Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

I started this project back in September after reading GreenFin's thread about his new banana house. I read that thread over and over. Thank you GreenFin, you inspired me.

This thread is about my new Greenhouse. Through conversation with my good friend HMelendez, a name was given to this Greenhouse. Mark's Banana Forest Paradise. Thank you Hector for helping me with this identity of my greenhouse.
:woohoonaner:

Thank you also to my friends Al, Kevin, Ty, Don, and Keith for cheering me on.
Thanks Guys, your the best!:nanadrink:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

This is where it all started. This area was my garden and chicken coup area. My gardening isn't over, it is just different.

Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

Good Luck
Remember always talk to your plants and leave them feeling wanted.:santananer:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

Congrats Mark!


I know you will have a great success growing 'nanas in your "Mark's Banana Forest Paradise!".....You have a very good setup!....Your hard work and dedication will pay off!....Whishing you the best my friend!.....:bananarow:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

YES YES congrats,keep us posted!!

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

Thanks CraigSS. I walk through my banana forest every chance I get. I check for this, I check for that, and I feed my fish. I do talk to myself in there. I will try talking to the plants, but if they start talking back, I am taking the greenhouse back down. Lol!

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

Thank you Hector! Very kind words. I hope it works as good as you say it will. So far so good.
:nanadrink:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

Thanks Matt. My greenhouse is located close to my house in the backyard. So close, that my house wifi works in the greenhouse. Some of these updates will be posted from within the forest itself.
:woohoonaner:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

The grass was really thick in this area. This was outside the fence of my old chicken coup. My garden always had the best fertilizer. Chickens are gone, I was done with them. Garden plot is gone, not even close to being done with that.
:woohoonaner:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

This is where we finished the first day. Having my brother and his small excavator, we got a lot of work done in one day. Around 30 yards of soil were removed. The tanks were installed for 2 reasons. 1, to hold back the 1 1/2 feet of soil all the way around. 2, the tanks are filled with water and give mass to the greenhouse. This mass will help to regulate the temps inside, up or down. The concrete tanks have my goldfish in them. Stray bugs that fall in the water are history.
:woohoonaner:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

Then morning came. A large pile of soil in my yard. Tanks lining the walls of a hole in the ground. Since I didn't buy a kit, I had no instructions, I was overwhelmed at this point. I was scratching my head as to what my next step was. Hint to anyone taking on a large project. Keep moving forward! Positive gains, even small ones, keep the project moving. So I started backfilling the walls. Positive gains!
:woohoonaner:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

Water line installed. This was not planned. 2 pictures ago you will notice 1 concrete tank not installed. There was a 3/4 inch pvc water line in the way. I didn't know it was there, I still don't know where it goes. O well, I know where it stops now. After the line was finished up, I set the last tank with my forklift. In this picture, it is the 1 on the left.
:woohoonaner:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

This tank was much more of a challenge to put in place than any others. It was full of water and fish.

The blue container on the right is a small aquaponics setup, upside down fish tank on the left I call a skylight. More on this, and better pictures later.
:woohoonaner:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

I went out to the greenhouse for a few minutes. Some of the plants are starting to grow again, the same plants that have been stalled for many weeks.

High temp outside today 52f
High temp in the greenhouse 73f
=+21f
Current outside temp 46f
Current greenhouse temp 53f
=+7f

We will see how it goes from here.
:woohoonaner:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

:woohoonaner: you lucky guy. Wifi in the greenhouse I'm jealous! everything looks great! I know this is so many steps ahead but have you planned out watch bananas you are going to be planting? PS. nice fish

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

Thanks Matt, that was a easy question. The greenhouse is mostly done. Just need a little tweek here and there. I wanted to start this thread from the beginning of the project. So to answer your question, I built this greenhouse to plant all my bananas. I currently have 27 different bananas planted in there. That's why Banana Forest is in the name. When these plants get big, it will be a forest in there.
:nanadrink:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

This is a sample size of the PVC I had to cut and glue together to make the ground frames. This pile made 2. Then I had to do it all over again to make another 2.
:woohoonaner:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

Here is 1 ground frame all glued together. There will be a total of 4 of these.
:woohoonaner:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

Here are 2 frames clamped together.



And a closeup of the clamps and the offset for assembly.
:woohoonaner:

Re: Mark's Banana Forest Paradise
 

At this point I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to see what the shape was like for the hoops.



This was my goal. This was the reason I lowered the floor 1 1/2 feet. This was the reason I used 30 feet of PVC pipe to make my hoops. 12+ feet of inside height.
:woohoonaner::woohoonaner::woohoonaner::woohoonaner::woohoonaner :