Comments on: Ice

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 03:55:06 +0000

Thanks Bob – I love Charliesgreenhouse.com. I’ll let you know how it goes.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 01:52:27 +0000

Bonnie,
I am always happy to hear about someone expanding their gardening horizons. I’ll give you a brief list of needed items: a minimum/maximum thermometer to monitor your day/night temperatures; a heater of some sort, electric or propane, may be necessary depending how early you plan on setting the plants out into the greenhouse. With an electric heater you can have a thermostat. tender plants such as tomatoes or impatiens will need supplemental heat while cabbage or pansies probably won’t ; greenhouse benches ( plant tables ) ; and a method of ventilation, even on a winter day, the temperatures inside your greenhouse could rise enough to damage your plants. Solar powered models are available these days.

There are many more options for small greenhouses than there used to be even only a few years ago. You might want to start looking for ideas at Charliesgreenhouse.com , an on-line/catalog greenhouse supplier. Many of those items can be purchased locally.

Good luck and have fun. Keep checking back on this blog for more on this topic and let us know how things progress for you. Bob

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:19:44 +0000

Bob – I live in LaSalle township. I was fortunate enough to purchase a small greenhouse from a nephew who didn’t want it when he bought a new house. 6′ x 8′ I am definitely a beginner. I want to start seeds indoors and gradually move them to greenhouse to finish out before planting outside. Not sure what I need…shad cloth, heater, fan???? I hate to spend the money on things that are not necessary. Can you help?? Thanks Bonnie

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 11:19:37 +0000

Ria,
Let’s call it managed stress instead of neglect. If you think about it a bit, it makes sense for this to happen. Exposure to extreme temperatures, drought or other trauma, can cause a survival mechanism to kick in for many plants. It makes them want to form seeds to ensure another generation is produced, just in case they themselves don’t survive.

By: Ria

Ria — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 20:35:26 +0000

Thanks Bob. Stress hum. That’s why I get so many things to bloom. People can’t understand how my plants bloom, are huge, and I do very little for them. It’s called stress from neglect. I’m definitely not an over waterer. My jasmine vine should be dead for the many times I’ve let it dry up. But it’s blooming away in my TV room. I’m thinking of not pruning the lime tree for awhile for stress. It works for my Hybiscus I’ve trained into a huge tree. When it gets too top heavy for the roots, it blooms like crazy before I cut it back. You know this is the first year I brought the plants in from the deck before it got really cold. That was a bad move I see.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 00:41:24 +0000

Ria,
As you well know, growing citrus in Michigan can be a hit and miss proposition. Some varieties of lime and tangerine need cross pollination and some are self polinating. Your lime is self pollinating as it had fruit at one time. No way of knowing about the tangerine without knowing the variety.

Any kind of shock can disrupt fruiting in citrus, it happened to me when I pruned ours heavily to make more room in the greenhouse.

The most plausible explaination however, is your obvious care for your plants; citrus of all types need some kind of stress in order to blossom. After the recovery period from the hailstorm, they have probably been well taken care of and have never been placed under any sort of stress. The easiest way to induce an element of stress is, in the fall, before you bring them in for the winter, allow them to be exposed to cold temperatures ( 45 degrees or so ) for a few days or nights taking care not to let them get frozen or frosted.

That should ” shake ‘em up a bit ” and encourage them to flower.

By: Ria

Ria — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 01:21:19 +0000

Got a question. I’ve got two trees in pots. One is lime, the other tangerine. I used to get limes from my lime tree until a storm. They are both in pots. The lime tree used to bloom in the dead of winter because I have 12 feet of windows with southern exposure. By summer, I move everything gradually outside on the deck and I would get limes. The tangerine tree looks old enough now, but no blooms. The lime tree was accidentally hit by a hail storm summer before last. All its leaves were shredded. It took a year to look good again. It looks normal but will no longer bloom. The tangerine tree was young and did not get hit but no blooms on it either.

Do they need cross pollination or something? Did the lime tree get shocked for good? They take up an awful lot of room. If they aren’t going to produce, I’d like to get rid of them.