Cleaning out the Greenhouse

After my trip to Singapore and Taiwan in most of May, it was time to come home to the real world and get back to the garden.

It's early June and the Greenhouse has gotten completely overgrown. Ideally it would have been best to move things out of the greenhouse in early May to avoid over crowding. Taller plants and leaves will shade shorter plants, which can lead to weak branches due to lower plants trying to reach for the light. It causes legginess and a droopy plant.

It's also good to acclimate them before putting them into full sun to avoid sun burns, which did happen to a few plants. The leaves formed in a greenhouse won't have the same qualities as a leaf that develops in full sun. They trend to be larger but more delicate.

Well after moving the plants, my 1 gallons that were up potted before I left for vacation had some casualties. Some of which included some rare ones like Black Madeira, Golden Riverside, Dolce Calderai, and about a dozen others.

Sigh... Vacations and baby figs do not mix.

Here are where my new 1 gallons live. It get's morning sun and afternoon sun. The middle of the day it's shaded but a few large pine trees. Which is great to keep them from baking in the mid day sun.

Assessing the winter damage

I figured that with a greenhouse I would be able to move some of my less than hardy tropicals out of the house in the winter time and into the greenhouse. Well...  I was wrong. Not everything survived the winter. I did get some surprises though.

Dead list:
Cherimoya (Might have died from lack of water. I did not water any of the plants when they were in the greenhouse)
Longan
Papaya
Vietnamese Guava
Jacaranda
Barbados Cherry
June Plum
Sapote
Moringa
Cassabanana
Jamaican Cherry
Jack Fruit
Yellow Jaboticaba
Plumeria
Night Blooming Jasmine (Planted in ground)

Survived:
Jaboticaba
Hardy Banana

All of the figs did great.

Brought indoors and survived:
Young Cherimoya tree
White Sapote - Grown from seed
Noni - Grown from seed

Star Apple - Seed grown
Peruvian Cactus - thriving
Owari Satsuma

What I've learned. Unless I heat the greenhouse the tropicals will have to be stored in the garage or indoors. The Figs will do great in the greenhouse!

Snow in Seattle and an Update on the Greenhouse plants

This is a quick update on the greenhouse and the plants inside of it. It's unheated so I didn't expect the plants inside would be that much better off than the outdoor plants but there were some nice surprises. Notably the yellow and white Jaboticaba. They have retained their leaves in the 20F something temperatures and are still thriving. Considering the fact that they are only small plants. I would suspect a larger plant might survive the Seattle winters with a bit of protection.

Moving forward next year I will purging some plants. If they cannot survive in my unheated greenhouse I will probably not grow it any longer.

We'll see what survives this spring. til then my friends...

Finally got my greenhouse and just in time for Winter

I've been wanting a greenhouse for the last couple years. It's almost a must for some of the plants and fruits that I like to grow, which are mainly tropical.

My wife has been tolerant of me loading up the plants in the house and in the garage in the past couple of years.

I ended up buying the Climapod. It was the best looking and it the right budget for me. It also helped that they were local so the pick up was easy and I had no delivery fees.

You have to assemble it yourself but I've been extremely busy so I ended up hiring the folks who sold it to me to assemble it. As any of you who may have built one knows it can be longer than a weekend project to do. 

The guys from Climapod were amazing! They worked hard and tirelessly in the rain. Hats off to the amazing product and great customer service!

https://climapod.com/

Cheap Mini Greenhouses

Greenhouse.

My greenhouse from 2014. This little death trap... I mean gem was purchased for $99 from my local Big lots. It was pretty handy until the zipper broke on it after about 3 weeks. I managed without a working zipper but regardless of how much you weigh it down and tie it. Just the slightest of winds will rip it to shreds.

In all it gave me 6 good months. That's about $16.50 per month. In it's place is a great new paved patio!

What a disaster