Steve, I can already feel a difference in the angle of the sun and the mornings are already darker then they were. I have not even lived summer yet..I need to get started. I told myself I would have things cleaned up before summer even began so I could sit back and relax, and yet still needs to be done. So depressing. I have yet to have a vacation and a little time in or on the water. Lol, I have not even removed the greenhouse cover which is usually done before May. I feel like I am running out of time and yet need to make time to take pics again and get things ready for fall. Arg. Hope you are safe from this virus and enjoying your summer.

A bit of goodness!

I am finally getting plenty of rain and my fig tree survived winter to start growing tons of figs for my area. That's a feat in itself..I hope it stays hot enough, long enough for all of them to mature and ripen. Keeping my fingers crossed))

I have no greenhouse

steve, mike this is so depressing!! for us in Vancouver summer just started we had cold fall weather up to a couple days ago and it’s finally starting to heat up in the next couple of weeks! hope we get atleast a delayed winter. I hope you guys are all alright and staying safe :)

Installing a Palram Glory greenhouse in my garage to overwinter tropical plants. Will be artificially lit with a 100,000 lumen Spectrum King LED.

Garage is semi insulated and greenhouse has 10 mm polycarbonate panel. In January and February will heat with a Palram greenhouse heater. Will have full control over light, heat, and humidity.

Spent a lot of time trying to decide between a 9' Gorilla grow tent vs a Palram greenhouse. With the indoor greenhouse I can mount the lights on the ceiling of garage or inside the greenhouse giving me better clearance for Hibiscus trees. Going to install the LED on a manual rail so it can be moved by hand or may add a motorized light rail.

that I have no knowledge about

Why would anyone build a greenhouse inside a garage.???? ?????

I have no clue

Inside the garage the lights can be used to heat the greenhous with just a single layer of Glass instead of the 4 layers of glass I have to use. No risk of storm damage. I lost my seed grown meiwa kumquat at 3 years old when the top of my greenhouse blew off in -3F 6 years ago. That tree would now be 8 feet tall in a 60 gallon pot producing hundreds if not thousand fruits a year.

I have to make adjustments every week to my outside greenhouses.

Steve

I'm thinking to keep a smaller area under good control with temps and light rather than the entire garage. Too to keep the moisture if anything confined to that greenhouse verses ruing the walls of the whole garage if one wants to spray everything down with a house of just moisture in general. Just my thoughts)

Evan, you are killing me although I can see why you would want cooler temps....Your poor trees and although it gets that hot, you still manage to prevent them from declining. Great job.

maybe he's doing something right that we are not thinking of

Europe has had orangeries since the 16'th century. After 400 years I thought it was time to dial it up a notch. Marie Granmar and Charles Sacilotto of Stockholm built a greenhouse around their home to keep it warm all year round. I am using the home to keep the green house warm.

Howard the larger the citrus fruit the longer the time to grow. Small lemons and limes will ripen within a few months while the larger oranges and grapefruits can take 12-18 months. The further North you go the more complicated it is to container grow because you have to replicate the Southern climates. Citrus don't like wild swings. Overwintering in a greenhouse in a Southern State may be very easy and very complicated in a colder Northern State. Some people just want blossoms and accept the fruit won't grow to maturity indoors because they don't have enough light. It is a bitter sweet hobby pardon the pun.

LLO, with that much knowledge where have you accumulate that much knowhow? You make me feel like a newbie. Just curious.

I was just thinking I had to clean out, vacuum, wipe down, organize my basement grow light area BEFORE I deal with bringing things in....wait until August. Right now all sorts of things are going on in the area - its a mess. I don't want to be last minute Charlie. One thing is I'll be twice as vigorous this year with venting the air cooler - using bare minimum light to do job, spraying down stuff before bringing in and even using systemic on anything very young or not planned for eating for at least a year down the road. Also bringing things in in stages for isolation - an ounce of prevention.......Last year I found grubs in my pots, earwigs, earthworms, fungus gnats, etc etc even though I try to keep them off the ground and in a concrete paved area. Its amazing watching earthworms travel 20 feet on concrete during storms and during the night. I have air pots and homemade air pots like steve - the fungus gnats go right to the bottom of the pots - the area was one giant yellow sticky with mosquito bits all over - never fully eliminated them.

Bklyn. that's a riot. I can just picture all those things running for your pots. lol Lots of work for sure. I hear you!

I want the fruit

BKlinn, during the fall, 30 days before bringing my tree’s in, I clean top layer of every container, spray tree’s, let them dry before bringing them in. For the last 2 years, no problem whatsoever.

I never had a problem previously but I added a lighting section and while I was at it patched and painted a existing cracked ceiling. The day I was done my daughter brought down all her problem plants and time and energy was dedicated to her needs not mine....... I didn't realize the added heat gain from 4 extra 4 bulb fixtures in a normally hot corner I never used before untiol I started hanging thermometers and raising lights/more air flow for that sweet spot. I was kind of like on automatic from the year before - no real issues.My basement is heated so I keep open windows even in winter with a fan. I may get a 2nd fan. I never got to slowly move things around and fit everybody in and observe........If I clean and organize ahead of time

actually sometimes u just don't have the time

Horticultural lighting is trending towards LED vertical farming which requires grow-lights to produce lots of light, take up little space and to be hung as close to the plants below. To dissipate the heat they spread the heat sink across each bank of LED. Check out the new Gavita Pro 1700e LED.

Gavita Pro 1700e LED.

I use 2 - 4 bulb four foot long LED bay fixtures on chains which are vented upwards. They still generate quite a bit of heat. While not applying excess heat directly on the tree That heat needs to be dissipated out of a general area. The above fixture is still heating a room. If an entire area is for example 84 degrees its too warm and may cause leaf drop. I originally grew in a straight row about 10 feet long. Then I went to an L in plan for common sense floor space doubling total grow space to about 20 linear feet long x 3 feet deep.. A basement corner I chose to add-on grow in in my 100 year old brick semi attached T shaped in plan has 3 feet thick foundation walls in this spot since its attached plus a chimney (for old pot belly stoves) on the inside. The house holds heat. Especially in that corner, if a nuclear bomb is exploding I'm heading there under a table. Part of The answer is I also need another fan blowing the heat away from THAT corner. I also reduced lighting well below capacity to find sweet spot or light/heat equilibrium. To do this while fighting pest issues. I found that aiming for 72 or less air temps (yes I have the shining laser thermometer and several I hang around the room as a check) was a good temp aim for me. I also reduced quantity of bulbs in fixtures/timer settings and was shifting things around. I think anybody growing with lights who expands and is busy will have unintended consequences.No 2 rooms are alike.

2 - 4 bulb four foot long LED fixtures, 4 fixtures per a 6 foot table - when you turn on 12 fixtures ........

I can not really say

Hi Bkyln.

Look forward to seeing pictures when it is as all set up. Curious what your RH levels are? My wife keeps the thermostat at a ridiculous 73F. House humidity 40% but micro climate around plants maybe 45-50 RH. I found that a very difficult temperature to grow with because of the low humidity. The VPD in my situation was stressful for vegetative new growth. Had to really keep new growth moist or it would fall off.

Thats why I am putting a greenhouse in the garage to drop the temperature to the 60's and raise the humidity. LED lighting systems are just now getting popular after decades of trying to get into horticultural market. The current generation of tech is finally up to par with things like HID lamps as far as the lumens they produce. The newer LED drivers and chips run much cooler.

Sunshine is about 10,000 lumen per square foot.

I am out of your league, no way spending that kind of dough. My bill for my Greenroom not more than $10.00.a winter. 7 years later still no dead tree’s.

With all my lights going I probably spend $40 a year. I do heat with lights outside for my inground trees.

Lemon, I don't track relative humidity. I have houseplants down there that stay there year round on windowsills, they seem happy. Pothos, snake plants, aloe vera. Its not a basement its technically a cellar (concrete floor in this area) with an eight foot ceiling since more than half the ceiling height is below legal street grade. Water pipes are exposed and steam vents (steam heat mains run near ceiling exposed) so Its never bone dry....but obviously on a 6 family 3 story the lower heat pipes running near a ceiling get hot first and stay hot last. It cannot be separately zoned. Add an unnatural amount of grow lights......Venting heat away to the rest of the basement and finding that sweet spot.....I may also insulate one of the heat mains which runs smack dab through the grow area

Bklyn sounds like a great place to grow citrus in the winter.

Yeah, Brooklyn New York...the heart of Citrus Country.....its a challenge