The Tropical Fruit Forum

What does the white cover do to your soil temperature? Might remain too cold?

Good question, I don't know yet.  I will have to take soil temp readings throughout the year and see (assuming I keep the white covering)

This is going to be cramped in there once those trees get to size...

Yes... I am thinking I will try some severe pruning methods and perhaps slowly replant everything onto FD rootstock, which I have a ton of seedlings for.   Also, the ceiling is about 14ft high in the center row, so I could let the center row trees get the largest and prune the side trees smaller.  Not sure.   "too much" is always a fun problem to have.

Millet, I thought about drain holes, but is it an issue that the material does not breath?  I know gravity will pull the drip irrigation water down, but wouldn't the mulch (and any roots) under the fabric stagnate and rot?  I could cut circles to expose ~3ft area around the in-ground tree trunks, but I'm not sure if leaving the remaining area without oxygen is a problem or not

Nope, it didnt' drain at all.  What a waste.  It was expensive, too, and I ordered it last year so too late to return. 

I forget where I left off when I last posted about my greenhouse, but I've been steadily working on it ever since.  I have thermostat controlled ventilation and heat, ceiling fans, and I've just recently added a drip irrigation system with a programmable timer.

# original construction planning & completion thread
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=18512.msg231153#msg231153

# thread about soil & drainage
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=25371.msg297026#msg297026

The trees I planted directly in the clay soil (no amendments) have been doing just fine.  I have two minneolas and two xie shans I bought at the same time, one of each went into the ground and the other remained in a rootmaker pot.  Growth has been about the same so far between the two different planting types.

Here's the floor plan:


And here is wall segment showing how I have seedlings growing using hanging containers I got from Ikea.  I can support a few hundred seedlings this way.



The first step was the take all the container plants out and level the floor as much as possible.  I had a delivery of topsoil and wood chips.  I levelled as best I could with a shovel, installed the irrigation piping, then put much on top of it. 



I can't seem to find the picture I took of the drip irrigation piping, but it is pex pipe mains with two 2gal/hr drippers per in-ground plant.  I put rings of pex around each in-ground tree to keep the water in place as during my initial testing it was running off outside the root zones.  Now it stays nicely in place.



Today I laid down white landscaping fabic over the mulch.  The intent is add even more light to the greenhouse, while having a flat continous surface allowing me to sweep up leaves and other debris.  I don't much like how it looks, but I am going to leave it for a while and see if it grows on me.  White rocks or gravel would look much nicer, but I don't like adding anything I can't easily remove that won't decompose. 


The first big problem I ran into... the "landscape fabric" doesn't let water through!  It is more like a woven plastic painter's tarp.  I might have to rip it out.  I'm going to go back and check soon and see if the pooled water has drained.

I use a small amount of soap (br dronners unscented pure castille soap).  I'm not sure if it helps, but it seems better than nothing.

Thank you for this, Joe.  I right now am moving my garcinias to sit under larger trees. 

My experience with polycarbonate, wood, and tape/sealants is that water will find a way and you will have leaks you cannot avoid.  Even manufactured double-pane vacuum-sealed windows leak sometimes. 

It's awfully nice in Pennsylvania.  All my trees are flushing and I just set up drip irrigation in my greenhouse. 

The deer here have never touched my container trees.  They eat everything else, but the citrus smell must be foreign and scary to them.  I hope they never get a taste for it

This is really neat.  I have a few calomondins I was planning on getting rid of, I think I will try this on one of them.  I have never successfully grafted anything, but I try occasionally.

And thank you, Sylvain, for posting a PDF.  I would never have been able to access it otherwise as I have no facebook account.

"monies in - mango out" is more accurate for us...

I'm interested in these also, when you are ready