Winter Grow Room.. UPDATED!! 12/28/11

[*Barracuda_52*]

Well winter is about here, been super cold and gloomy for over 2 weeks here, just to cold for the succulents and cacti outside, its about time to bring them in, the succulents will be the first in since the cacti have a heater in the mini GH they can stay out as long as possible, meanwhile been working on wall grow rack/shelfs got one done all thats left to do is split the foil and tack it up on the the wall for the top rack and under for the bottom rack, install 6 shop lights and install surge protectors, install small fan for air circulation, place grow tanks on mini shelfs one for a 10 gal/bottom and the other for a 20 gal/top where the little end shelf is, then im gona move the grow chamber thats in the one pic over more and build another rack/shelf systom the same on that wall and have that to load more plants onto im glad i have TONS room in the bigger plant grow room so i can house LOTS plants over winter indoors. If i run outa room i have another room to use for more grow racks..

Heres how it looks now, will update this next week.
my friendly ghost desided to show up in 2 of the pics as orbs..





will update soon..

[Tony]

Looks good Tracey!
I have a few family members that still really believe those orbs are spirits from another world and not just floating dust paticles caught in the flash.
I go around and around with them, Its hilarious.

[daiv]

Tracy, that's quite a setup. Is your plan to keep your cactus growing through the winter?

[*Barracuda_52*]

Well time for a update, Daiv the lights are gona be on timers, basicaly to co-inside with winter daylight hrs. My basment is probably alot warmer than most peoples basements.
Yesterday i was home alone and spent the day rigging lights and getting things ready to move the plants in, temps droped to 33 last night BRRRRRRRRRRRRR not leaving my plant kids outside no longer.. Its been way to cold for a few weeks now they say we are supose to have high of 60 for few days but the nights are just to cold, fall is in full force here, trees have changed color and half the leafs are already off alot of trees winter is very close..

Heres what i got done yesterday by my self. I still have to get the small shelf lights rigged into one plug and tied up. Sorry for the mess i wasnt done. Need to vacume and clean once done.
comming thru the plant room door..

looking the other way once in.



I can highten or lower the lights to accomidate certain size plants and also i have certain lights for certain plants.
All wood has been pre treated with pestacide, i think i did pretty good.. Considering all the lights i had looked diffrent from each other oh well whom cares it gets the job done..
Next plants to be treated/sprayed befour comming in they will be waterd since they havent been waterd in a month.
Next is to build another rack on the back wall.
Will update this again once plants are all in place, i have desided to use the small racks for certain plants insted of my small grow tanks, there going on the back wall rack.

[daiv]

Yeah, we got a slight touch of frost here the night before last as well. It has warmed up again, but it will not be long at all before freezing is a regular thing at night.

[*Barracuda_52*]

Well im glad i got all my plants in, its been in the 20's the last several nights here and not very warm durring the day, we are supose to have a small warm up few days of close to 60's but still very cold at night. Well the down stairs grow room is about finished this is how it looks so far, still have to get few more lights rigged and also more shelfs on the bottom of the second rack built in. Then gota get my controled grow tank up and running with begonia leaf starts and AV leaf starts..

The last pic is my begonia grow GH and my AV grow rack. I still gota arrange plants around and lug another 12 to 15 rain water jugs down to the plant room.
As you walk thru the door




and onto the second rack/table hubby built me thats not finished, that one is gona be for all succulents top and bottom when those shelfs are done, then i will move the succulents from the first rack bottom right to the second rack, which will free me up room for more cacti.


i have to add more lights to this rack/table

and my little sitting area to enjoy everything or to work with my other plants.. Theres a closet behind my chair where i store alot of my supplies so that its not cluttering up the room. Gota get alittle table put in the room as well for working on..

My Orchids are on a grow racks in my office, and am fixing up the bottom of there one grow rack for 11 baby orchid hybrids and 1 medium size orchid comming in next week.
Everyone is good and ready to go for winter now..

[daiv]

Looks like a good place to spend the winter Tracey!

We had a couple nights with a touch of frost, but not that bad.

[Tony]

Wow, you have been buisy! Looks real good.

[*Barracuda_52*]

Well its that time of the yr once again to start working on the grow room in prep for winter, this yr we need to build benches with plastic enclosing it for the orchids to help maintain the humidity and also benches for the baby tropical trees. Will rig fans for the orchids and also for the trees to keep air circulating. Need to move the grow tank chamber out to make space for the new benches, thinking about removing the begonia GH and making the orchids enclosed bench big enough to house them and the begonias all together.. Once i get plans laid out and we get to work on this will post pics as we go..

[*Barracuda_52*]

And so it has begun, trashing the winter grow room to start building more benches/racks, to start we got the massive grow tank out and also removed the small portable GH that housed my begonias last winter, and i also doused the whole plant room with pestacide. Thats what those funny wet marks are all over the place. I dont want to be working down there with any bugs that got in over summer.. LOL!!

Heres how it looks so far..
This is where we are building more shelf/racks the wall is gona get painted and then completely foiled..




Gona get rid of the built in closet shelf unit thingy behind those funky curtains or incorperate one side for plants and close off the other completely.. Not sure if im gona use the portable GH or not. If i dont its getting moved and more shelf/racks will be built where its at now.

Will update this again as we build in the comming weeks.

[CoronaCactus]

your electrical meter is gonna be spinnin like a top!
Since switching from an indoor propagator to the greenhouse, we've noticed a nice drop in our monthly bill. Was only 10 lights, but when they are on 18 hours everyday that adds up. Atleast fluorescent tubes are on the low end for power consumption

[*Barracuda_52*]

Atleast fluorescent tubes are on the low end for power consumption

Thats what i use.. Im leaving the cacti and succulents out in there GH longer than i did last yr with the heater to keep that warm but will still bring them in for winter months this yr, want to see how well our new GH holds up under the snow loads with our modified suport beams in place dont want to take chances of any misshaps, if she does well thru winter then next winter all the cacti and succulents are staying out with propane heat, but the tropicals will always come back in. There GH will make it thru winter snow loads as we built it to handle that and im not about to heat 2 seperate GHs all winter long. Its not the electric that kills us its the darn propane heater thats costly big time we are gona be working on getting a wood burring stove for the house not sure if that will happen this yr or not but we have already started cutting and loading up the wood its not like we wont never have enough wood here to burn LOL!! Still have LOTS of trees to cut.

[daiv]

Tracy,
Regarding your greenhouse and snow... Since you are experimenting this year you might want to turn the heat on to whatever you would keep it at next year with plants. Unlike a properly insulated house which can pile up with snow, your greenhouse roof will leak so much heat that any snow should melt quickly and/or slide off the roof as it accumulates. Even my non-heated greenhouse roof does this quite effectively.

Some day I'm going to have to setup a light room and so your post here is good for giving me ideas. While I think I'll always keep my cactus in cold storage, the Epi-cactus do not like that at all and I don't have enough places in the house for them either. Most are small now so I got time, but eventually, I'll have to make other arrangements.

[*Barracuda_52*]

Ok had to start moving the tropicals in from there GH its just to cold and alot of them are showing sings of frost bit leafs mainly my African Violets, just way to cold without a heater in the GH. There just placed on the cacti benches/racks for now, there gona be getting newly built rack grow unit complete with small fan that will be along the pegboard wall. The one closet is gona be for tropical trees. In the pics you can see i had to leave some pipes exposed due to we have shut off vavles back there we need to have axcess to. The bench/rack thats against the pegboard wall is the one we moved from the back wall so i could paint, then we will be putting it back tomarrow, still have lots more plants to bring in from the tropicals GH there not all in these pics..

This is whats done so far, the rest will get done by the middle next week.

heres how that crappy closet area looks now, not a whole lot we can do with left over paint outa the garage and scrap wood..

gotta figure out how far apart i need to install the shelfs in the closet tomarrow.

We used boxes and totes to lug them in and down the stairway to the plant room, heres some of my poor frozen tropicals, the fancy leaf begonias have done very well, so have almost all orchids, the baby trees are doing ok there not in yet, the african violets took the worst and so did few of my house plants thats not in the pics..



This is temporary till there grow bench/rack is built in few days. Walls are getting maylar.
Once everything is done, and plants settled i will be getting wall to wall indoor/outdoor carept for the floor. ALOT of work ahead. Will update again soon..

[daiv]

Looks good Tracey. great that you can keep the cacti out longer thanks to the greenhouse!