Greenhouse fruits are in bloom

You should make your own hybrids with apricots and peaches/nectarines.

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Iā€™ll rely on you for that. But thank you for your interest.

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One issue I would have with a GH - no gas here on my street. It would have to be electric or maybe propane.

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A new pickup will run closer to $50K these days if you want the goodies :slight_smile:

Amazing that its already growing season againā€¦ winter really hasnā€™t even started up here yet!

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Thanks for the update Steven. You are a great model of efficiency and amazing fruit production! I hope your season is another great one. Bob

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Amazing greenhouse @fruitnut. Iā€™m eyeballing those unknown Rimada cuttings. My front yard needs some variegated figs. Are they much different than the common Panache? You have them listed under fig trees and not cuttings on Figbid, just fyi.

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Iā€™m not sure how much different the UNK Rimada is from a Panache. Itā€™s much more attractive and more vigorous than my Panache.

Iā€™ll check out the listing. Thank you for the heads up.

It wonā€™t let me change the category on my listing. Most have sold so Iā€™ll just have to live with it as isā€¦

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Iā€™m curious about your trellis system. Is that a 12 gauge wire with galvanized metal posts? I only see metal clips on the posts - how do they maintain the tension in the wires? I donā€™t see any anchoring of the wires on the end posts either. Looks like the wires should slip in no time.

Great setup, BTW! I canā€™t believe the weather can be manipulated to this extent.

The trellis wires were pulled tight when installed in 2015. Since then Iā€™ve done nothing to keep them tight. There is some tension that comes from the fact that the end posts are supported on both ends, tied to GH frame on top. The bowing in the end posts holds some tension on the wire.

Evaporative cooling, our climate, and shade allows some chilling from about mid Oct into March if one were to try. I could get ~1800 hrs if not more and only need a third of that. This yr I chose a very early chill cycle to suit my fig business and vacation plans. Our ave winter temps are about 60/30F. Thatā€™s cool enough to get chilling esp at night yet warm enough to heat up by day. When in chill cycle I heat to 37F. Thatā€™s the bottom end of optimum according to the Utah model. I have heated to 34F and it still worked fine.

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I know you can manipulate chill hours inside the greenhouse, but didnā€™t realize (although its obvious) one can also change the bloom times with subsequent heating. I wonder if you can get multiple crops from stone fruit trees within the same year, if you repeated this process. Your utility bill will be likely through the roof though :slight_smile: (pun intended!). Theoretically, Iā€™d guess, the timing of the second crop is limited by the time for the tree to grow out the leaves and shed them again before blooming. Other than that, these trees donā€™t have any sense of a ā€œyearā€ to prevent the second crop, right?

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I read it somewhere that the length of the day (duration of the sunlight each day) is also an important factor. Trees know the season by that. So there is only so much you can manipulate. Not everything. But it is a different story if you can mimic the intense summer sunlight in the greenhouse. Then you got the power. :slight_smile:

The limitation would be getting chilling during the warm part of the yr. To do two crops a yr Iā€™d need early maturing varieties and a second chill cycle in the summer. My current setup canā€™t begin to do that. A large walk in cooler would do the job. Iā€™ve thought about that before. It would be really easy to do with potted blueberries. I also think it would work with a potted Tasty Rich aprium.

If Iā€™m not mistaken there was a guy doing this in large greenhouses just south of Seattle. Not sure if he still is in business.

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