Mike,

You are an inspiration to people who love citrus and don't live in a citrus growing area, much less in a paradise like Guatemala.

Here is a photo of my container Cara Cara that I expect to harvest at Christmas time.

Both of you got fantastic looking trees.
John The area of Guatemala your in I understand is called "Shangri-La"

Great Job Mike. i never tire of seeing your fantastic plants. The gardenia looks great.

Hey guess what. I got a jade awhile back. Ill have to get a pic of it for you.

mike

I got 1 picture of my nagami, meiwa, 4 sweetlee tangerines, hardy chicago fig tree, and 2 sweet red pepper plants. all tree & bushes are seed grown with the fig .from a cutting

The sweetlee and hardy chicago trees out grew their bucket lights. They are also a little nicer looking this way.

Steve

This post was edited by poncirusguy on Sun, Nov 17, 13 at 14:47

Everybody beautiful plants.Steve nice fig tree
how long do the leaves stay on? My leaves fell
off about a month ago.

Steve

the way you have that Compact fluorescent bulb wired is with out a doubt one of the most dangerous ways I have seen a bulb wired in my 16 years of electrical work. I hope you have good fire insurance.

Mike

What do I do with these tall branches with thorns on them and leaves at the very top? All the fruit came from the lower branches. I want it to look like a topiary tree, not a bush :)

orangelime The fig tree is in the process of loosing its leaves. My outdoors fig trees lost there leaves 3 days ago, when the temperature dropped to 19 F.

Mike The screw end poped of the CFL and exposed the Black and white wires. This was temporarily setup for picture taking. I do not use this for growing. I agree, it would be questionable at best. I am redoing my light set up to include GFCI's and grounded fixtures. I was told by an electrician of something called a bedroom breaker. Is this device similar to what is called a pipe stretcher or is it something to look into.

Steve

GingerRagan

That is a sucker from the root stock CUT IT OFF. It is poncirus trifoliata and is worthless.

Steve

Steve the breaker your referring to its called an arc fault breaker. The National Electric Code now requires them on pretty much every habitable room of your house except for the garage and kitchen appliance circuits. Of they are only required on new installs or remodels.

Mike

Wow, Mike! I don't even know what to say, your INDOOR container citrus look better than my outdoor container citrus! All are gorgeous, the Ponderosa is so full and lovely! I am in awe, as always, thanks for sharing!! I'll share a few more of my container citrus tomorrow!

Patty S.

Nice trees Mike many of my trees are very young. This one is a 3-month-old Clementine started from seed. Its about 7inches tall now.

Seed grown Meyer lemon 6mos old

Seed grown tangerine tree 6mo old.

Two month old seed grown flame grapefruit . I have larger fruiting trees but they stay on deck green house. I have libson lemon Washington navel key limes kumquat and even a pomegranate tree lol just a fun hobby. This year will be very little fruit mainly lemons. I have experimented with cross Pollination and will plant seeds to see what i get lol. But next year should be good I have 28 trees in all don't want to hog forum with pics lol.

Dont hesitate to give them a bucket light. Maximum growth over beauty is important in bringing seed grown citrus to fruiting age. Then place it in it's attractive setting

Steve

I do light bucket the lemon has grown 6inch in a month others have grown fast to. The bucket works all seedlings get the light buckets 16 hours everyother day.

Nice start, Tcamp. You do know that you can post all your photos in one message? Just upload your photos to Photobucket.com. Then, copy the HTML string, and paste that into the body of your message. You can copy and paste as many photos as you like into your message.

MeyerMike, forgot to mention your jade is gorgeous! I will snap a photo of my "special" jade for you as well!!

Patty S.

orangelime1

You had asked me how I kept the fig tree so green. just 3 weeks earlier this is what it looked like
{{gwi:587125}}

Steve

Wow Steve beautiful fig tree.My fig is a white kadota.
They are probably the easiest plant to take care of.I
over winter mine in the basement, I water 1 time
every 2 weeks.

Mike of the greenhouse meyer lemon. How is it doing out there.

Steve

All these where taken today. All trees are in my greenhouse. you might ask what is on the walls, it is bubble wrap used for additional insulation - it works quite well.

Nippon Orangequat, heavy fruit load.{{gwi:644978}}

Meiwa many fruits
{{gwi:644979}}

Fukushu second best kumquat in my opinion
{{gwi:644982}}

Valentine is just starting to color
{{gwi:644983}}

Owari coloring well
{{gwi:644985}}

Moro- I think this is my favorite citrus.
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Tarocco- large fruit great flavor
{{gwi:644991}}

Ponkan- one of the best mandarins, better then page. Ponkan is one of the parents of the dekopan.
{{gwi:644992}}

Awesome Trees Ryan! you have some great ones.

I agree on the Fukushu also. I love mine. I love the taste even though I think I pick mine a little to early. Its Very vigorous and blooms A TON!

Mike

Really nice photos, Ryan, did you build your greenhouse yourself? Well done :-) Where did you get your Valentine, I didn't think they were available outside California! I just love that cultivar. I think Ponkan also is one of the very best of all the mandarins. I wouldn't say it's better than Page - different - since Page is not a mandarin but a mandarin hybrid, but it has warranted a multiple space in my orchard I think it is so good. Same with Valentine. Just gorgeous. I would like to see some pull out shots of your entire greenhouse, outside and inside. So nice, and very clever to use bubble wrap!

Patty S.

Wow Ryan mind blowing , spectacular.To funny I use bubble wrap to insulate my greenhouse.It really helps a lot.I also use a sheet of plastic to cover the door.Your plants are really amazing.You just convinced me to buy a bigger greenhouse.My greenhouse is really nothing but a storage place ,about 15 large citrus plants in a 6x8ft . It would be really nice to go in greenhouse like yours with a nice cup of coffee and just day dream the day away.Good job Ryan.

"It would be really nice to go in greenhouse like yours with a nice cup of coffee and just day dream the day away"

But it seams that we all,have a------Jay---owe---bee-- that just seems to get in the way.

Steve

True Steve or winning the lottery! Steve are you trying to ruin my day dreaming?

There definitely is something therapeutic about being inside a greenhouse with a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning, I try to make a habit out of it:)

OrangeLime, I just finished up the greenhouse this year but, last year I had two 6x8's right next to each other. This new one is 30' long 12' deep and 9' tall in the middle. I started using bubble wrap last year and what a deference it's made.

Patty, I did build it myself. I used as many parts from the old 6x8's as I could, so the darker tube parts are recycled from the old greenhouses and the white PVC are new pieces. Since everyone's climate and situation is different, What I probably should have said about Ponkan vs. Page is in my climate/greenhouse its the best performing mandarin :) Not that page isn't good, its a great one and I love mine! it can be a little small and seedy some years. Ponkan is just so perfectly balanced and fragrant its hard to beat. I got my valentine from Logees, it grew really fast. Ill get some greenhouse photos up soon for you.

Ryan you are so right very therapeutic.i used to sit in there when I had a few plants along time ago.The smell of the earth,humidity and of coarse the blossoms unreal.The plants do so much better in there compared to inside the house unless there is a power failure then I am in trouble.but no more ants in the house no more leaves all over the floor and no more sticky stuff on the floor.Next year we are thinking of getting a 8x12 ft greenhouse.You really inspired me Ryan. Thx

Hummm I don't even know where to begin..Since I am limited in time I will share this..

Ryan..You just proved to the world that getting huge crop fulls and lot's of beautiful trees is possible and in fact proven and I love it!
You make me want to get a bigger greenhouse too so that I can stick mine in them for the winter...Mine's is too small so I am confined to other plants in their except the Lemon Myer I planted in the ground...Have you thought of this yet?
Mine have to sit in a very cool room reliant on what is now the winter sunlight,really as good as a flashlight until better times ahead..I'll bet if I gave them lot's of warmth and good light ALL year, they would produce that much fruit..Now my dream too..;)
Great work!
It's time to get a Moro next spring for sure!!! I have also seen Josh's..They seem to like to fruit quite heavily!

Ryan since you are a container growing guru, would you mid telling us what you feed the with? I know it's not steroids..lol
Please share so that many here can have an option to buy the fertilizer you use..It seems to be working just fine.

Thank you Patty and to all the rest for you wonderful kind comments and pics might I say!

Great pics John, Ginger, Tcamp and Steve..

I too can envision sitting in the middle of my small greenhouse reading a book in the mist of fragrant flowers and the sound of rain pattering on the roof reading a book...

Wow, Thanks for everyone's comments ;)

Mike, primarily I fertilize with a mixture of Ironite and Osmocote. (25% 75%)But Ive use many types, I like citrus tone from epsoma, Ive used Dr. earth. The one you use, foliage pro is just as good or better but for me using that all the time would be too expensive. I think its more about lots of sunlight and heat. I have considered in ground but, I just haven't really done it yet. I may try the Meyer or that Moro pictured in ground next year, now that I have a more permanent structure.

You have to get a Moro! they are a great tree! I have 2 because they are pretty alternate, meaning they have a very productive year followed by a not so productive year. The one pictured has about 50 fruit but the other one has just a few, they are about the same size & age.

Here's a few greenhouse pictures-

This one is when I was first building it in mid summer. The first step was the structure. That's me checking for buggers.
{{gwi:644993}}

Picture after covering it in late summer, its funny because to the right, the shed, which I added the windows to, that's where I started over wintering years ago. Now, my drum set is not so crampt :)
{{gwi:644995}}

And this was yesterday evening as the sun was setting.
{{gwi:644997}}

All together it cost me probably in the $500-600 range for all the components to put it tether. The biggest investment was time.

Thanks again for your comments, I don't see why more of you guys couldn't have something like this in your backyard.

Ryan..Thanks for all the information!

I was wondering what you used for the frame ..?

What kind of plastic is that? I am wondering if snow can be supported by it? If so, I have a use for one of those in my driveway, the sunniest place I have on earth...
What a great job you have done there.

I'll bet not a day has gone by that you don't walk in there, right?
I'll bet when you are away, it is on your mind..lol

How nice is that that you can do a mass watering with the hose and not have to worry at all where the water ends up all the while creating a nice humid environment and keeping the leaves clean of bugs and dust..?

On extra cold nights, what do you use to heat it with?

I love the Bubble Wrap idea...I use a pool solar cover on mine that looks just like bubble wrap and it's very thick..What a difference it makes in keeping heat in and the cold out...

Thanks again Ryan.

Mike

great set up ryan. i wish i have a big backyard like yours

Nice house Ryan. I built a 10x12 hoophouse out of 1" pvc, wood framed and sided end walls, plus proper greenhouse plastic for about $500 so I agree it can be done fairly inexpensive. What are your dimensions?

youre a bit warmer than i am here. How often do you have to heat it and what do you use.

sorry for all the questions. I am moving to my new place next month and need to build a new greenhouse. Im leaning towards a Lean-to on the south side of my barn but might do it similiar to yours only half, That make sense, LOL

Mike

Hey Mike.... I saw you wanted me to write you and I did days ago...Still waiting for a response...Take care:-)

MIke

Mike

that is strange I havent gotten it. I didnt change my email so maybe it something wrong with GW. I was just wanting to see how you have been doing lately and share some info about something.

Mike

Wow, Ryan - beautiful trees and greenhouse. I, like the others, am interested in more information on your greenhouse. Did you design it yourself, or work from plans? What is your watering set up? I have a small greenhouse like MeyerMike and it's just too small for my citrus trees not to mention my height;) This year I attempted to convert a catio I built for my cats (they hated it, and I attempted to make "lemonade" out of that fact), but it's been a bust. Yours looks beautiful, and is indeed very inspiring. Thanks so much for sharing! Westgirl

Still dreaming!

Every time I remodel a room in my home, I put an extra window and it's just not the same as a big greenhouse...
I do have another sunny window though in yet another unheated room for yet another big tree..:-)

Mike

Mike If I remember right you are in Maine. you could use an enclosure of sheets around your window and catch the sun on your tree and white surrounding and at night pull a white shade and hit the tree with a bright white florescent light from bed time till sunrise. The tree will get its dark from sunset to bed time. It should work very well for you and the waste heat from the bulb will lessen the load on your furnace.

Steve

This post was edited by poncirusguy on Sun, Nov 24, 13 at 18:03

Following up on some greenhouse questions-

Westgirl - I did design it myself, I wouldn't call it easy but, you can certainly do it yourself. One recommendation - if you do build your own start in spring, this way you have a lot of time to work out the kinks. My watering setup is a simple timed based automatic irrigation system, normally off until the summer, When they need watering every other day. In the winter I just water by hand as needed.

Mike - The frame is 2'' PVC. its strong and flexes a little, its available and not that expensive if you mess up a cut. The plastic is called greenhouse film, 6mil bought from a greenhouse supply store online. Heating is electric with a backup gas heater, just in case.

Mksmith - Dimentions are roughly 30ft long 12ft deep and about 9ft at the tallest spot in the center, its a decent size. Heating is a challenge sometimes. Like I mentioned above, Heating is electric with a backup gas heater, just in case. The good thing as its fairly well insulated but, last night when it dropped to 16F it struggled to keep it above 40F, but it did :)

Superb citrus and greenhouse! I've just strolled through this Thread and what a delight it was. This weekend I had to bring my citrus indoors due to overnight freezing temperatures, but today I was able to put my Moro outdoors for some sun. 65ðF here, a little past 2:09 in the afternoon.

And here's an update on my variegated pink Eureka lemon. It's taken quite some time to work back into a shapely form after it was savaged by the antlers of a deer. But I've untied it from the stake now, and it is sturdy and lush. Certainly needs to be re-potted next Spring.

It looks great, and so does the Moro!

Patty S.

To Ryan - thanks for the helpful info you've been posting about your greenhouse - great tip about starting in the spring, which I would definitely need to do.
Josh, your trees look great - I love that Moro - I've been watching it's progress for a while now, and now look at the fruit!! I only wish my Moro was as happy.
I have to admit I'm envious of all you folks with space and sun too! Of course, I don't have to deal with deer antler damage, so I guess that's a plus :)
Westgirl