Originally Posted by rfelsch

Greetings nannerheads. My name is Bob, and I have a passion for growing Citrus, Bananas and unusual fruits. I was born and raised in Illinois where I first started growing a Washington navel, Meyer lemon & a dwarf Cavendish. After my wife and I finished school, we moved to New Mexico & lived there for twenty years. I built an earth bermed unheated 12 x 12 greenhouse & grew my couple citrus & dwarf cavendish there. I got the banana to bloom once by wrapping the pot with an electric heating pad, and bubble wrap for the winter. It really liked wintering with warm roots.
We purchased a farm west of Portland Oregon two years ago but lost our tropicals in a moving mishap. This spring I started reading forums as much as possible, and built a collection that I will be overwintering in our 20x40 hoophouse. My collection includes, dc , sdc, tt, raja puri, blue java, dwf Orinoco, California gold, dwf enano Gigante, fhia-1, basjoo and about 20 varieties of citrus. My hoophouse will be mostly unheated except on the coldest nights. My collection is planted in containers that are sitting in a pair of insulated planter boxes with soil heating cables. I will probably remove some of my collection from their containers and plant directly in the planter box this spring.
I have learned much being back at it this year and the wealth of information available here and on citrus forums has been incredible. Thanks all for sharing your knowledge. Bob