skrit
Yamadori
So I semi-promised my next thread would regard the upgrade of my tropical's winter home, so here goes nothing.
A bit of background:
Last year when I was just starting out I encouraged my wife to attend an introductory workshop intended for pairs (mostly couples attended, but two parent/child pairs also attended) in which we received and worked on three trees, two small trees and one larger. My wife was not attracted to junipers and chose two ficus as three of our trees. At the time I don't think either of us really understood what kind of winter care that would entail. I also purchased a small dwarf jade not long afterwards. Unfortunately, our only real southern exposure windows are in our finished basement, and I thought that with 36" windows they would get enough light, so that's where they went. After a couple weeks of ever shorter days and realizing that pine trees at the nearby edge of the property blocked much of the light, I went out and got a 2 bulb 2' T5 fluorescent fixture with appropriate 6500K bulbs to hang over them and supplement the limited sunshine. This seemed to work OK at first, but as cold weather set in, I needed to heat the space to keep them warm, so on went the gas fireplace in there (along with a thermostat) to keep the place around 64F. (a bit colder near the window, but I kept a thermometer there to be sure it stayed above 60F.) Then the collection grew over this summer with the addition of some Schefflera Arboricola. With the new additions, one windowsill wasn't going to cut it, and I didn't want to pay to heat the whole basement just for a window full of plants.
Cut to this year:
I bought a mini-greenhouse with the intention of adding the light I bought last year and another CFL along with eastern exposure through a sliding glass door in our kitchen / dining room. Long story short, light was poor due to the slightly northern angle and insufficient supplemental electrical lighting for the space (CFL was barely sufficient), no air circulation which encouraged some white fuzz type mold growth (only on one plant thankfully) and humidity was highly variable and generally low in the area, probably due to the nearby forced hot air vent. (which as it turns out blew right into the greenhouse!)
Initial pictures of this year's setup attached.
A bit of background:
Last year when I was just starting out I encouraged my wife to attend an introductory workshop intended for pairs (mostly couples attended, but two parent/child pairs also attended) in which we received and worked on three trees, two small trees and one larger. My wife was not attracted to junipers and chose two ficus as three of our trees. At the time I don't think either of us really understood what kind of winter care that would entail. I also purchased a small dwarf jade not long afterwards. Unfortunately, our only real southern exposure windows are in our finished basement, and I thought that with 36" windows they would get enough light, so that's where they went. After a couple weeks of ever shorter days and realizing that pine trees at the nearby edge of the property blocked much of the light, I went out and got a 2 bulb 2' T5 fluorescent fixture with appropriate 6500K bulbs to hang over them and supplement the limited sunshine. This seemed to work OK at first, but as cold weather set in, I needed to heat the space to keep them warm, so on went the gas fireplace in there (along with a thermostat) to keep the place around 64F. (a bit colder near the window, but I kept a thermometer there to be sure it stayed above 60F.) Then the collection grew over this summer with the addition of some Schefflera Arboricola. With the new additions, one windowsill wasn't going to cut it, and I didn't want to pay to heat the whole basement just for a window full of plants.
Cut to this year:
I bought a mini-greenhouse with the intention of adding the light I bought last year and another CFL along with eastern exposure through a sliding glass door in our kitchen / dining room. Long story short, light was poor due to the slightly northern angle and insufficient supplemental electrical lighting for the space (CFL was barely sufficient), no air circulation which encouraged some white fuzz type mold growth (only on one plant thankfully) and humidity was highly variable and generally low in the area, probably due to the nearby forced hot air vent. (which as it turns out blew right into the greenhouse!)
Initial pictures of this year's setup attached.