Introduction and over wintering question
kristiviola
7 years ago
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aurorawa
7 years agoWelcome!
Originally from Flower Mound, TX, myself!
As far as Winter setup, it just depends on your climate and how much you are willing to invest.
Texas (at least North Central) winters are pretty mild, for the most part, but the heater running, combined with the dry ambient TX air (Spring brings on the humidity, along with hail and tornadoes, lol), you may need supplemental humidity.
I could not dream to get away with how I grow up here, in WA, down in TX, as far as humidity goes. I mist mine daily in the Winter up here. In TX, investing in a humidifier might be appropriate. Alternatively, if your collection is not too large, and your full bathroom(s) not too small, you could camp them in there. Two showers (people...not plant showers) a day=lots of humidity via steam.
My light setup is extensive, for a hobbyist. The husband built me a wonderful shelving system for under $100 (and it holds most of my 350+ hoyas). He originally built removable drain trays out of grenhouse plastic, but has since upgraded them to metal.
I have 4 four-bulb retrofitted LED t8 light bars...that is 16 lights, total. The light bars were $45 each, and I am unsure of how much the bulbs were, as they were a gift. I also have one stand-alone adjustable light and two dome lights, one with a white LED and one with a Red/Blue LED UFO-style bulb.
The lights are on a timer - I start them off when they come inside at 15 hours on and 9 hours off, and adjust over a couple of weeks to 12 hours on, 12 off. As I approach Spring, I adjust the hours back up, where they start receiving more hours of light, until I get ready to harden them off for outside.
My setup:
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question about over Wintering
Comments (11)I think you guys are being much too pessimistic! Granted, I am a zone warmer, but my cold frames consisted of four pieces of wood slapped together with a storm window and/or an old single-pane window on top. The cold frames contained those plastic, under-bed storage boxes in which I grew carrots, spinach, greens, etc. So the containers were above ground, in these frames. Obviously no supplemental heat. I did have one cold frame on my asphalt driveway, which may have provided more heat, but the other two were out in the garden. Perhaps a greenhouse, being so much bigger, would need some supplemental heat, but depending on siting, and how airtight it is, maybe not. I did put some bottles of water inside the cold frame, which (in theory, at least) would warm up in the sun during the day and then keep the frames a bit warmer at night. I believe Eliot Coleman mentions in his book on 4-season gardening that he grows and harvests carrots all winter, in zone 5. I can't remember if he grows them in a tunnel or cold frame, but here in zone 6 it is possible to keep them overwinter with just a heavy mulch, outside, so.... I don't mean to push the cold-frame idea too hard, but I just hate to see people not try things just because they've never done it before, or because they've never seen it done by others, or because they think it won't work. Anyway, have fun with your greenhouse, whatever you do. :) Dee...See MoreI went brain dead over the winter- veggies/annuals question
Comments (5)I only wintersow lettuce and spinich usually, of those I just wintersow them fairly early, late feb , early march is fine, they are sprouted already. Direct Sow, I only do peas now. I will do the rest of the veggies, late may. Between the third and forth weeks. (for me green beans(5 diffrent types typically, sometimes more), cukes, zuchinni, pumpkins (for kids). None of them will germinate too much earlier anyways. I do all my direct sown types (i wintersow zinnia but say, something like cosmos, I never bother, direct sow those all the time) I will do cosmos around may 1st to may 10th....See MoreOver wintering question
Comments (4)Hi Carol, didn't acknowledge your email yet because I sent a second packet off to you and am waiting to see if you get that safely. I'm glad I didn't read all this before I got a sunroom full of the things, easiest to grow and root, too easy. Granted, they might be common enough, 3 kinds now, have kept them going for years. I have yet to have damping off or whatever that is and water when I get around to it, do empty the saucer but they sure get dry sometimes, doesn't seem to bother them a bit. I either stick several cuttings in a glass of water in the east kitchen window will or once a cutting is potted up, wait for it to get thicker, then snap it off, poke a hole so the two will make a V, just stick it in the hole and firm, and it roots in the soil, makes for a fuller plant. I change the water in the glass if it starts getting cloudy, use no rooting hormone like I do for other stuff. The latter trick I learned from my daughter to watched somebody in a greenhouse. My pink ones take longer to root, about 4 weeks, red ones root more quickly, don't know the name. I finally put some pink ones out of pots and in a window box and cut them way back, were they ever beautiful this summer outside, just brought them all in. Now and then I give them Osmocote timed release. But the red ones, I had about 6 or 8 pots going, never got them outside so they were like the hanging gardens of Babylon. Actually, I could have kept them that way and put on a shepherd's hook outside. But I drastically cut them back, cut off a lot of the roots and old soil and just potted them in another window box (easier to care for than all those pots). I don't know if the latest will work and I threw a tons of good cutting material away, could still probably rescue a couple, maybe I will as those were all I had left. This year I added a different red one, haven't tried to root any cuttings, am kind of disappointed in it. It had massive red blooms, but after they're done, I deadhead them, and they're slow to put out more. If the red ones in the box do well, I may root some more and let them get leggy, hang and bloom in baskets, I mean they really trail nicely, and you can get a lot in one basket. This fall I planted a Rozanne I just got, can't wait to see how it does, leave that outside, of course. If anybody got this far, it was kind of expensive and I was wondering if it does well if I can divide it without killing it. I think it is patented so I shouldn't try to root cuttings from it....See MoreStoring Seeds over the winter question
Comments (2)When I started my seeds in water at a warmer temperature, it seemed like there was a lot of deterioration--mold and such. I tried keeping them dark too but that didn't seem to help. Now I do things a bit differently. I store my seeds like you do, but I have decided that my seeds do better when I put them in the refrigerator in the water to sprout. I don't use peroxide, just the water in the baggie in which I store them. Then I plant when the whole cross when one begins to sprout. Some will sprout within days of being in the water while others never sprout in the refrigerator. After 3 weeks in the water in the refrigerator, I plant the whole cross. I find there is less mold if I leave them in a cold place. I have been getting quick germination and a good percentage too using this method. I learned once to never throw away unsprouted seeds that still looked good. Back in the day when I didn't have many newer cultivars to work with in hybridizing, I bought some seed I thought sounded neat. I put them in the water, but they never sprouted. They had been in the water (3 weeks in the refrigerator and 3 weeks out) for 6 weeks. I hated to throw them away, but they just wouldn't sprout. I planted them anyway. Eight or nine of the 10 seeds sprouted quickly once they were in the soil. I find some seeds want to be in the soil to germinate. I have had this same thing happen with many other seeds since then....See More
Denise
7 years agoaurorawa
7 years ago
gvargo883_mst
7 years agokristiviola
7 years ago
Laurie (8A)
7 years ago
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