My après winter surviving cacti

[fanaticactus]

After my winter battles with record cold weather (which even the heated greenhouse couldn't handle) and with mealybug infestations, here is the bulk of my collection as it is now. Just this week I've managed to install some Aluminet shade cloth on the afternoon sun side and have managed to reduce the intensity (good to keep them from frying) and the abnormal heat (sometimes topping 100 degrees). An exhaust fan will be installed well before the true late spring & summer heat hit. There are a few more cacti I'm still treating for pests indoors on the sunporch until I deem it safe to put them with the others in the GH. Here they are sort of grouped by genus around the GH.

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In this photo the "iffy" ones are by the window to the left; they're a bit burned & brown in spots but may survive. Most are Echinopsis/Tricho hybrids.

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Here the Epis are set on gravel in old litter boxes (perfect for that use); in the corner under them are cacti which I think are basically completely dead. I'm just hanging onto them in case any of them has a miraculous recovery.

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Here are the biggest surprises I got when I took off the multi layers of newspaper that had been protecting the collection from the cold for several months. Two buds (first time) on a F. coptogonus, 4 buds on a Rebutia sp, new growth on a Chamaecereus hybrid, a supposedly fussy L. principis that survived with just some dried outer tubercles and a sort of budded T. hexaedrophorus, which had developed last fall but never did anything. Maybe they will this spring.

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[cactushobbyman]

Maybe this coming winter use bubble wrap on the outside like others have posted. That with your heater may help improve the odds.

[fanaticactus]

Maybe this coming winter use bubble wrap on the outside like others have posted. That with your heater may help improve the odds.

More that a couple of folks have mentioned that. While there's (hopefully) many months before the first dangerously cold weather again, I'll be thinking of how I get that done. Thanks for reminding me.

[DaveW]

Near death experience often encourages many plants to flower in order to pass on their genes! Glad the newspaper covering worked for some plants at least.

Regarding extra ventilation, with aluminium greenhouses in summer you can often just unclip a pane of glass providing the greenhouse is in a secure position where plants will not get robbed. Also provided temperatures do not go down below freezing greenhouse vents can be left open day and night in the growing season, since the plants grow better with cooler night temperatures.

You can also use a layer of bubble wrap over the newspapers in winter, the newspapers underneath stop any condensation forming on the bubble wrap which can happen if it is placed straight on the plants. If you get sunny winter days though it is as well to take the bubble wrap covering off and allow the newspaper to "breath" and dry out in order to dispel any moisture, putting it back when the temperature starts to drop again.

[oldcat61]

Have you strangled the guy who sold you the under-sized heating system? Maybe try to get a settlement for your losses? Have you found a new supplier who actually knows how to do a heat load calculation? You have much more patience than I ever will. Still can't believe all that beautiful construction & they didn't give you adequate heat for Vermont & a built-in exhaust fan. Glad you've saved a few & thanks for posting the results. Sue

[fanaticactus]

Have you strangled the guy who sold you the under-sized heating system? Maybe try to get a settlement for your losses? Have you found a new supplier who actually knows how to do a heat load calculation? You have much more patience than I ever will. Still can't believe all that beautiful construction & they didn't give you adequate heat for Vermont & a built-in exhaust fan. Glad you've saved a few & thanks for posting the results. Sue

Hi, Sue...any additions to the GH itself were of my own choosing (well, you suggested the fan which I bought--thanks!). I spent a couple of hours looking over all the heat possibilities and chose what I thought was the best solution and fit. A lot of them were propane heaters, which I did not want to deal with. The site had a fairly sophisticated BTU application to determine what size and capacity heater a GH would need. It was based on type of overall size, floor construction/material, wall & roof material and thickness (mine is two layers thick), and lowest average temperature expected. I exceeded the suggested heater size by about 200 BTUs. Based on the recent winters and the gradual g10ba1 wa6m1ng being experienced, I calculated on a just few nights at -10. That, apparently, is where the problem was. I, and most other locals, never expected consecutive weeks of way below zero nights and days into the single digits and teens. But I still give much credit to the quartz heater I bought because it just kept chugging out 1500 watts of power almost continuously and never quit (it was attached to a thermostat set at 80). My fault entirely for not thinking we'd have a weird, frigid, neverending winter sometime. But many thanks to those who suggested I throw layers and layers of newspaper over everything. That and a couple of old mattress pads draped over a couple of portable stands saved most of them that you see--some I kept inside, especially the newly bought ones. Bottom line: the guy who built the GH hesitated to recommend any specific heating system since that's not his specialty and he recognizes that all GHs have to deal with their own unique location and exposure. I did, however, make him aware of the problem in an informative way--no anger. I'm just looking forward to a better summer with my collection and a better equipped GH.

[DaveW]

You could always add a smaller heater with the thermostat set to a lower temperature that will just kick in as a backup, or vice versa with the small one starting first when it's not too cold and the larger one only cutting in when it cannot cope. However how often do you expect to get winters like you just experienced in future? I believe it was caused by an abnormal meandering of the Jet Stream this year, and we in the UK had a mild but wet winter as a consequence, but whether that will continue in the future only time will tell:-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... nters.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[fanaticactus]

You could always add a smaller heater with the thermostat set to a lower temperature that will just kick in as a backup, or vice versa with the small one starting first when it's not too cold and the larger one only cutting in when it cannot cope. However how often do you expect to get winters like you just experienced in future? I believe it was caused by an abnormal meandering of the Jet Stream this year, and we in the UK had a mild but wet winter as a consequence, but whether that will continue in the future only time will tell:-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... nters.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You are correct on all counts, Dave, from all that I've heard and read. I know you and the Continent have a mild winter (like ours had been for several years before this last one). The folks who have grown up here or at least who have been here much longer than I, tell me that it's been probably 15 or 20 years since a winter as brutal and unrelenting as this past one. I hope that means this was a freaky one that will not repeat for many, many years! Let me give some thought to a second heater. I just don't want to blow the electric line if everything's on at once!

[oldcat61]

What amp circuit do you have going to the GH? I only have a 20amp so I run the baseboard heat on an extension cord thru the open window. The baseboard unit is just a portable strip, 6ft long, from Home Depot. Being along the outside wall, it really does a good job. I only need the ceramic heater on real cold nights but the combo of the two kept my GH at 58-60 for the minus 5 nights. Tenting the whole thing in plastic ( because of a little leak ) also gave me a nice dead air space. Sue

[DaveW]

Greenhouse gas heaters seem to be popular in the UK when running off mains gas rather than propane since that is cheaper than using electricity here. I would have thought with all the cheap gas as a result of fracking in the USA it would be popular over there too?

There are quite a few types available in the UK to run off mains or bottled gas:-

http://www.twowests.co.uk/product/hotbo ... gas-heater" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.hotboxworld.com/products/gas-hotbox/4/cat" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This was the only US one I found:-

http://www.littlegreenhouse.com/accesso ... pare.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Of course you have to add in the cost of providing a gas line to the greenhouse unless using bottled gas. In the UK that is usually just from the house to greenhouse since these days most UK houses are heated by natural gas.

If your using electric heating fan type greenhouse heaters are most used over here as they spread the heat quickly:-

http://www.garden4less.co.uk/electric-g ... eaters.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[oldcat61]

Ah, the joys of country living. I think the nearest gas line is 6 miles away & I'm terrified of propane. I try to pay the electric bill without really letting the amount sink in - it's ugly. I imagine the GH is peanuts compared to the koi pond, hot tub & hot water heater. We have two woodstoves, so they help with the oil bills. Sue

[fanaticactus]

This whole area has no natural gas lines, so for heat and cooking (if you don't go all electric) the choice is propane. I used to be afraid to be anywhere near gas (my dad used to work for the Boston electric company (Edison) and had very disparaging remarks about gas. We had a gas stove and dryer in NY state, but they were on the main natural gas line. Here we have propane for heat (large tanks--one underground) and kerosene for hot water. Yes, I know there may be a lurking danger but so far so good. I've not heard of any gas explosions in this whole county, and region-wide they happen only rarely--usually from poorly maintained equipment. I suppose it's like living in CA with the lurking threat of a major earthquake, but life goes on!

[DaveW]

An electrical short can set fire to the house and oil fired heaters can explode or catch fire just like gas ones

In the UK paraffin (kerosene) or oil fired heating is now far dearer than gas. In the past most amateurs used to heat their greenhouses with paraffin as it was cheap, but the price of oil rocketed and natural gas became available much cheaper for home heating therefore paraffin heaters were all ditched, now it's dearer than road fuel = gas/petrol.

http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garden-bu ... kies=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Therefore paraffin/kerosene in small quantities for greenhouse heating in the UK would be £1.745p ($2.92) per litre. According to the AA one litre of petrol now costs on average £1.295p ($2.17) in the UK. When I started collecting paraffin was just a by-product of petrol and cost about half as much as petrol. There are 3.785 litres in an American gallon (1 imperial gallon = 1.2 US gallons) which is less than an Imperial = UK gallon, therefore in US gallons at those prices petrol/gas would cost $4.9016 per US gallon and paraffin/kerosene $6.60 per US gallon.