TropicalFruitHunters, thanks for the kind words. The ceilings fans have been great, they are really high quality and run almost nonstop for years. I just wish I had gotten ones with cages instead of having to rig my own to keep the quail from flying into them. They are advertised for agricultural (barn) use and I have had zero rust on them. They have no opportunity to accumulate water as they only turn off when the exhaust fans turn on. My entire greenhouse is usually wet anyway because of condensation or messy watering. With nothing organic to rot there isn't any issue with moisture other than algae growth. I saw your sill plate rot issue on your blog and I am thankful that I managed to avoid wood entirely. My gas pipe might rust out one day but it is above ground so it should take a long time.
I clean the walls two or three times a year but it really isn't so bad. Takes about 2hrs to wash with a sponge and soap and water. I have dreams of a frameless greenhouse design which would be much faster to clean.
Scale is a real pain. I probably spend more time spraying scale than all other greenhouse & tree maintenance
combined. The spider mites are relentless on certain trees such as annonas but I am finally keeping the mealybugs in check with frequent soap or hort oil spraying. It is a huge relief when I bring my trees out in the spring watching all the predatory insects hunting mealybugs and the rain suppressing spider mites.
My rollinia set some fruits but the entire limb they were attached to died from an unchecked scale infestation. I expect it will set more fruit soon, though. Like you describe, I am basically just waiting to try the fruit before I chop it down. It doesn't seem like a good fit long term.
The growth on my Lucs and Mangosteen has finally started accelerate. For years they would put on a couple leaves a year with node spacing of only millimeters. I don't really have high expectations for most of the other garcinias but I figure I'll grow them as long as I can find room for them. I cram them all together really tightly as they are shade tolerant so I can fit a dozen in the space one tree typically needs.
The marang growing well was a huge surprise to me. They are tip bearers, I hear, though so I am not sure if it will actually be possible to reach fruiting size without taking up the whole greenhouse. It is already putting out a lot of new growth so I expect it may hit the ceiling within a year or two. I saw your graft, looks awesome... but I don't think I will be finding any mature marang scion to graft with in Pennsylvania
drymifolia, I am glad I happened to prune and clean up my greenhouse just a few days before eyeckr came. I didn't know he would be making a video until he arrived and it was way uglier in there only a week prior.
BloomAndSprout, I am incredibly fortunate to have bought my house when I did. Suburban land costs are insane now. I had dreams of buying a few acres of land nearby to build more greenhouses but vacant land prices have doubled or tripled because of potential for building subdivisions. Maybe when my kids are grown we can move to central PA where land is cheap.
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