Joining the club - up go the boxes

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 10:05 am

Neat rum shack!

Good work on the GH. What's in it over winter?

How long has your pindo been in the ground?

Wondering why you chose fluorescent lights over incandescent.

Thanks for the great photos.
Barb

Jeff_Ajax · Post by **Jeff_Ajax** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:15 am

Greenhouse has some red banana that I dug up in the green house, a couple are 10' tall. I have 5 hibiscus in there, 1 sago, 2 Canary Island Date Palms, 4 pygmy date palms, a couple young Musa Bajoo, a Papyrus, some herbs, datura that I cut down and dug up to see how they do for fun, a couple castor plants, a Brugmansia that was hit by frost and dropped it's leaves before I dug it up. Its currently flowering in there along with all the Hibiscus.

Mike suggested going with fluorescent's I believe, or maybe I did lol. Each light fixture is 4' long and holds 2 bulbs. The little boxes have 1 light each and the big box has 3 inside (6 bulbs). The two small boxes maybe come on 4 times a day. I have external flood lights hooked to them to know when they come on. The big guy in the front doesn't usually go off unless we get over 0 or there is a lot of sun on it. I still need to seal the top up and also tarp it, that may keep a little more heat inside of it.

I didn't protect any of them until the week before Christmas. They were all doing very well with most nights just below freezing. We had two nights where we got down to -6 and -8. The one -8 night I through blankets over them and put a flood light shining inside the blanket. The Windmill a wrapped some Christmas lights around it for the cold night. None of the fronds suffered any freeze damage.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:27 am

Thanks for your fluorescent explanation.
Having had to replace a burned out fluorescent bulb in a two-bulb fixture--the lights had been on for 8 hours--I was surprised the still-lit one didn't burn fingers.
But in a small enclosure like a palm hut, obviously does the job for you.

And you're fortunate it hasn't been too cold.
Great plants in the GH...the more you fill it up, the warmer they are.

You'll love late winter in your GH...
t-shirt weather inside...with a steaming cup of coffee.
If there's still room for a chair

Barb

Jeff_Ajax · Post by **Jeff_Ajax** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:33 am

If it warms up a little, I'm going to build an extension off the front to transfer the palms into it so I have some room to enjoy it lol. I have a bar set up in the garage with some chairs and a radio lol.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:38 am

bar set up in the garage with some chairs and a radio lol.

Heck...just replace all the garage siding with plastic and presto...big GH

Enjoy!

Beny · Post by **Beny** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:56 am

Nice protection Jeff, thx for the pics. These protections works well here near Montreal. You are at a warmer location than us, so you should be ok. Hope you ll post pics this spring.
Ben

Jeff_Ajax · Post by **Jeff_Ajax** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:11 am

Thanks, It should make it through the winter with very little issues, I hope.

coconutmike · Post by **coconutmike** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:09 pm

Looks good Jeff -Great protection and way more solid then what I make. Send posts come spring I liked your summer pics
Mike

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:59 pm

cool photos............the big palm box looks like Bill's! Don't forget to place a light on top so the airplanes don't hit it!

Jeff_Ajax · Post by **Jeff_Ajax** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:09 am

Thanks guys.

Mike, the big box has all 4 corners using 2x4x12 lumber. Rigid insulation is screwed to the supports with screws and finishing washers to hold the panel in place. The top piece is then attached to the tops of the 2x4's. The interior fluorescents are then attached to a 2x4x4 that I mounted to the outside of the box in the same fashion. All 4 sides then have 1x1x4's pounded into the ground half way and then screwed through to the inner 2x4's. We had to lean a 12' ladder against the structure to put the top on (forgot before we lifted it) and the box didn't move at all.

When the weather warms up on Monday (3c), I'll get around to wrapping them all in vapour barrier as well. I may also need to add a little more heat to the big box, it only shuts off when the outside temp is above 0c.

I said to myself next year I'll add a flood light to the top of the box shooting straight up for the fun of it.

wheelman1976 · Post by **wheelman1976** » Sun Jan 06, 2013 6:31 pm

I leave for a few days and this is what happens to my thread????? Thread high jackers!

I kid.....

Nice photos. Question on that temp greenhouse, how do you heat it?

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sun Jan 06, 2013 7:37 pm

I leave for a few days

Two months ... you must've gone out for milk.

Barb

Jeff_Ajax · Post by **Jeff_Ajax** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 9:56 am

Wheelman, The greenhouse is attached to the garage and the garage door is not there. The garage itself is heated with a gas ceiling mount furnace. The garage has always been heated but this year I had to install a new one. We angled out towards the front of the garage more so the heat makes it into the greenhouse easier. I also have fans set up that push the majority of the warm air into the greenhouse itself.

I keep the temp set between 70-75 which keeps the greenhouse itself quite toasty. I'm just trying to work through my watering issues since it dries out pretty quick.

wheelman1976 · Post by **wheelman1976** » Mon Nov 11, 2013 7:16 pm

Just an update for the fall of 2013.... built the first box tonight and the thing is about 10 foot tall.... Dunno how I'll do this for the other two but they're a hair smaller.... I need more wood!!!
I'll try to take some photos later once I make some headway.

wheelman1976 · Post by **wheelman1976** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 6:20 pm

wheelman1976 · Post by **wheelman1976** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 6:21 pm

First box.... sucker is about ten foot tall.... sure wish I buried that thing deeper when I got it.

<a href="http://s1204.photobucket.com/user/wheel ... c.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb4 ... 92047c.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo null_zps3e92047c.jpg"/></a>

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 7:18 pm

Wow, that trachy has grown.
But then we haven't seen it for 10 months

Nice added on space at the top...

...should've added more so you don't have to do it again next year.

Barb

wheelman1976 · Post by **wheelman1976** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 7:38 pm

That one is one of my new ones I got this spring. It's the largest of them all by far. The more I think of this the more I need to seriously find a different way of winter protection as these things grow.

wheelman1976 · Post by **wheelman1976** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 5:59 pm

Managed to get two more boxes up completely. Did not leave them open on one side to see if they thermocube kicked on so I'm hoping it does because I do not want to reshrink wrap those things.

<a href="http://s1204.photobucket.com/user/wheel ... 6.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb4 ... b46ab6.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo null_zpsfeb46ab6.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1204.photobucket.com/user/wheel ... 3.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb4 ... 5c4263.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo null_zps915c4263.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1204.photobucket.com/user/wheel ... 1.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb4 ... da1811.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo null_zpse2da1811.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1204.photobucket.com/user/wheel ... 7.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb4 ... 1a1347.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo null_zps091a1347.jpg"/></a>

wheelman1976 · Post by **wheelman1976** » Sat Nov 16, 2013 5:39 pm

Well everything is buttoned up for the winter.... some thoughts.... I am utterly exhausted putting up these boxes. sheets of plywood aren't so bad, it's those darn doors, moving those things just take it out of you. Unfortunately I need the weight to combat the wind in my area. Going forward I have to seriously rethink my method of protection. The only thing I can think of is to get more down in size, maybe a 2 x 2 foot print and do a treated plywood and do more bracing arms that keep them upright. Either way, something has to give because as these things grow it's only going to get more difficult.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sat Nov 16, 2013 8:41 pm

I like the shrink wrap idea for sunlight.

Whatever you build, your palm will outgrow it.
So something modular and relatively lightweight with styrofoam, panels can be screwed together and toenailed onto a railway tie base.

Mine won't work next year either:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/southslope/10765699804/" title="002 by edible_plum, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3773/1076 ... 9d73_c.jpg" width="600" height="800" alt="002"></a>

Barb

wheelman1976 · Post by **wheelman1976** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 1:27 pm

Well I had my first setback this afternoon, my tallest box almost fell over. We had a huge storm blow through and winds were extreme to say the least. I was out there as quick as I could with my impact driver and the longest boards I could find to brace it. It's going to require pulling it apart and rebuilding tomorrow because I know my lights are on the ground and not up by the crown and it'll require another shrink wrap. I told my wife I will need her help with that, I lost it all because I did it myself on one side from a ladder and it wasn't my best.

lucky, the string wrap doesn't let sun in, I have wood tops as well, I just drape some 2.5 mil plastic over the top to help with keeping it water tight.

sidpook · Post by **sidpook** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 5:14 pm

wxman wrote:Looks good. Mine are still out playing in the breeze. Have been uncovered since Feb 28th. Might make it to December looking at the weather models!

I hear that, same here in south jersey, only going to 59 tonight although we did have a night of frost and light freeze a week ago. crazy but loving it

sidpook · Post by **sidpook** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 5:15 pm

lucky1 wrote:I like the shrink wrap idea for sunlight.

Whatever you build, your palm will outgrow it.
So something modular and relatively lightweight with styrofoam, panels can be screwed together and toenailed onto a railway tie base.

Mine won't work next year either:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/southslope/10765699804/" title="002 by edible_plum, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3773/1076 ... 9d73_c.jpg" width="600" height="800" alt="002"></a>

Barb

that's some serious protection Barb...Good Luck witht he onslaught

wheelman1976 · Post by **wheelman1976** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 7:26 pm

Well it managed to get worse tonight. Winds up to 50-60 mph... I had two more boxes pushed off their bases. Found myself out in the dark, putting more bracing up and tying the boxes together with more 2x4's.... what a mess. I'll be fixing things and shoring things up more this week. Lesson learned, overbuild it so that you can sit inside where it's warm when crap like this happens.

I am even more shocked that my banana cones stayed put.

PalmsNorth.com

Joining the club - up go the boxes

Great Protection