Hey Dirtslinger, Like you, I live in USDA hardiness zone 5 and I've had very good luck with C cooperi in my house during the winter and outdoors during the summer. However, I dote on the thing when it's indoors, as you'll see. I keep my house on the cool side during the wintertime (63F [17C] in the daytime, 55F [13C] in the nighttime). Humidity in my house is normally quite low, so I augment the humidity with a Sunpentown dual warm mist/cool mist humidifier (model SU-4010), placed directly beneath the fern. I only use it on the cool-mist setting. I use a slow-blowing fan to disperse the mist upwards. I normally maintain the relative humidity in the fern room between 55 and 65 percent. To accomplish that, the humidifier runs on an intermediate setting 24 hours a day. The water vapor is taken up by furniture, carpet, condensation on the windows etc, and also disperses into other areas of the house. Therefore, the reservoir needs to be replenished every twelve hours on the setting I have it running on. See the fern pics I have on flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/anderse79 The fern room doubles as my family room, so I spend a lot of time in it. At first I didnt care for the moist air, but I got used to it! The walls are plaster-covered lathe and I havenÂt had trouble with condensation or mold or anything like that. When I bring the fern inside, I stake the fronds and train them to grow upright; otherwise the fronds get in the way of foot traffic. The fern is in an east-facing window and gets bright light in the morning and afternoon. I always let the fernÂs pot stand in a centimeter or so of water, and the soil is therefore always wet. I almost never water from the top, and I mist the fronds whenever I think about it, once or twice a day. I move the fern outside into a sheltered, mostly shady location in April and bring it inside in mid- October, before the first frost. I fertilize with a weak fertilizer every watering during the warm months, when the plant is outside. The plant grows faster outside than it does inside, but still I would consider these plants troopers overall. Our summers here are humid and mild, with comfortable daytime temperatures in the high 70s F [~25C] and nighttime lows in the 60s F [~16C]. However we sometimes have hot spells and the temperature can soar to 90F [32C]!! The fern takes the high temperatures well, probably because it has acclimated to the warm weather by that time and the humidity is also high. As I said, this treefern specimen hasnÂt given me much trouble, and IÂm sure anyone living in the Great Lakes climate would have success with them if similar allowances were made for their care! It seems the key requirements for overwintering indoors are to never allow the plant to dry out and maintaining constant high humidity. As you know, these arenÂt unusual demands as far as ferns go! I don't know how much $ you want to sink into keeping your tree fern as a houseplant... As has been mentioned in other forums, any plant can be made to grow anywhere, the question is whether the benefit is worth with the cost. I think the benefit is worth the cost, because tree ferns make striking winter houseplants and guests never fail to be impressed by them! ItÂs up to every individual gardener to decide if a $22 treefern is worth a $75 humidifier, plus ~$3/month in electricity. If you are interested in obtaining a tree fern and you live locally, I bought mine some time ago from GilmoreÂs Greenhouse in Warren, Ohio. Briefly, this treefern specimen is more robust than I thought it would be, and should survive and grow slowly indoors in the wintertime if conditions are as indicated above. Good luck and post questions if any! P Anderson Cleveland, Ohio

I hope it's not a faux pax to bump old threads. Ultrasonic misters are used in aeroponics. For example, it is covered in Keith Roberto's How To Hydroponics book, and on his website he links to commercial transducers specifically designed for hydro. I think the upshot is that this is still in the experimental phase, and that best results are achieved by a combination approach - ebb-n-flo or a drip system to get the bulk of the nutrients to the plant during growth phases, with the misting system offering massive doses of oxygen, water, and nutrients. The aforementioned book has a photograph of a root with an incredible amount of root hairs. You can find similar pictures if you start googling for ultrasonic hydroponics. I haven't done it myself so I'm not going to mention any specific manufacturer, but they are out there, suggesting that this technique is beginning to reach past the hobby stage.

Half of my tress are at my dads house in his sun room this winter. It's very sunny and warm, so I'm planning to continue fertilizing with foliage pro when watering. Osmocote plus too if they need it. They all have fruit, except one. They look happy. No signs of bugs or desease yet. They dry out quick over there. A good excuse for me to go over often and spend time with my dad who has come to LOVE eating calamondins out of hand. The other half of my trees are home with me in sunny windows. It doesn't get below 68F at night inside our home. It's well insulated. In the daytime I've been bringing them outside for more sunlight. When the nights are warm I just leave them out (like last few days it's been like spring). I need the exercise. I sometimes get a bee in the house however doing this. They are doing great. I'm going to continue fertilizing them this winter too. Broke a Calamondin limb off carrying one out, turned it into a cutting, will see if it roots. Last winter I didn't fertilize much at all. They looked hungry. This winter I'm going to try feeding them more. They look like they are liking it so far.

Yes, on a Sunday- The drywallers showed up this am to start putting up the sheet-rock.. FLo- waiting on a rendering/drawing for the 2 masterbath towers from the kd. Went to the local little island hardware store that carrys BM paint, brought back a bunch of paint chips to look at in the house for a start.. Because the house is very open, looking for something that I can use in/for kitchen, foyer, Dr & living areas. Jan- we are building on a small island, off of another island, no designers here on this island...I agree with you on the floor issue, I just need to convince dh- about the flow and using wood throughout.