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

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All the fruit:
Hi everybody,

my friends have a huge greenhose (about 20 000 sq feet) every hobby gardeners dream. Single glass, on an open field near Heidelberg/Germany (teaditionally USDA zone 7b, now 8a. They like exotic fruits and with a little help from me they are starting a non herdy fruit collection. We already have Musa vasjoo, sikkimensis, Musella lasiocarpa, Ensete maurelii, Yuzu, Ichang Papeda, some surviving citrus rootstocks and seedlings, pomegrenades...Wondering if strawberry guava, mountain papaya or hardy tamarillo will grow there

My questions:1:  What else can we grow there? Im especially interested in the super rare and tasty fruits
2: How much does such a greenhouse help?Is it like 8b or even 9b?
3: Any specific care tips for those plants in such a place

drymifolia:

--- Quote from: All the fruit on June 06, 2024, 01:50:54 PM ---How much does such a greenhouse help?Is it like 8b or even 9b?

--- End quote ---

Unfortunately, if you aren't heating it at all then it provides very little protection against overnight low temperatures, but the best way to know for sure is to install temperature sensors inside and outside, and compare them just before dawn.

You will likely find that by the end of the night, the greenhouse is (at best) one or two degrees warmer than the outside temperature.

During the day, it can be dozens of degrees warmer, but once the sun is gone, the extra trapped heat will generally all escape within a few hours.

As an example, here's the ∆°C chart (i.e., how much warmer it is compared to the outside) for my greenhouse today since midnight (currently just after 2pm in my time zone). Overnight it was about 2°C warmer, and has about 150 watts of seedling heating pads and about 100 watts of LED grow lights currently turned on. It would be about half that otherwise.



The 8am anomaly is due to the morning sun hitting the outdoor sensor on the outside north wall of the greenhouse and creating a false reading a few degrees warmer than the air temperature. The sudden drop before 11am was the exhaust fan turning on, and that's still running now. Without that, it would probably be 25+ degrees warmer inside (and my plants would be cooked).

All the fruit:
Thank you. Those are a lot of valuable insights

Nick C:
You'd be good with hardy tamarillo for sure. I have one in ground under a poly tunnel in 7a

All the fruit:

--- Quote from: Nick C on June 08, 2024, 12:07:03 PM ---You'd be good with hardy tamarillo for sure. I have one in ground under a poly tunnel in 7a

--- End quote ---

No heating? Also where in zone 7a?

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