cincinnana

I use duct tape to hold them together.
Glad you got the idea.

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Petey

There's got to be something wrong, in a fortuitious way, about the windows in my apartment here in the Boston area. My living room windows face south, and my presumed namwah is still throwing out about a leaf a month with no supplemental lighting and very little direct lighting (because it's too tall). I'm also flowering and fruiting jalapenos in a bucket (these have more direct sunlight through window), and brought guava and mango and kumquat to ripeness as well. I am sure this is just some luck of old windows with little filtering, but it's certainly a pleasant surprise.

sirdoofus

I thought I would post an update on my winter grow attempt. It's actually gone pretty well once I figured out the watering schedule. I did lose a Meyer Lemon but I think it was suffering from excessive flooding before I brought it inside...my Miho Wase orange is doing great though.

No real issues with the bananas. I decided to let one of the HH plants go into dry dormancy just to see if it would come out of it. Other than that things don't look a whole lot different but I guess that is the point....keep them limping along until they are ready to run again......2-3 more weeks hopefully.

Oct 2023



April 2024

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sirdoofus

Dug this beast (Helen's Hybbrid) out a week ago or so and its too big for my downstairs grow area so it is living in the garage this winter. I think I might have my winter mix dialed so hopefully it makes it through. There will be some trimming The post to the left of the plant is just over 7ft tall for comparison

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all43

My HH is trimmed and in the green house that will be heated a few degrees above freezing, it will be it's first year out of the house in winter because of her size!

sirdoofus

Sweet, might you post a pic?

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all43

Sure,not much to see all tucked up but HH is behind itinerans forma India first on the left and to the left of a small 'going green now it's out of the sun Siam ruby!

Attached Images

resized9.10.jpg (1.17 MB, 6 views)

sirdoofus

That's a nice looking winter setup. Is that some type of purpose specific bubble wrap you have lined the inside of your greenhouse with? And what kind of heating system do you use?

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all43

Just cheap large bubble wrap, three layers in the roof and two on the sides, electric heat trays for small tender plants and a thermostatic electric heat 3ft pole type.Ive also got lights I bought cheap from a local weed grower but they are a bit pricey so will probably come on around March to get an early start on Spring,The green house is raised a couple of feet.

Watching d7comx threads though on heating his new setup!

sirdoofus

Winter grow room 2024 - There are still a couple of other plants to go in here...worked well last year so hoping for similar success this year.

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cincinnana

I keep noticing my winter grow area keeps getting smaller the ceilings shorter and not enough lighting.

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sirdoofus

Yeah, It's funny how houses seem to shrink the longer one stays in them ;-)

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sirdoofus

Feb 01 - 3 months to go and so far so good. I am very impressed with the African contingent: the Ensete seedlings, Matooke and Zebrina. They have been thriving inside this year (minus the aphids and the odd spider mite treatment). The Matooke especially doesn't look like it has even missed a step.

And I have 2 HH in the garage that are surviving in decent fashion - pic not included

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subsonicdrone

youre plants look great!
glad the matoke is growing well for you after the slow start

sirdoofus

Yeah, its doing great. Growing slowly of course, but the leaves are hardly showing any age and they are standing as proud as one could expect from an indoor grow. I think it would be a good candidate for a long-term indoor ornamental.

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all43

It almost hurts putting an unblemished tender back.outside in the summer,knowing that just a little breeze will test them leaves!!!

My 'was' beautiful nam wah now looks very sad...

beam2050

you people that can grow bananas in pots like that earn my respect.

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

cincinnana

I had a couple plants that had folded in the latest round of storms both were in flower with tiny fruit .

Most other plants petioles folded also or the plants were blown over roughed up. I take steps to minimize mishaps and harden plants with box fans and such but not enough from high winds.

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sirdoofus

Yeah - I put mine outside a few weeks ago and they definitely took a bit of a beating. But they are bouncing back. In retrospect I pulled them out earlier than I probably should have, but I was concerned about the pest pressure (aphid and spider mite) they were displaying and didn't feel like spraying them anymore.

I made the mistake of leaving them outside overnight on a few nights, the last of which temps got down to just over 1C according to my thermometers on my porch and greenhouse - which means it was a bit cooler in the garden. My wife had to scrape her windshield that morning....oops

Everyone survived but a few of the tenders did get a bit of cold damage on the leaves.

Interestingly, the plant with the worst and most rapidly showing leaf damage was the sikkimensis (kinda makes me wonder). And the ones with the least........Helen's Hybrids and the Ensete seedlings from Africa

This is the sikki 2-3 days after being left out overnight:



And this is one of the Ensete seedlings, pic taken on the same day as above. It basically looks no different than it did before being left outside.



I didn't take pics of the Matooke or Zebrina, but they fared quite well also, although not as well as the Ensete or HH.

Fortunately they are all cruising along just fine.

And yes, 2 of the bigger HH plants had their leaves fold on the first day outside......I should have cut the leaves back sooner but I got greedy and paid the price :-/

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