Congratulations! Sounds like your winter was a success. I've several cuttings & seedlings in mine - but they are somewhat slow getting started. I probably had my temps too low at night. All in all, we had a great first winter. All my ferns are alive & well.

Congratulations to both of you! Greenhouser, that tomato plant sounds fabulous.

I'm also very happy with my first winter, no problems at all, and everything is thriving, thank goodness. Now heading into our first windy spring...I will be glad when I have the first full year under my belt!

Greenhouser,

That tom sounds wonderful. Is it okay to ask what variety you grew? Wow it sounds like a great winter you had. I have not been so lucky being a newbie and not knowing what the heck I am doing... LOL

I had some kind of disease come thru. It hit the hollyhocks, pansys, morning glory. sweet potato vine, amaranthus and a few others. I went to menards and got a disease killing liquid you mix it with water and spray the plants. They are surviving but I think I need to spray again. I dont think I had enough air circulation so I bought another fan. Things are better though.... I havent actually lost anything yet. My datura I had to strip the leaves off and let new ones grow back. The angel trumpets what a pain in the rearend. You would not belive what I went threw for them. You should see them though they are the greenest I have ever seen and growing huge. It was a battle. I think I won it though they sure are pretty. I have the fiance talked into another gh to attach to the current one, finally due to the lack of room. I would recomend any one out there. If you are growing tropicals attach two gh or you will run out of room fast. All in all it has been a fun and frustrating at times adventure. First winter down..... Many more to come. By the way I have hundreds and I do mean hundreds of seedlings coming up in my wintersown containers (perrienals and annuals). Wintersowing really does work even in wisconsin. I wish you a wonderful spring. If you can get a picture of that tom that would be wonderful to see. Barb

The Rion was kept at around 60F at night. The small HFGH at 50F. The seedings and cuttings were in the warm house, the geraniums and others that thrive with cooler nights were in the HFGH. Days varied from 65 to 80F. My ferns love the cooler GH even thought the humidity stays under 50.

That tomato certainly is special. All the others died from the mites, mildews, sprays etc. This plant is truly one tough cookie.

When will you remove the plants or do you plan to keep them in your GH all summer?

I will definately take pics of it and it's cones. I don't know the variety. I sure wish I did. I also had problems over the winter with disease due to too much humidity. Sooty mold and some kind of gray fur killed off most of the toms, along with a mite infestation that was unreal. Then aphids on the peppers, followed by white fly on the last tom and mealy bugs on a few plants. A systemic on the non edibles and Neem Oil on the peppers and last tom helped.

Now I have to clean out the GHs. You should see all the small impatiens blooming from seed that fell under the tables all winter! I have more impatiens than I can use.

You don't know the name of the disease that attacked your plants?

"When will you remove the plants or do you plan to keep them in your GH all summer?"

My plan is to keep many of the plants in there all summer. I think I do it with my exhaust fan and screens, but I may need to do more tweaking, we'll see. If I move everything outside, I'll be back with bird damage on my tender succulents, thanks to our native Thrashers. I can move some of the really spiny ones outside though...the ones that can take our intense sun, and that can defend themselves from bird beaks.

Those birds are something. DH saw one mug a Robin yesterday...the poor Robin had worms in its beak, and the Thrasher attacked and stole the worms right out of its mouth! Poor Robin's feathers were all ruffled up on it's head, staggering backward! These Thrashers are thugs, LOL!

GH, You could have solved all your problems with one work

MONSANO lol

You need to make an inexpensive frame and cover it with that black bird netting from ACE Hardware. I have my ponds covered because we have fish eating thugs here = 2 types of Herons, kingfishers, snapper turtles and large snakes.

Your plants will be outdoors and completely protected from the nasty Thrashers. That poor Robin. :*(

Monsanto? ???

I did actually build a PVC frame covered with bird netting for a while...not big enough to walk into, more like an upside-down playpen. It worked, but I got tired of moving it to tend the plants.

A large walk-in screen house would be nice, but it wouldn't have a sink with running water, nice benches, a radio, and all the other things in my GH! Now I'm spoiled rotten, LOL!

Herons and kingfishers are beautiful birds to watch, but not when they're eating your pets. A snapping turtle ate my baby duck when I was 7, and I'm still recovering from the trauma! ;-)