom don't seemed to be effected : )
These photos are amazing they look like some of my older greenhouses. I have to say after looking at these photos I can see a person who is just as sick as I am over plants. It does not tend to stay in one plant family and everything has some interest. I just got in from chopping and digging out a section of the tropicals. With a 6 foot pile of foliage stacked up and tons more to cut back and store.
I do have one question I see in your pics you have a lot of fairly cold hardy tropicals why are you not mulching some up and leaving them out? You have to be a zone or two warmer than me and I can get buy with quite a few?? Cannas, Colocasias, Crinums
HALLOWEEN MADNESS AKA "TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE"
Brian, I assume that you are referring to my 3rd. picture. I do have the cannas and colocasias outside the greenhouse. I cover them with the leaves that I gather from my yard and whatever leaves my neighbors put out in the trash. The Crinum is a queen emma, and I can't let her die back. She is special.
Jerry are you still waiting on the plastic to come. TG it didn't get down to 30* there, like it did here last night. Burrrr
Some Halloween visiters
Covers are finally up and ready for old man winter.
Full to capacity.
Now to wait for spring and the" BIG EAR FEST 2008 " in sunny Florida! Jerry, PS HAPPY HOLIDAYS to EVERYONE
Someday I *WILL* have my own greenhouse. I envy you folks!
Tommyr2006, I started out with a few tropicals wintered over in front room, then a 8ft.x8ft. greenhouse. Later a 12ft.x12ft. then a 20ft.x30ft.x 12ft. tall greenhouse. Tropical plants are a wonderfull and growing hobby for me. There are some great small greenhouses to start with. Good luck and keepem tropical. Jerry
Are you using on piece or two pieces of plastic? We use a plastic that usually last us 5 to 8 years. Their are two pieces on top of each other and a small blower that keeps it full of air like a big bubble. This makes a large air space which is the best insulation you can use. If you did not do it you should look into it would save you a ton of heating.
Not sure if you can tell in this pic but both the greenhouses have doubly poly the one on the right has a air space about 1 foot. The greenhouses are heated and it has a hard time melting the snow off they were probably around 75f in the roofs during this pic.
Mine isn't full, YET! LOL
But it is newly built and I plan to fill it to the top with all the tropicals I can find! :)
Brian-I have always heard/read that to get maxium amt of heat increase from using the blower fan between the two layers of plastic, that the space should be anywhere between 1/2" and 4". Generally, its about 10 degrees warmer if you can get the spacing within the above amts. I just recovered my 3 grhouses and even with no pulling of the 2nd layer, its about 3" between the two layers. How did you get a foot between them-did you use a wider piece on the top layer?
I also managed to get 10 yrs on mine (they all say 4yr )but I should have done it last year-but I hate the whole process of recovering them! They sure are bright in there with new plastic....lol
The one greenhouse had a bit more slack in the roof so the air space was much larger. Most of them have around 3 to 6 inches of air space in them now. When you see the plastic stuck together usually wet inside it is bad the cold can be trainsfered easily in that.
If I were to say in KY I would probably look into building a sunk in greenhouse one in the ground around 6 to 8 feet were the thermal heat should keep it around 55f. The main problem for greenhouses like that is drainage but I am sure it makes up for it in less heating cost.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I got done putting up the new greenhouse in the nick of time. It's supposed to get real cold tonight. The backside view of new greenhouse is on the right. 12x28 ft.
Very nice Green House!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE. Especially to my special friend and mentor Placenciarita. Hope everyones plants are nice and warm in their greenhouses. And to all of LUCKY ones,hope you have plenty of SUNSHINE and fair WEATHER. Jerry
I give thanks for everyone I've met on this forum and look forward to meeting many in person this Spring 2008!
Happy Thanksgiving!
LariAnn
Just came in from checking on greenhouse heaters. Low tonite down to 29', 10 mile per hour wind. BRRRRRR it's COLD!!!!!!!! I can hear those heaters going $$$$$$$$$$. And LariAnn said she was worried about it getting down to 70' today at her place! Hope everyones plants are warm and happy! Jerry