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Messages - Plantinyum

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26
It's great that you want to connect it to your house's water heating system for efficiency. Bathroom radiators with tube-like designs could be a practical choice given your limited space. Although they may have a smaller water capacity, you can compensate for that by using several of them to achieve the desired heat output.
I already connected standart type radiators, the worked very well last winter. I am glad i didnt went the electricity path, the current way of heating will be far cheaper , it was a huge pain to do it, but totally worth it.

27
Plantinyum, are your radiators on the ground? Do you have space for a ceiling mounted heater? I’ve got infrared heaters mounted on the North wall that work very well for my greenhouse design.  They can be a bit pricey to buy/run.


, yes ,they are on the ground, i remove them in summer. Will post pictures one of theese days. I probably have the space for a ceiling heater, depending on the size of it. But i dont really need one anymore ,the current heating system is working wonderfull, with the expens only being the wood each year, but its a connection to the existing heating system of the house, so they are both fueld from one burning pit. I dont see electricity as a good option anymore, now that i have this setup.

28
I also have a carambola and it was sprayed several times with neem, hasnt blinked once, the 5 ml per liter dose doesnt affect it. Ive had a bad burn on my cherimoyas from neem, that was last year, i dont remember what dose i have used , but back then it burned them. This year though, i spayed them once, they havent had any sort of reaction to it, it was probably too strong back then, idk.

29
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What is your favourite tropical fruit?
« on: October 31, 2023, 06:23:19 AM »
As of now i would have to pick cherimoya! I am a succer for tropical fruits, also love passion fruit, salak, mango, mamey etc.
Its a pitty that my cherimoyas had a shy blooming cycle this year, i only have 5 fruit. Its good that my purple edumis had like 200+ fruits to compensate for the lazy cherimoya year.

30
In my greenhouse i have mostly scale problems, but this year i have also mealybugs. Neem oil seems to help with scale a lot, but you need to spray probably a few times in a short timeframe, my spraying regimen has been eratic so they go away for a while, returning afterwards.  Recently sprayed with a systemic pesticide inside, cant really dettect a difference os of now.
Cold pressed neem oil at 5 ml neem + 5ml dishwashing soap, per litter of water, seems to help with aphids and scale.

31
I am in zone 7, alot cooler than zone 10 , but the problem is the same. I generally open manually the greenhouse, in spring and in fall, when the day temps are warm but nights are chilly.
The big con to this is that there has to be someone, to open the greenhouse at the wright time. Recently , while i was at work , my mom forgot to open the greenhouse on a sunny day, outside temp was like 25C or more, imagine what was inside! I come back from work and opened the door and nearly got skin burns from the hot temperature, lol ,just kidding ! 😅 it was still very hot inside, with a ground level temp of around 30C . Several plants were left with scorched leaves, after this day, my cherimoya shed her fruitlets a few days after.
After that i bought one of those oil or whatever filled window openers, i mounted it and i should say i am pleased with how it works, having it working for severaw days now. I ordered another one.

Now, for a zone 10, i would assume, depending on what is growing inside, that your greenhouse may have to stay at least partially open most of the time, with full closing only on cold events.

32
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: how to grow a mangotree from a mango
« on: October 31, 2023, 05:28:22 AM »
I am losing a shit ton of brain cells while watching theese, a few more and i will start believing!

33
Seem like here in BG we have an overly extended summer this year. Havent really monitored with acuracy the temperatures all that much, but we havent had a day that wasnt at least 20C as of this date, alot of 25C days this october. Nights are just now getting chillier at about 5 C , the lowest i had at my place was 2C, with a light frost, only on the tops of cars. Very dry october also, havent had a single proper rainy day, only 2-3 drizzle like events.
Anyway i moved in all that had to be moved, bot in the house and in the greenhouse. Now i am wondering if i should have left my potted cherimoya plants out a bit more, to get their chill requirements met, i may take them out for a bit more cold.
The greenhouse hasnt ever been so cramped up, i hate having to move it there, radiators that are on the paths are also a big pain in the ass, no way around all this, i decided to cramp the plants in the sunnier greenhouse, as oppose to having them in the dark house.
I will post pics when i can.

34
I have 2 unknown varieties , still small plants but both had fruit this year. They are both small fruit varieties, one had just a few fruit this year, the other one had a ton of fruit. The productive one is more sour in taste, whille firm, get to be like a slightly fermented apple taste as it dehidrates, overall not a very good taste but i still ate them all.
The shy bearer had just a few, but they were wonderfull! Albeit small, they were juicier, with a easier crunch and much sweeter , compared to the other one.
I did graft both plants with Li variety scions, but after i tasted both and evaluated them this year  i plan on letting the graft on the bad tasting one to overtake it. The good tasting one also has 3 succesfull Li grafts on it, but i will definitely let one main branch grow true to tipe, the fruit was quite good on this plant, it very spiny thought! 

35
Sweet! In every cluster of flowers, there are a few bigger ones which i suppose are female.
The second plant, right next to this one is also starting to make flower buds, but it does not have this cluster tipe inflorecence from the start, only 2-3 buds are visible, i think it will be a female.

36
I sacrificed the biggest bud on the plant, it would have bloomed really soon but i wanted to know...it does appear to have an ovary inside, what do you think?  Does look like a hermaphrodite flower, judjing by pic references i find online.

Net says that sometimes males are triggered by low temps ,to produce flowers with ovaries, but the temp in the greenhouse hasnt even dipped below 10C as of now, night temps between 11- 17C. The species should also be the mauntain papaya, with the angular smaller fruits, which should teoretically be more cold hardy and should not be triggered by those temps?





37
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Hand Pollination - passiflora decaisneana
« on: October 05, 2023, 05:51:42 PM »
Jealous of all those fruit, mine is just now having its first buds. A very late comer this year. Anyway ,i dont have pollen from my alata, so i will not have any fruit as awlays, i will self the flowers, but i am sure, there wont be anything. Whatever strain of this passiflora that i have, is self sterile. 

38
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Pumice, lava rock , or both ?
« on: October 05, 2023, 01:40:24 PM »
Pumice is fine.
Size doesn’t matter.
Thanks! I was hoping for it to be ok to use! Cant wait to try those out!

39
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Pumice, lava rock , or both ?
« on: October 05, 2023, 10:35:02 AM »
 My order came today, i took 50 liters of both pumice and lava. The lava looks good, the chunks are not too big and are uniform in size. I did order the pumice at a smaller grain size, now i think i should have took it at the larger chunk size.
Does the pumice look too fine, will it be ok?

Pumice





Lava






40
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Pumice, lava rock , or both ?
« on: October 04, 2023, 12:14:56 AM »
I recall that Millet on the citrus subforum had tried growing citrus in primarily (or entirely?) lava rock and gave up because of unsolvable nutrient deficiencies.
People that are on a facebook citrus group are growing their citruses in a soil obtained from Sicily. They are using native soil, peat and lava rock, one woman which travels to a nursery in sicily, for plant shopping, is getting it and selling it in the group. My logic is that since lava rock is just a rock, doesnt contain any organic components in it, as far as i know.  It probably cannot sustain the microbial life in the pot, as theres no soil in pure lava.
So lava should be as a soil ingredient, and not on its own, thats how i feel about it!

41
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Pumice, lava rock , or both ?
« on: October 03, 2023, 03:59:07 PM »
This is my mix for pretty much everything:
* peat
* sand
* perlite
* pumice
* clay pellets
* charcoal
* worm casting
* mycorrhiza
* azomite

Rate of each dependence on the plant type.
Thanks, i have about half of those ingredients, been wanting to make me some charcoal for a while, i could use the one from the fire pit of my heating system, but since we use fuels to light the fire usually, dont want to risk it.
I must remember when i go to a camping site, to clean up the fire pits in the area...

42
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Pumice, lava rock , or both ?
« on: October 03, 2023, 03:34:06 PM »
Nice! Since they are the same price, where i found them, i will take from both and use them 50/50 in the mixes. I am also a perlite user and have 2 very big bags right now, just want to try those out, will start to add a little bit of sand also, as my latest mix turned out very nice with sand added.

43
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Pumice, lava rock , or both ?
« on: October 03, 2023, 07:18:05 AM »
I am looking into adding one or possibly both of those products to my potting soil for tropicals, bonsai and other more valuable plants. Should i use one or the other, or is it best to use both as an equal part in a potting mix?  I was thinking of getting just the lava rock, but i saw there is also pumice available.
What is your reccomendation?

44

In order for me to know how much light i gain with this is to have a lightmeter and make some measurements, i may get one one day,


If you have a smartphone, especially Android, it almost certainly has a built in light meter to enable adaptive screen brightness. That sensor can be revealed with various apps, my favorite for it is the GPS Status and Tools app, which I have the "Pro" version of. It looks like this (I removed my GPS coordinates, the light level shown is under an indoor ceiling light):


I don't know how accurate it is, but based on the full direct sun reading, it seems pretty good.

Nice one! I have to check that out.

45
That's nice I like it..!! No sure how much it will help but can't hurt.

I recently insulated the north end of my greenhouse with white colored insulation. It will make me smile come winter.

I also replaced the Solarig with Palring. Both double layer inflated. Light inside went from less than 50% of outside to about 60%. I love it.

In order for me to know how much light i gain with this is to have a lightmeter and make some measurements, i may get one one day, but it wont be before i get my sweet meter/ refractometer.
I will also be doing a greenhouse renovation, but i left it for next spring and summer.
Its cool uve found those materials that work for you, i think you suggested them to me in another tread, i am the stubborn policarbonate fan haha..

46
So a year later, my idea has finally came to life.  I decided to do it with the upper suggested emergency blankets,  3 of those, sandwiched between 1 layer each side of strong nylon.
The 3 layers are then weaven together at several places. The sheet is then fixed to 4 m long metal rods. The whole thing is 2m by 4m. The way i mounted it, at least for now, seems very sturdy, we havent had a very strong wind for now, so I'm interested when that happens, how will the sheet respong. I weaved the layers with a very strong sewing thread, about 25 sm apart lenghwise, so it should hold up well for a while.
I cant tell if the angle is correct, compared to the sun, but thats what i could do, whiwe using the full size of the sheet.
I definitely can tell that it does reflect quite some light on the shady side of the greenhouse, the base of the greenhouse has warmed up, like it does when directly lit by the sun, just not as warm. The tiles also look quite brighter ,compared to before.
On the inside, the sun facing part is considerably brighter, but again, the shady part that faces the house got much brighter, compared to before.
Anyway, i dont know if this will be much of a benefit, but anyway, it has been done and i will monitor how the plants behave from now on.
The dragon fruits, which face the shady side, are in bud wright now ,should benefit from any additional light.



























47
Ive had a papaya plant flower before, it was identified as a male, here on the group, the flower stem was kinda like the one i have now, but then the actual bunch of flowers at the top was way bigger, theese ones now have only like 5- 7 visible individual flowers.
Yes i will upload more pictures, ones the flowers develop more and start opening.

48
I have 3 Vasconacaela Pubescens plants, planted in one hole. The biggest of them has theese flower clusters, to me they look like a hermaphrodite tipe flowers. Can someone with more experience tell what gender would those be? I dont know if this species is like the regular papaya, gender wise?









49
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Forcing mango to branch out
« on: September 18, 2023, 01:58:09 AM »
Orkine , thanks for the video , will follow his advice, he showed a very nicely formed tree in the end of the video, thats my goal, althought i should form mine more like a talled and slender version of this, as i have mostly some vertical space.


Kapps, i did just that with the new growth, gone, i will wait for the 2 other branches to wake up though, i feel more comfortable that way, i could remove the dormant ones with a razor blade, i may try that...

50
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Do you thin your dragon fruit flower buds?
« on: September 18, 2023, 01:38:34 AM »
I had several yellowing ones on both plants, removed them as soon as i was sertain they were to be aborted.
Well, i am not that fussy about fruit size, i would be happy with big fruits, but i woudnt remove some of them as to have a few bigger ones. Its hard enought to grow them here, dont want to be that picky...

My family is spoiled.  They won't eat small fruits, lol.



Haha, i may change my mind, if i find myself in overabundance one day, i do thin for bigger fruit, but only stuff like nectarines and apple's.

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