You reverse the ceiling fan over your computer chair, the cats get friendly, you feel inclined to drag out the electric blanket, add 4 lbs to your weight in clothes & still can't get warm and the 10 day forecast says the high is only in the upper 50's for Saturday and the low for Sunday nite is in the upper 30's.
Frankly .. I've had enough winter .. ready for Spring.
X
Crikey, X! I didn't see the upper 30s thing.
I went out this morning and took coleus cuttings and brought in a few orchids, but I was thinking I had at least til next weekend to do all the rest. Hope that turns out to be wrong!
I'm with you - ready for spring already. :) I think normal for this week would be in the upper 70s. The temp at the moment, which I show as 54, should be the LOW. BOooooo! >:-{
Forget, we have barely started fall. The leaves have not fallen yet, winter is still more than two months away. Enjoy the cooler weather, fall veggies, colorful leaves, and football.
Well last year I got caught off guard .. remember that hard freeze we had at the end of October? I'm slowly but surely getting things in the greenhouse. I just wish the sun would come out longer than 5 minutes .. even the closed up greenhouse isn't warm :-(
I do try to enjoy autumn, but it's really hard !
I remember that freeze last Oct., but was hoping it was an anomaly.
Sigh.
Yeah, Xeramtheum, I remember that! Scramble from hell! Repeated it today... Reminds me of that old '60's folk song 'When will they ever learn"...
51 here this morning and it is only 64 in the house. 4 lbs of clothes sounds about right. I have been trying to root some cordylines but I am now afraid they will rot instead. I plan on getting the heat mat out this morning.
It was 58 in my house when I got up - turned on the heat .. didn't look to see what was outside, but it got down to 48 in the greenhouse last night.
X
Grrrr .. now they are calling for a low of 38 .. totally clear sky tonight .. been busy stuffing my extra tropicals in the greenhouse.
X
X -- do you have the heat on in your GH, or do you think keeping them in there overnight will be okay? I've ordered my bubblewrap, and picked up caulk yesterday to seal it up, but cannot get it done today, unfortunately. And I haven't had a chance to spray down the plants to bring indoors yet (to keep the bugs out). If I have them in there, do you think they'll be okay? Tropical hibs, tropical birds of paradise, bananas, palms ...
I did buy a heater yesterday also, but didn't want to run in all night long in an unsealed, uninsulated GH. But I might have to bite the bullet tonight, and just git 'r done tomorrow.
I just went out and loaded up my GH with the tropicals. Boy, I never imagined getting that much stuff in a 6x8 GH! LOL
I have heat for the greenhouse .. I use a portable thermostat (http://www.kkontrols.com/), a forced fan heater (sometimes called a "milk house heater" and a box fan that stays on from about 10pm - 10am .. I keep it at "don't freeze" .. usually kicks on at about 38 degrees. Works really well .. I think the box fan makes all the difference .. I also use passive solar heating - 2ltr coke bottles painted black and filled with water .. collects the heat in the day and releases it at night. They system works well and I've never lost or had anything in the gh burnt. I also have a wireless thermometer hygrometer so I can monitor the temperature in the greenhouse from inside my house (has an alarm you can set .. it's saved everything from cooking in the Spring countless times as the alarm goes off at 99 degrees. I'll sometimes forget to open the vents in the morning) - the coldest I've ever seen it in there is 34 degrees.
X
Is it me or are the first frosts coming earlier and the last frosts coming later? I thought the frost/freezes of last October 28th were early, but this is getting ridiculous. Spent the last two days moving everything in... and it looks like it's just gonna warm back up again mid-week; argh. I miss my GH's this year (stupid HOA). Luckily I put enough in the ground to squeeze it all in the garage.
Keeping my fingers crossed it's not too bad tonight or tomorrow for us all, still got a lot out there. Sneaky Jack Frost!!
Oh Keoni ... I'm sorry about the HOA. I agree, though. It seems like it's getting much cooler at night earlier than in previous years.
I have the bubble wrap ordered so I can install it this week, and when it does warm up this week, I'll be spraying everything down to kill the bugs before bringing everything in the house.
What next, snow on Christmas day? LOL
X -- I've decided to put a black feed tank inside the GH filled with water for the water plants and a couple small fish. Do you think that will help with the heat retention? It's 2'x2'x4'.
I take it you couldn't do anything about your HOAs no green house policy? We just officially changed our by laws to allow out buildings that are reviewed to keep in the character of the neighborhood. Maybe it was the covenants, one or the other. You ought to run for a HOA position on the greenhouse ballot. You could be the green candidate. LOL. My HOA actually owns the common land etc so we have no outside influences. Didn't stop one board member from trying to struggle another board member at one of HOA meetings. LOL> Last couple of HOA meetings had an uniformed officer present.LOL> At the moment I have a problem with something our HOA president is doing and I think he may try to struggle me, we can only hope I'm up next on the fight card. I'm planning to run for the board next election, my campaign message will be simple. "I just don't like that guy at all and he has to go." Think people might be confused on what my platform is?
Not sure if it'll help for those of you with GH's or not, but what I tried worked really well for me last year. I purchased some of the power thermostats that come on when it gets to a certain temp (thanks to a recommendation here) and also used radiators (from Lowe's) instead of a gas/propane (too much heat) or electric (dry heat) heater. The radiators can use a good bit of power (400, 900, or 1500W) - but you have three settings to choose from and they do a great job of being right in with the plants without burning them (even if they accidentally touch a bit). The fan suggestion was the other life-saver... helped distribute the heat around the GH. Everything survived the unusually cold winter in two thin little plastic GH's... just wanted to pass that along if it helps. One of these days when I get out of these silly neighborhoods, I'm going to build a big GH to solve these woes of space problems.
Thinking warm thoughts.
Right now the main problem is the HOA is still controlled by the builder (D.R. Horton) - not the residents of the neighborhood. Last time our neighborhood met to discuss the problems we ALL were having with the HOA, we realized just how powerless we are at the moment. I asked about the GH's and no one objected so long as I kept them behind the house in the woods. So it's really the builder causing the problems bc they are desperate to sell houses and want a very tidy neighborhood (they must not be able to see into my neighbors back yard - good heavens it's a mess of lawn furniture and stuff). I think as soon as they build the last house behind me, I could probably pop them back up and no one would notice.. but so long as that lot is vacant... I'm in a no-win situation with them I'm afraid.
I had that thought jlj. If you have enough mass heated up in an enclosed area you should be able to stabilize the temperature. It's like putting a half brick wall around the green house, the mass of the brick heat up and release the heat later. Too many variables for me to figure out. Of course a glass green house would keep more heat in as opposed to plastic etc etc.
I think the black tank would certainly help stabilize the temperature .. but a fan really does make a difference .. especially in an small space.
X
Developers can be a problem. The main thing with them is they simply want to sell houses not fool around with the homeowners. They let you build a green house and then you have to let everyone build one. Two years down the road one guys green house is ripped apart with a bare frame sticking up. There it will stand as an eye sore. We had to put some way to stop people from going either to cheap or going way over board. Some may go buy the cheapest possible steel shed then a few years down the line you have a rusted bent up shed sitting there. Problem is at what point do you tell them to get rid of it? On the other end we have some people who might build a 4000 sq ft two story barn. That wouldn't be right for our neighborhood either.
Right now our biggest fights are going on with things like someones dog pooped in my yard. Seems to be a culture difference between some of our big city residents and the residents that came from a more rural back ground. The lady from NJ hates kids and dogs. Everyone knows her because she likes to jog, dogs like joggers. The fact that she screams and is terrified of dogs really doesn't help matters. Her reaction to kids is about the same.
Amazing Race is delayed since the football game went into over time so I have some time to kill. Found this about thermal mass etc in green house construction. http://www.greenhousegarden.com/Material%20properties.htm
You could go this route by modifing these plans to heat water and store it in barrels in the green house. They built a solar shower but you could cheaply make some sort of solar water heating system that stores fairly warm water for use in the night.
http://www.byexample.com/projects/current/batch_collector/
Oh dear .. the weather guys have dropped it down another degree .. now predicting 37 for Summerville. I'm mentally going thru my back yard trying to make sure I got all the extra tropicals stowed away.
X
Gosh darn it! I'm gonna break out the cocoa! Just came back in from a dash in the back yard to rescue the hibiscus.
Just brought in a few more myself... the others will have to try and make it through, it's already 3 degrees colder here at the house than NOAA is reporting at the airport. I'm expecting a near freeze tonight; worse tomorrow.
Hope everyone's plants are doing okay this morning.
X -- do you think I'll lose more heat through the tank being open (have to, as there will be fish in it), that it won't make much difference, or will it still being inside the GH make it ok for helping stablize the temperature.
I need to just go outside with a cup of coffee by my GH, and think ... but it's too cold. :(
It got no lower than 47 in the gh and when I got up this morning the thermometer outside was 40. Nothing looked like it was burnt .. the alocasia, colocasia and musa I forgot about last night look fine.
jlj the only concern of having an open container filled with water is humidity .. one of the things I deal with all winter is algae on the top of the soil in potted plants, because with the gh all closed up it can get in the upper 90's even over 100 in the winter on a sunny day. Doesn't really hurt the plant but looks awful and can sometimes fool you into thinking the plant doesn't need watering. The 2ltr bottle thing works really well .. so well that I can put plants directly on top of them and it keeps the roots warm enough to actually keep them actively growing! Even to the point of flowering!
keonikale how did you fare?
X
Only got to 40 here overnight according to my thermometer, and I couldn't see any signs of frost. Whew!
Hope that it doesn't get lower than that before the weekend, so I have time to drag the big stuff in.
I haven't even put up my little greenhouse yet!
I bought some FreezePruf this year and didnt bother looking at the lows this weekend....
Anyone else try the stuff yet?
http://www.liquidfence.com/FreezePruf.html
I had not planned on trying it until around November because we are normally so warm down here but these last few nights caught me off guard and I can see some extra tender trops did not like the cold. Wish I had sprayed them but who knew? The protection is supposed to last about 6 weeks and any new growth should be sprayed as it emerges.
Tomorrow the temps should be back to normal for us so I think I will hold off spraying for another few weeks - unless.....
Well I went out to water everything and discovered my plumeria leaves are dropping like rain .. I'm going to try something new this year I read on the plumeria society page .. they say all you need to do is decant/dig them up, shake off most of the soil then stick them in a cool place.
http://www.theplumeriasociety.org/spps/ahpg.cfm?spgid=31
Bringing in Plumeria planted directly in the ground follows a procedure similar to that for pots sunk into flower beds. First, remove the leaves by stripping or clipping if you can reach them. You may have to remove leaves later or let them fall naturally by themselves. Next, cut into the soil on all sides of the trunk at the desired root ball radius with a shovel or sharpshooter. Then, force the shovel under the root ball and pry up while balancing the plant. Lift the root ball from the soil and gently remove excess soil before pruning the roots to a manageable size. You may want to individually bag each root ball before placing in the storage area to keep soil from falling off. This is not necessary however. You may choose to place as many bare root Plumeria root balls as will fit into a large plastic lined box in the garage, then strap the group together for tidiness.
With space in the gh at a premium this is great!
X
I have done that and it does work. However, it takes a bit longer in the spring for them to wake up.
That's heartening .. I'll probably pot them back up in late February then and start waking them up.
X
I even kept some dry branches in the garage and stuck them in the soil as soom as it was warm and one of them took.
Looks like out weather is supposed to be closer to normal for the rest of the week.
37F for us last night according to both my thermometers, no damage I could see anywhere. Brought everything else in today, calling for 34F tonight - which likely means a freeze here. I think the trees will still protect most of my back bed - but I expect the front yard to get frost pretty bad. It's already getting cold out. If it does freeze, it's really going to reek around here with all the plant tissue decaying, I am not looking forward to that.
X - I think that'd work fairly well for your plumeria... I tried to overwinter mine last year in the garage and all kept their leaves and NONE bloomed this year. The year before I stripped all the leaves off, didn't really water them, and they all bloomed. So I'm going to do what you're trying this year too - hopefully will get blooms again next year. If nothing else, it keeps the spider mites out of the garage.
Hope everyone else fairs alright tonight. At least it's warming back up again after tonight.
daugenet, I purchased Freezepruf as well and am still waiting on it. I'm going to try it on some of the more sensitive plants I've left out (Saba banana, Ice Cream banana, and even some Traveler's Palms and White BOP's). I know the last two are a stretch, but I had a monstera come back last year - so maybe I'll get lucky. I am leaving a bunch of those out this year too, under the deck.
Have you gotten that Ice Cream banana to fruit? I'm thinking of giving one of those a try next year. Supposing cold hardy enough to get bananas if you don't cut the stem off during the winter.
I'm mostly worried about my Siam Ruby bananas that are still planted in my garden box. I can't get out there to pot them up and move them to the GH until tomorrow. Everything else is either in the GH or in the shed for overnight.
Core, look into the Viente Cohol banana, it was bred to fruit within one season (6 months). I planted one this year but did not get it until July so it really did not have the time to get acclimated and bloom. It seems happy now so I have high hopes for next year.
Didn't know you could get one that fruited in a year. I'll have to look into that one.
