How did it get to be Monday again? Didnt we just have one ? At least I can spend the evening on a leisurely tour of IU day one over on the thread that Cindy put up. Got a nice cold beer and leftover BBQ chicken , and no chores(ok well, postponed chores anyway) so I will bip over there after I post this. I looked at it for a few minutes at my office today and realized I needed uninterrupted time. Sounds like you guys had a blast ! On the red garden link I posted yesterday, I could never do that either, but oh how it made me long for the space to try ! I have a red and yellow garden that I started last year,but it isnt quite there yet. Part of the problem is the exposure and too much shade from a mature crepe myrtle. Mariann, my late DH and I built a home-made hoop greenhouse several years ago, whicj I just dis-assembled this year. We used ½ pvc pipe, left-over and fall-down lumber, bender board and I ordered greenhouse poly sheeting that repels UV rays for up to three years . It lasted about 5 . However , my heating system was c-9 clear Christmas lights under the benches, and our winter temps here dont usually get lower than the high 20s, so it worked great for me. I would love to have something more permanent and climate controlled some day. bug, what funny faces that young man makes ! Eden, 18 coleus ??? Will we see some pics? Were they 18 different varieties? I just strted putting some orange in my garden last year-I had that 60s shag carpet aversion ! Try it next to something purple Okay, time to hit the IU4 thread , hi to those missed Kathy in Napa

You're looking at most of what I have going right now, unfortunately. Last year at this time I was picking cucumbers. You can see this year's cukes in the middle left of that pic. They are just sprouts. Nothing will grow without sunshine, even when I keep it from freezing at night. Thank you for the compliment, but my idea of huge is 10x what I have now. This high tunnel is 14x48 with a gravel floor. The new one I just built is 18.5x48', but does not have the plastic on it yet, because I don't have enough plants to fill it. I bought ground cover cloth for the floor and a friend gave me some pallets, but beyond that I have not ordered everything yet. My plan up to now had been to use 11-gallon grow bags fed with an automated drip system. That would have been perfect in last year's weather. This year, we are so far into spring that I am starting to wonder if I'll have enough time to get a crop of tomatoes before the weather hits 95+ degrees. When that happens, I get thick skins and bitter fruit. All I can think of to do would be to just bury the entire container or root ball into the ground at that point. I like your idea with the cover and the light bulbs. Notice that you are three zones north of me and your plants look farther along than mine. Do they stretch at all toward the bulbs? I don't see yours doing that, but my worry would be that mine somehow would.

Hello to old and new forum members. Back in 2013, I decide -after being inspired by some of the excellent fat-plant growers found on this forum- to take on growing Operculicarya pachypus. I already was growing Bursera fagaroides, and Operculicarya decaryi...btw, two of the easiest plants to grow...and now I needed an Operc. pachy for my collection. So, I bought one, at Botanic Wonders. A small, skinny, twig of a thing....about 1/4" diameter. I potted it into the the Tapla classic gritty mix, and it's been there since. I live in 7b/NYC. A climate that is lousy for growing any respectable-looking fat plants. It's definitely NOT like and deserts in Yemen, Madagascar, or Baja California. My plants go out onto my broiling, back deck, grow in full sun, get watered when it rains, and then they go dormant by mid-October. I have a very, very, short growing season, then a long, dark-dreary winter-spring. Over the winter, I occasionally mist the gritty mix, just to keep it humidified, and not bone dry, but never moist. The plants are quiescent at this point. Then plants go back into full sun, and when green buds start to pop out. If nights are still too cold or frosty, the plants come in to spend the night on my kitchen table. This usually starts around late-March/early-April. I start to water as plants push out new leaves, and as soon as weather warms up, the plants go back out onto my sunny, back deck, and roast in full sun until Autumn puts them back to sleep, again. I've grown my plants as described since 2013, and had no failures...yet. So far, easy-peasy. The plants thrive, and get fatter each year. Remember me mentioning that the O. pachypus started out as a twiggy, 1/4" runt? Now, the trunk is about 1-3/4" in diameter, and has a rack of branches at the very top. i trained it to look like a Baobab, and when the trunk really thickens, it will look like one of these strange trees. Know this:...the training process is a work-in-progress. I use the grow-and-clip method. Pinching back does little. Dormant buds sprout usually only at the pinched back branch tips, and back budding is not the general rule. So I let the plants grow wild , with very little clipping, until I prune them back when plants break dormancy. I wire-train branches into desired positions, and remove wire when branches fatten up. Rewire if necessary. Bursera fagaroides is just as easy. Same culture, wiring, mix, watering, dormancy treatment. Ditto: for the Operculicarya decaryi. I once had a nice, large Cyphostemma juttae growing on my back porch. I paid good money for it too. It was probably the most boring fat-plant that I ever grew! Dormancy lasted almost 10 months....then it quickly sprouted and grew, thick, plastic-textured leaves, flowered (ugly flowers, too), set seeds, and then, back into dormancy the plant went again, for another 10 months. If you try to "force" the plant break dormancy, the caudex/roots usually rot out. :((( The pineapple-size caudex never increased in girth, and the only two top branches, grew maybe a total of an inch longer, each season, but died back after each dormancy period began, so the plant's branches never elongated, but instead, lost any length that was gained. B O R I N G! The plant is gone now. It took up too much valuable real estate, so I gave it away....and good riddance to it! If you enjoy watching paint dry, grow a Chypho. Next, Adeniums. Again, I am going to attempt to grow some of these PITA plants. Dormancy issues, aphid infestations, caudex rot, spider mites, collapsing flowers, difficult to train, poor branch placement, yellowing leaves, etc, etc, turn me off. There are easier fish to fry. But, oh... those beautiful flowers! So my back deck has a few Adeniums growing on it too. So, now you guys are up to speed. Took a hiatus from all the forums to take care of two ailing parents, who have now, both passed on. I'll check in from time to time and let you know how my chlorophyllic blobs are doing. Frank NYC/7b

Well I am back and the self watering plant trays worked perfectly with all my indoor plants looking great. The Hoya drip system also worked perfectly and there was some significant new growth on a few plants while I was gone, must have been happy. I am seriously considering keeping a few Hoyas on a smaller self watering tray because they seem to have grown much better than usual. My Hoya caudata added another leaf and peduncle while on the tray and Hoya patella and blashernazii have started growing much faster than usual. The only problem that occurred was a cracked line on the outdoor drip system so I did loose a couple plants but mostly just some annuals I grow from the hummingbirds. I will have to pick up some more flexible tubing from the pet store to fix the outdoor system. Mike I rigged up a large storage tub complete with timed light, a pump and spray bar to keep the humidity up for my mounted plants. All the plants did very well including my Brassavola nodosa which continued maturing it's buds. Over the next week or so I will be working on the photos I took while on vacation and will have them on my Flickr site. Mike