Quick peek in palm hut

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 5:22 am

I really like the new palm hut. That big glass window in front is hardly efficient at night, but it lets sun in for quick morning warm-ups. and most importantly I can see the palms

I open the flap on the side a few times each week to take a peek inside and tweak settings on the ceramic heater. I put a new one in last week, and moved the thermocube a bit so it would get colder.
These two cell phone snaps give a sense of what I see when I open the plastic flap. The first one shows the thermocube now to the side of the heater, by a Musa basjoo stem. Those Musa are not looking too good.
The second shows heat damage to a Chameadorea radicalis frond that was getting too much of a hot blast from the heater lately. I adjusted the heater aim and turned it down as I think we are getting past the coldest weather; the forecast low of 16 oF / -9 oC for tonight is the lowest in the long term. At the top of the photo you can see the 250 w light which is on the same thermocube.

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/5M ... site"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TTslH ... AG0450.jpg" height="640" width="383" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... e">January 2011</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ou ... site"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TTslM ... AG0451.jpg" height="640" width="383" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... e">January 2011</a></td></tr></table>

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 10:07 am

thermocube now to the side of the heater

Doesn't the heater warm the thermocube, making it shut off sooner?

Palms look good

tropicman · Post by **tropicman** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 10:45 am

All and all ,looking pretty darn good!
January is usually the coldest month of the year,but i have seen cold Feb and march as well,hopefully it will get warmer and the worse is over,seem like the colder weather is moving further to the east!

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 11:31 am

Barb,
yes, that has been my problem.
I angled the heater to the left to keep the heat off the thermocube and was frying the Chameadorea leaf. So yesterday I angled it a little to the right. That also warms the bucket of water more, and hopefully helps the Musa stems, but also means the thermocube gets more hot air. Shutting it off early.

Don,
we've been blessed by a relatively mild winter, which makes up for my errors.

I'll place the thermocube more carefully next winter. I also plan to have the 250 w light on a separate cord so I can control it independently of the ceramic heater with the fan.

Knock on wood, but I suspect we are done with super cold (unlike up north). We get more snow in March than February, but the serious cold may be behind us. Right now it is windy, humid (dewpoint -5 oC) and below freezing--but not super cold. About -2 oC right now (afternoon), with a low of -10 oC forecast for dawn. We can handle that. The woodstove is heating about 20 2-litre water bottles to nestle among palms for the night.

tropicman · Post by **tropicman** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 12:45 pm

Just a thought here,they say when you open a refrigerator door,it takes 20 minutes to cool it back down to the temperature your keeping it at,and when you open the hut to place all the bottles to you think,it takes 20 minutes to get the palm hut back up to the temperature it was before you open the hut?I know where talking the opposite here,refrigerator were cooling down,and the palm hut were heating back up,as I was wondering the same thing here,because I have to remove a straw bale and a sheet of plastic before I can enter my palm hut to check on things,when I can go into my sunroom and look at the remote sensor and see what the temperature is out in the palm hut,only thing is I can't see what the foliage looks like.
I went out and check earlier,and when I came in I noticed the temp dropped 5 *,and it still hasn't come back up to the temp it was before I went out there,which was 48*,and that was over a hour ago,when the outside temperature was 19*,wind has picked up some since then,not sure the windchill makes a difference or not on the inside temperature.
I'm wondering next year about getting some type of camera out there where I can monitor from my computer,wonder how expensive a wireless cam would run me?

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 1:48 pm

Good points, Don.

Re a webcam to view your GH, you don't need a tilt-and-pan, or Infra red version (oops you may want to see at night) so they're not too expensive:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-10301349-248.html

I've been thinking of a webcam too, but that's as far as it got.

Barb

Okanagan desert-palms · Sun Jan 23, 2011 3:05 pm

Palms look good Don.

John

tropicman · Post by **tropicman** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 3:06 pm

I have a couple old monitors,I wonder if I can find a way to use a old web cam I have and make it work!
Going to look into for next yr!

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 7:28 pm

Hope your plants pull through. It's almost February! Sun will be getting stronger soon.

canadianplant · Post by **canadianplant** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 7:43 pm

They look good eric!

The chamedorea will bounce back. I fried my parlor palm this summer. All the foliage was burnt to some degree... It now looks MUCH better. If it grows faster then the C elengans, itll look new for the summer i bet