Do not worry!

This forum slows down in the spring.

I check it once a day just in case someone has a question that I can answer from my own limited experience, but I don't "chat" (i.e. discuss the theory) at this time of year.

This year I messed up big time. Left everything too late, then all of a sudden it was too late!

Next year I will do better!!!

:)

Like Chris I check the forum nearly every day but have not been very active in posts.
I have been busy removing the plants from the GH and putting them outside in the water garden.
Our plants turned out real good it seems that they don't mind being in a cheap HFGH they grew just like they were in a mega-buck GH

And it's autumn here, so it's time to move plants out of my greenhouse and into the warm, wet ground.

Its the time of year when everyone is outdoors busy with their GH and gardens and not bothering to boot up their computers hehehe.

Oh I see. :-) I'm glad many of you are still here. Yes, we too have been very busy outside. All the plants and seedlings that spent the winter in my little HFGH have been moved outside. The seedlings all planted and the north wall and roof section insulated. We're planning to weather strip the rest of the panels before winter. Since we have the 8.5 by 16.6' Rion the HF will only be kept around 40F next winter. I'll grow some cold crops and overwinter my ferns and other dormant plants in it. The Rion will be heated for the rest of my plants and perhaps some peppers and tomatoes.

The Rion is all put togeter. All we have left to do is use that black stripping around the panes, fill in all the spaces where you can see "daylight", build some shelves and finish the floor. We have till Oct to get that done.

gardenerwantabe: Myself and my plants were quite happy with the cheapie HFGH. I would recommend them to anyone.

Chris: What do you mean you left everything too late?

nathanhurst: You put your plants out for the winter?

nathanhurst: You put your plants out for the winter?

Yes, because that is when plants can be established. In summer they just dry out and die.

There are those who were here a couple of years ago who no longer post. Mylu, Cactusfreak, and Weebus come to mind. Orchiddude is in and out.

My impression generally is that 1) people are busy and 2) the posts haven't been quite so interesting lately.

Chris, wasn't the weather your biggest problem? The late, prolonged freeze set back a number of my plants, and it might have killed a couple of magnolias.

Anybody here like to trade GH plants?

SB

With greenhouses becoming affordable for the masses you'd think a forum like this would be a busy one year round.

How does one safely ship plants? Overnight shipping is very expensive.

I am in the greenhouse, to much work to do.

Overnight shipping is not necessary. I trade a fair number of plants, and I ship priority mail, 2-3 days.

I remove the container and excess soil, wrap rootball in a moist (not wet) paper towel, wrap rootball in plastic bag (leftover plastic bread bags are perfect for this, o/w ziplocks) keeping the plastic off of foliage; then shredded paper around the leaves and finally a wrap in a cone or cylinder of newspaper. Stuff the box full so that the plants don't move around, and that's it.

I don't know if you can view all of the pics/posts without being a member, but here is my source.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant shipping thread

Ok, that gave me a good idea of how it's done. Thanks.

greenhouser,

The reason I said I left everything too late was because I only use my greenhouse in spring to produce annual bedding plants and veggie starts.

My last frost date here is May 15th so plants need to be about 6-8 weeks old by then. If they are older than that they get too big, leggy (because they are packed too close) so the aim is to get them germinated by late March, early April.

Wow!! the first two weeks in April were very bad here as far as greenhouses go. So I delayed planting... and delayed, and, well left it too late.

stressbaby,

Yes the weather. As you know I run my greenhouse with no or very little heat and there was no way I could have come close to heating in in the first two weeks of April.

You know I am a big advocate of solar heating, thermal mass, etc. BUT, a big part of understanding how to do all that is to realise when you get beat.

This year, well all that theory and calculations and science just added up to one thing.

Don't even try it!

Yes, I will have flowers, I will have veggies, but not as soon as I usually would.

On a very happy note (and sorry to be off topic) because of all the wet stuff we got the wells are currently full to 3ft from the surface! Last year at this time they were 16ft down. Lots of water this year to play with. Last year no water to irrigate, this year plenty.

What I didn't do in the greenhouse this year I will more than make up for in field crops. Monster pumpkins!

It all evens out.....

:)

We are still here, more or less, but for so many of us, the growing season is just too short to be spending any more time indoors at a computer than absolutely necessary. The sun is finally out, but it's still not so hot that the best time to garden is at dawn.

Oh, the joys of the Midwest. Yetch.

I can understand everyone wanting to be outdoors. We are working outside most days ourselves. Today my husband worked on the greenhouse footers and backfilled the base with soil from another part of our property. I transplanted a lot of plants and moved some koi fry to a larger holding tank. It's still daylight but I'm too tired to get back out there.....

chris, you had a set back this year. But don't get disheartened - learn from this and think about how you could improve things next year. When energy gets expensive we'll all be beating a path to your door (on our bicycles :) to learn how to grow veggies without cheap energy!