GreenFin

Here are some pics of my latest pit-style tunnel greenhouse, which is around 80' long x 17' wide and has a 4' deep pit. The planting areas have been dug out an additional 2', so from the perspective of the plants, they have an 11.5' ceiling.

It's still very much a work in progress, with a lot to get done before cold weather gets here. Eventually there will be 3 fish pools totaling around 12,000 gallons of water, and I'll plumb the filters so that the poop sludge will drain down into the planting areas to feed/water the bananas.


Here's what the bananas looked like when I moved them in:



Below are a few pics from when I was building it. This time, instead of doing all of the digging by hand with a shovel and wheelbarrow as I had done with my pond and other tunnels, I rented a Bobcat. After the 1st day, I thought, "Eh, that's enough help, I'll just do the rest by hand." Which might have been an okay idea if I hadn't then decided to keep digging and make it twice as big as I had intended when I started.

Here's what the trench looked like after using the Bobcat on the first day:



Then after some hand-digging:




Then after more hand-digging (and more and more and...)

Special thanks to my nephew and Dad

__________________
Set out runnin', but I'll take my time; a friend of bananas is a friend of mine.

www.GreenFinGardens.com

Hammocked Banana

Wow that is incredible man! I can't believe how much you have dug by hand between your two semi-pit tunnels!! It will all pay off when your nanners are super happy with all their new head height. Can't wait to follow this thread!

subsonicdrone

awesome

cant wait to do something similar myself

tanfenton

I hope that you'll be reflecting fondly on your efforts to defy the seasons soon enough. What inspired you to pursue this specific track toward off-season polyculture? How will you be supplementing the heat that your greenhouse will retain long-term? What are your plans for retaining the bank on the inside of the structure? This is a phenomenal undertaking.

N.

crazy banana

Absolutely amazing job!

Going Bananas

Well done!
Looks like alot of hard work!

RyanL

Awesome! Its been interesting following your projects, very inspirational!

GreenFin

My Dad has type 2 diabetes, and I wanted to be able to provide a high-protein diet for him.

I created my original aquaponics tunnel to provide around 1,000-1,500 lbs of fresh fish per year, and I chose a primarily vegetarian fish (blue tilapia) that feeds heavily on algae and will chow down on most fruits and vegetables, thereby allowing me to grow their food entirely on-site if need be.

I'll use a very large (80' x 10') white reflective strip on the south side to bounce in a lot of extra sunlight over the winter (~30% more), and I'll use some small 1kw aquarium heaters to heat the water to 60F+. My other semi-pit tunnel doesn't have any extra heating (other than the geothermal heating I designed into it by digging the pit), and the air only gets down into the upper 30's even when the temp is way below 0F outside, so since the new banana house is deeper, will have a lot of extra sunlight bounced in, and will hold close to 12,000 gallons of 60F+ water, I think the air temps will stay over 50F and the Cavendishes will flourish.

The banks will not be reinforced, and will slowly subside over time. My older semi-pit tunnel has walls that slant outward (like the slant of the hypotenuse of a 30-60-90 triangle), which does a good job of minimizing subsidence. The newer one has much more vertical sides, which is the wrong way to do it.

__________________
Set out runnin', but I'll take my time; a friend of bananas is a friend of mine.

www.GreenFinGardens.com

tanfenton

Hey, GF!

I'd love to see the progress of your banana den as autumn sets in. I know I'm not the only one looking forward to progress shots.

N.

luisport

Amazing job! Congratulations!

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Banana Lacatan, Rajapuri, 2 Dwarf Brazilian, Dwarf Orinoco, Cardaba, Blue Java, Goldfinger, Pisang Ceylon, Madeira Primitive (Robusta), Praying Hands, Hua Moa, Dwarf Namwah, Super Dwarf Cavendish

Mango Gomera 1 and 4, Maha Chanook, Valencia Pride

Avocado Bacon

Paw Paw Sunflower, Prima 12 16, Wabash, Susquehanna, Shenandoah, Potomac. Will have Overleese, Mango, Sibley, Halvin, Tollgate, Greenriver Belle, Lynns Favoritte, KSU Atwood, Belle

Jujube Li, Lang

PureVision

Wow, that's some hardcore dedication! Thumbs up for your work!

GreenFin

Here are some pics showing the progress of the bananas in their new pool house, click on them to expand to large pics.  Four of the plants in there are flowering right now, 3 Dwarf Orinocos and a Cocos.

Here's a Dwarf Orinoco that had 'gotten stuck' after transplanting and didn't grow for a long time, so I had to chop off the top to allow it to push new growth out.  When I chopped it, the first thing to come out was the flower.

Here's another Dwarf Orinoco a few feet away but growing in the same hole.  This one has a half dozen leaves, but the flower is only an inch above ground, so it's going to be an interesting bunch that may end up sitting on the ground before long.


Here's a supposed Cocos pushing out a flag.  I got my original Cocos plant from Pitangadiego, and from what I've read, there's doubt as to whether it's the real deal.  It makes bad bananas in San Diego for him (venturabananas has also sampled them there and concurs), and it's not known whether it's a real Cocos that makes bad bananas there due to being so cold sensitive, or whether it simply is not the real deal.  If anyone has any further insight into whether Pitangadiego is selling the real deal, please share.

The biggest plant in the middle of this pic is an SH-3640 from Going Bananas:

Another Dwarf Orinoco bunch:


The big plant just right of center is a Dwarf Brazilian that will hopefully bloom in the next month or so.

The biggest plant in the middle is a Pisang Ceylon that is going to be high maintenance from here on out due to its height.  Hopefully it blooms soon so I can sample the fruit and then replace it with something shorter   Just to its right is a Dwarf Red that will flower very soon.


Part of the miniature citrus grove, with a tomato in back, a Meyer Lemon on the left, and a Midknight Valencia orange on the right.

Meyer Lemon:

Washington Navel Orange:

__________________
Set out runnin', but I'll take my time; a friend of bananas is a friend of mine.

www.GreenFinGardens.com

Mark Dragt

Wow! That is super cool. Plants look really happy in there. All that hard work is paying off.

__________________
As of November 2016 I am growing bananas in my new greenhouse. I call it"Mark's Banana Forrest Paradise". It will be a game changer for me. A new thread, and pictures soon.

siege2050

Very cool, I have a smaller 35 foot version with a pit, but nothing like that lol. Are you going to brace up the center in a few places? Enough snow on the whole thing might make it sink in the center, 80 foot is pretty long and that's a lot of area with snow cover on it. I put up 2 poles inside concreted in the floor roughly every 10 feet, and rested the backbone of the tunnel on them just as a precaution. I put them in after I got the tunnel up, just dug holes with post hole diggers, some concrete, and a level, and tied the pipe to them. Also seems to help the sides from flexing in high winds. I am also going to buy some of the mylar space blanket rolls to use on the north side to reflect heat back in because no light really comes in on the north side anyway.

__________________

Mark Dragt

Do you have picts of yours? I am trying to put a plan together.

__________________
As of November 2016 I am growing bananas in my new greenhouse. I call it"Mark's Banana Forrest Paradise". It will be a game changer for me. A new thread, and pictures soon.

GreenFin

Thanks for the reply, you bring up some good thoughts.

I'm hoping this tunnel will put out enough heat that I won't have to brace the spine. I have around 12,000 gallons of water in there that I'll probably keep up around 70F this winter, and all of that heat should keep the roof pretty clear. I have a pool broom that's ~12' long that I use to clear snow off of my tunnels, but I usually only need to use it on my fig tunnel, since it has far less water and therefore gives off much less heat per square foot than my aquaponics tunnel or the tunnel I build over my pond every winter.

I was worried about the wind when I first started building my tunnels 4 or 5 years ago, so I built them with robustness in mind, and they've cruised through a dozen wind events in the 70-80 MPH range. We've had windows blown in on our house and trees blown over, but the tunnels have never had any problems.

__________________
Set out runnin', but I'll take my time; a friend of bananas is a friend of mine.

www.GreenFinGardens.com

GreenFin

There are currently 16 bunches in various stages of development, here are some pics (click to enlarge):

Dwarf Cavendish



Dwarf Cavendish



SH-3640 (Going Bananas)



purportedly Dwarf Namwah (Going Bananas), but seems like Dwarf Orinoco



Dwarf Brazilian



Dwarf Orinoco



Dwarf Cavendish



Dwarf Cavendish (same bunch as previous pic)



SH 3640 (Going Bananas)



Grand Nain



Grand Nain



Dwarf Orinoco



Dwarf Cavendish



Dwarf Cavendish



Dwarf Red

__________________
Set out runnin', but I'll take my time; a friend of bananas is a friend of mine.

www.GreenFinGardens.com

luisport

Congratulations! You are a winer!

__________________
Banana Lacatan, Rajapuri, 2 Dwarf Brazilian, Dwarf Orinoco, Cardaba, Blue Java, Goldfinger, Pisang Ceylon, Madeira Primitive (Robusta), Praying Hands, Hua Moa, Dwarf Namwah, Super Dwarf Cavendish

Mango Gomera 1 and 4, Maha Chanook, Valencia Pride

Avocado Bacon

Paw Paw Sunflower, Prima 12 16, Wabash, Susquehanna, Shenandoah, Potomac. Will have Overleese, Mango, Sibley, Halvin, Tollgate, Greenriver Belle, Lynns Favoritte, KSU Atwood, Belle

Jujube Li, Lang

Rmplmnz

Wow!!!!

Mark Dragt

So cool! Congratulations!

__________________
As of November 2016 I am growing bananas in my new greenhouse. I call it"Mark's Banana Forrest Paradise". It will be a game changer for me. A new thread, and pictures soon.