where is the list of plants.

The pictures showed up now and look nice

It's a work in progress I'll update it when I get fruit sets from the lime and orange.

In my opinion and experience, a greenhouse is not really a magical fix. Except mainly for blocking the wind, it does not really provide too much insulation at night when it is coldest, and during the middle of the day it can overheat if windows are not opened and it is not vented out.

So what is the point of a greenhouse? Mainly it can extend the growing season by increasing the amount of heat during the day, because in early Spring the days can still be mostly too cold for the plants to be able to put on much growth.

Greenhouses make more sense in more northerly climates, but less sense in the South. This does not correlate so much to zone designation, necessarily.

I have remedies ready for the winter. The greenhouse will pay for itself eventually. If I had the planted out in the open they'd stand no chance. Being in a southern zone 7b, the plastic is going to eventually be taken off during summer. Only thing is the winter, of which, I have have planned for.

If that papaya made it through the winter, your greenhouse must be doing something right. Are you heating the greenhouse on cold nights? BTW, the avocado looks very droopy, like it's not getting any water...

I planted everything in March, so i haven't gone through a winter yet. But I've got a propane heater that can heat it no problem. I'm a little green when it comes to avocados and am still figuring them out. They seem to need a lot of water, even in the heavy clay it's in. I pulled back the mulch and looked for rot but everything looks good. I got the wurtz last year from four winds and put it in the ground this year, so we'll see how it goes. I'll post an update on things in a couple of days.

General update along with notable growth on some plants. Everything looks a little yellow so I hit everything with some seaweed and fish. Its been over 34C this week and will be for the next, so I've also upped the water.

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This mango is blowing me away with how fast it's growing. It two flushes last year in a pot, but its already had two within the past two months!

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This thing is flowering twice as much as it did in a pot and has exploded

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This moringa was literally 4in tall when I planted it. They grow fast!

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For those interested in palmage, here's my bismarckia I've had for a year, another I got in Florida, and my trachy I've also had for a year in the ground.

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Update: End of season. Here's how they turned out at the end of the season. My greenhouse is a mess because I jammed everything in here. The random water bottles are for heat retention and the bubble wrap.

Smith Red

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Sad minneola. NOTE: The khuharske rootstock is poor in clay soils—just my observation.

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Brown select and Var Eureka

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Fukushu, this one had a fruit I missed and just decided to let it grow.

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Sanguinelli in the brush.

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Nules

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Red lady

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General overview

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Cara Cara- had to keep pruning it to control it during the summer.

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Valencia, excuse the mess

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Rio Red

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Persian Lime

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Sweet Tart

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What was sold to me as truly tiny, but ended up being SDC

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Meyer

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Coconut Cream

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Had an issue with it during the summer, it turns out it was getting too much water too often. But I've dialled it back and it stabilized.

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Fruit punch, the leaves keep frying on hotter days even with ventilation and all windows open. So I just prune those back and watch it grow back.

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Ruby Supreme with some fruit.

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Some of the trees look smaller than they are because I had to take an ultra-wide picture to fit it in the frame.

I don't know where you're located, but I'm interested to know how the greenhouse is doing with the onset of cold weather. Do you have an indoor-outdoor thermometer so you can keep records and make comparisons, especially at night when the weather is coldest. Does the greenhouse covering make any difference on the coldest nights...what kind of plastic is it, and is it single or double walled?.. How effective is the propane heater you mentioned, can it maintain the temperature you want and keep plants like the Papaya alive? I hope you'll keep us informed as the winter goes on...

The greenhouse is doing great. I do have a thermometer that I use to keep track of the absolute minimums and highs. The coldest it has gotten has been 10.5C. If you intend on building your own greenhouse I don't recommend buying the one I did. It's an outsunny 26x10. They say that it's a UV-treated "6mil" plastic. As soon as the sun stops hitting it the temperatures fall rather quickly despite the bubble wrap and water I have, but I haven't covered the entire house in bubble wrap yet. Since I take off the plastic in the summer I didn't buy a more permanent solution such as double poly insulation.

The lowest temp we've had here was -7C outside but inside it was around 10-14C thanks to the propane heater and some circulation fans. It's more than enough to keep it well above freezing. I'll probably end up enlarging the structure using infrared 8mil plastic instead of a square shape. To my dismay, the cold temps have triggered the mangoes to initiate the early stages of their inflorescence, which I really wanted to avoid until January to February. But here's how their doing and some close-ups of the mango buds and papaya fruit.

Pickering

Overview

Coconut Cream

Fruit Punch

I'll update this thread from time to time as long as I don't forget about it. Thanks for tuning in!

I'm looking forward to seeing how your awesome experiment fared now that we're almost done with winter! What was the heating bill like?

I almost forgot about this post I made, so thank you for reminding me!

Here's a sizeable update on how things went during the winter months. Even in the December armageddon, the lowest it got was 7-8C inside the greenhouse. Outside it was -19C at the lowest. You don't even want to know what my heating bill was. But just know that it wasn't anything like what I would've spent if I heated it fully with electricity, I also used s small space heater on the other end of the greenhouse to not use as much propane. But now that that's out of the way, here are some pictures!

The Smith Red

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Sanguinelli

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Brown Select Satsuma is finally growing.

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Gold Nugget also finally doing something a whole year later.

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It's hard to fit the entire persian lime into frame but here's my attempt

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Valencia orange was covered by mango flowers.

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The Cara Cara became so big, and yet no fruit...

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Another view of the valencia that I had to prune back from the top

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Rio Red grapefruit also finally bushed out the way I wanted it to.

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Meyer lemon has over a dozen fruit on it.

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Pickering mango in full bloom next to the nules clementine, which didn't flower.

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Coconut cream mango is also in full bloom.

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Up close shot of puckering panicles

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Nules that I had to cut back

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There's some other stuff I plan on introducing to the greenhouse, like sapodilla, white sapote, and other dwarf varieties of trees. I also forgot to photograph the papaya, guava, and avocado. The papaya got some root rot but it's coming back, and the avocado is also finally coming back after not doing anything for an entire year. The guava is flowering and pushing new foliage. So there you go, how everything is going! I'm going to get rid of the crappy green plastic and putting on 8mil clear plastic instead before it gets cold again. I'm also considering making the greenhouse larger within a year or two, but we'll see how they grow this year.

I also live in zone 7b and grow fruit in a "greenhouse" and my only advice would be to keep those photos handy because one day soon you will look at them and say, "were they ever really that small?" Trees in a greenhouse grow fast. I heat my 20 by 30 hoop house with electric and usually strive to keep it just above freezing. I take the plastic off during the summer. I also added polycarbonate walls after years of battling wind damage. My greenhouse has a 15 foot center ridge and a lot of trees grow right up past that in one warm season. My top performers are Jaboticaba (fruits off and on throughout the year), Ruby Supreme Guava (long fruiting time, more fruit than anyone can eat), Suriname Cherry (two flushes of fruit a year). Citrus do well but are plagued by pests and disease, I still get plenty of fruit off of them.

Hello John, I missed the swap this spring. first time in so many years!!! One of these days, we will make an appointment to come visit you