Temperate Fruit & Orchards > Temperate Fruit Discussion

Zone Pushing - What to grow in unheated greenhouse in 8a

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All the fruit:
I might have an almost unlimited supply of compost for them but somebody needs to shovel those tons and tons of stinky gunk into the greenhouse and they dont look too game 😂
Also i was told to be careful since large piles can spontaneously combust

Solko:
In my experience an unheated greenhouse helps a lot. But the way it helps is not easily translated in a few extra degrees. For example,I have two big trees of a type of Strawberry Guava (Psidium Longipetiolatum) here in Rotterdam. I had one inside my unheated greenhouse, and one outside the last winter with a full week of night temperatures of -6, -7 C in December. The minimum temperature at night was almost the same inside the greenhouse as outside. Maybe it was 1 or two degrees warmer inside the greenhouse. But that little extra protection against wind, against radiation and the fact that the air heats up in the daytime as soon as the sun comes out made all the difference. One tree is completely undamaged (the one inside the unheated greenhouse) and the other tree is completely defoliated and died back to the main trunk. It will take 3 to 4 years to grow that one back. So the protection inside the unheated greenhouse in the winter makes a lot of difference, but is difficult to translate in degrees.
Over the last ten years I have tried to grow a lot of subtropical fruits from the Myrtle family like strawberry guava, Uvaia, Ubajay, Pitanga, Cerella, and also citrus and avocado in my small unheated greenhouse and I even made some selections from the most successful experiments that I think are hardy enough to grow in an unheated greenhouse in zone 8 in Western Europe. You can check them out on www.bontegout.com/seeds-shop
Good luck!
Solko

lajos93:
If you place a bunch of water barrels painted black you can plant frost sensitive (or ones that can handle until -5C) plants near to the barrels,

if you had made it sunken that would even give it better protection but thats another story

As for the night lows.. its true that its almost just as cold at night as it is outside, but its for a few hours shorter period, which also helps the sensitive plants

It takes quite a bit of experimentation what you can push, I mean many years.. but I would easily start with citrus, there are many tasty but hardy citrus that can take down to zone 8A, or 8B with ease

All the fruit:
Thank you, this is good info

Plantinyum:

--- Quote from: All the fruit on June 27, 2024, 05:51:48 AM ---Thank you all very much for the professional advice. Also Platinium, can i visit your collection when i go home some of those years?

Also i would be happy about more suggestions what they can plant there that does not grow outdoors in Germany

--- End quote ---
Yeah , sure, havent been active on the forum lately , thus the late response. Love your youtube channel and videos, especially the ones from tropical countries!

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