Moving into an old greenhouse!
- Thread starter chrismende
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i agree avoid poison if dogs/cats around.
chrismende
Well-Known Member
Good to know that the bait will be dragged around. Right now the pieces are only on one bench and the others are in those little plastic box gizmos. I'll get one or two of those zappers, though, for sure!
chrismende
Well-Known Member
Well, the latest for my new/old greenhouse is that I just ordered 11 tons of 3/4 inch drain rock at the Brisbane (California) quarry and hope to get it into my greenhouse next week. Gotta get a truck and driver, but have the name of one. Have workmen lined up to schlepp it in and spread it out. The old gravel is a mix of crushed roadbed that is very difficult to walk on for me with minor but important foot problems. Also, I don't want the puppy, Joy, to be playing in the old dirt where the gravel is thin over the old landscape cloth- too many years of pesticide accumulation in that soil. I also will appreciate the simple aesthetic beauty of a nice, uniform floor. I'm really excited to be doing this!
chrismende
Well-Known Member
I keep promising pictures of the status of things now, but I'm so busy figuring out so many aspects of setup that I don't get around to uploading! I also just got a Dosatron and will be getting that thing installed during the next week or two. Meanwhile 36 grexes of flasklings are doing really well while I do all this, and all my other plants are stretching out and enjoying their new home! Lots of blooms, much excitement, and few carefully made photos.
chrismende
Well-Known Member
I just re-read this tip and will do the cucumber now, Marc! I've been so successful simply picking up all the outdoor snails I can find, ringing the greenhouse with a 3 foot wide swath of red lava rock over landscape cloth, and keeping an eagle eye out for any indoor intruders. I've only had two plants in the four months in the greenhouse that were damaged by snails. Yesterday I found three snails in a cardboard box with a couple of needing-repotting-phalaeonopsis Dends and decided to finally put Sluggo in all the pots of plants that seem likely to be susceptible. Since you're in the Netherlands, Sluggo is Iron phosphate bait. Hopefully I'll get most of the critters with this, but I'm also going to follow up with the new version of Sluggo with Spinosad.
E
Ernie
Guest
Sluggo or similar (iron phosphate) is very pet/people friendly. AND it works!!! AND it breaks down to... fertilizer! We had serious slug problems here at first, but this stuff knocked them back to nothing. Got my wife's seal of approval to use in our yard which is heavily populated with children and their mammalian pets as well as our native reptiles, amphibians, and birds and our pond fish.
SlipperFan
Addicted
Looking forward to pictures of your floor, Chris!
chrismende
Well-Known Member
OMG, I'm so busy with this greenhouse now! I've been in since February, and the plants, of course, are piling in fast, the babies growing fast, and now a friend who is going back to school is giving me about 35 mature plants of mixed sorts! (well sprayed and clean) I'm also still working hard to get the ventilation system and roof frosting up to snuff. There's also a portion of the roof that needs a total replacement before winter, as well as the fertilizer injector needing installation - I've slowly bought all the needed parts over the past couple months. Next I'll install under-bench misters. After that, probably by early winter, things will be really tip-top. I recently put in two inches of new drain-rock to make a nice, tight pack of new gravel over the old irregularly crushed material that was there along with bare dirt in several areas: bare dirt that is saturated with many years of hard chemicals. Now the pup and I won't ingest that dirt. Whew! Big expense, but well worth it.
Some changes in shade-cloth for my cooler area are being delivered momentarily - I still need to do lots of experimenting, not knowing the light there very well yet. There's lots of overcast days, but also a fair amount of sunny ones with fog only at the early and late periods. I don't yet know how to gauge the parameters, and need to find out.
I've also been steadily repotting so many things! I'm having nice surprises when various of the odont/oncidium clan bloom, since I bought many without tags at a farmers' market here when I was beginning in orchids. Now I'll do my best to tag them at least descriptively. I've also had wonderful fun with my first of many new-to-me multis blooming - my first roth, my first Susan Booths, my first Lyro Nighthawk. I bought about 30 BS plants from Jason at Camp One last summer in two lots of 15, his choice, on sale. Now several are spiking. Also bought two new lowii, one linebred by Tom Perlite, one from the Goldners, both of which are very nice indeed (both in bloom or bud when bought). I'm sure I'm forgetting several more to tell about, but it's all happening so thick and fast that I can't keep up! And, as you can tell, I'm not yet organized enough to get the photos rolling. Soon, though. I set up a backdrop a couple weeks ago and a photographer friend came and made some nice photos of the multis in bloom and a truly wonderful superbiens I bought in bloom from Tom Perlite, who had selected it from Norito for breeding (I was really lucky to get it: he has another piece of it). Being mentored by Tom is a great asset!
All this makes it seem that only paphs are "going on" here. In fact there are as many of many other genera, and the wonderful surprises are all over the greenhouse, since I've been actively buying for a three years in anticipation of this greenhouse, so many are now beginning to really show me their stuff. It will only get better, now! Such pleasure to walk into the greenhouse and start moving around saying hello to everybody! Each flower is such a treasure from nature that I kiss it goodbye when it's spent and thank it for bringing me joy.
What a fine way to be able to live!
Some changes in shade-cloth for my cooler area are being delivered momentarily - I still need to do lots of experimenting, not knowing the light there very well yet. There's lots of overcast days, but also a fair amount of sunny ones with fog only at the early and late periods. I don't yet know how to gauge the parameters, and need to find out.
I've also been steadily repotting so many things! I'm having nice surprises when various of the odont/oncidium clan bloom, since I bought many without tags at a farmers' market here when I was beginning in orchids. Now I'll do my best to tag them at least descriptively. I've also had wonderful fun with my first of many new-to-me multis blooming - my first roth, my first Susan Booths, my first Lyro Nighthawk. I bought about 30 BS plants from Jason at Camp One last summer in two lots of 15, his choice, on sale. Now several are spiking. Also bought two new lowii, one linebred by Tom Perlite, one from the Goldners, both of which are very nice indeed (both in bloom or bud when bought). I'm sure I'm forgetting several more to tell about, but it's all happening so thick and fast that I can't keep up! And, as you can tell, I'm not yet organized enough to get the photos rolling. Soon, though. I set up a backdrop a couple weeks ago and a photographer friend came and made some nice photos of the multis in bloom and a truly wonderful superbiens I bought in bloom from Tom Perlite, who had selected it from Norito for breeding (I was really lucky to get it: he has another piece of it). Being mentored by Tom is a great asset!
All this makes it seem that only paphs are "going on" here. In fact there are as many of many other genera, and the wonderful surprises are all over the greenhouse, since I've been actively buying for a three years in anticipation of this greenhouse, so many are now beginning to really show me their stuff. It will only get better, now! Such pleasure to walk into the greenhouse and start moving around saying hello to everybody! Each flower is such a treasure from nature that I kiss it goodbye when it's spent and thank it for bringing me joy.
What a fine way to be able to live!
SlipperFan
Addicted
It is such a joy, isn't it Chris. I'd certainly encourage anyone who is thinking about building a greenhouse to do so. There is nothing like it.
M
Marc
Guest
I know how it is to have a greenhouse in the backyard, but for some reason the interest wasn't really there when I still lived at my parents place.
Now however each and every time I visit them I take time to peek in their greenhouse to see how their plants are doing and of course to check up on my paphs that I smuggled in.
L
Lycaste53
Guest
Are there some pictures of the greenhouse, the surroundings and the plants? I would like to get more impressions. I have had a look to all what you wrote, but can´t see any picture (maybe something is wrong)
Best regards, Gina
Best regards, Gina
SlipperFan
Addicted
Check out Chris' links posted on p. 3 of this thread, Gina.
O
Orchidnut57
Guest
Greenhouse
Chris, what an exciting time for you. Thanks for sharing
Chris, what an exciting time for you. Thanks for sharing
H
Howzat
Guest
Love hearing on your greenhouse progress report and the feeling of an ever enthusiast's success story. Congratulation!!
L
Lycaste53
Guest
chrismende
Well-Known Member
Yup!
...and Ross, your 5 little Wossner Zwerg babies are nearly all open. Photos as promised soon!
chrismende
Well-Known Member
Well, yesterday was another very busy day with ladder, long pole roller, greenhouse whitewash, struggles with impeding objects underfoot on one side where a nursery of someone else's is located. I had a fall that initially made me decide to swear off ladders but that today I think can simply be instructive...live and learn. Only surface abrasions, thank goodness.
