Georgia Gardening: too many plants still in pots!, 1 by hcmcdole

hcmcdole wrote:
Thanks Sterling. I went from a smaller house where I overwintered all my houseplants in the garage. I then put in a greenhouse (14'x18') which looked huge at the time. It took about two years to pack it and then the spillover went into one side of the garage so my wife could park her car. The next year it got worse and the additional plants went in the barn/shed with a new kerosene heater that worked erratically. I lost a lot of bromeliads that year (3 years ago) due to a faulty heater. We then moved to a new house with lots of space and with the intention of adding a much bigger greenhouse than the previous one. With two house payments, the greenhouse was put on hold, so the first year was pretty dismal - few lights and hardly any shelving. Last winter I went into overdrive building shelves and adding lights (added some electrical outlets to the big utility room) and used X10 controls for the timers (computer control via USB to the controller and wireless to the modules) which is a lot better than the controllers they sell at Lowes.

The biggest problem I see now is humidity. The air just dries out too quickly.

Here is a chrome shelf in a smaller room which is great for shorter plants. I used the cheapest shop light fixtures, six way power strips, and middle of the road bulbs. Wire wraps hold the fixtures in place.