Thread: Fruit, Nut, and Vine Grafting, Tree Propagation, Tree Care

I've been thinking on this all night. I think I need to take another look at my greenhouse layout and possibly redo it some. I already have one black 55 gallon drum filled with water but I'm not sure it's enough thermal mass and space is already an issue.

Loops of black poly tube circulated back into the barrel would definitely help raise it's heat

Originally Posted by SuperDave336

I've been thinking on this all night. I think I need to take another look at my greenhouse layout and possibly redo it some. I already have one black 55 gallon drum filled with water but I'm not sure it's enough thermal mass and space is already an issue.

With the high ceiling height of this storage unit I will need more mass than normal but it will take 40ft of barrels to keep citrus trees in 20 degree nights. I don't think the recovery will be enough for several nights in a row with a lot of wind like we are having now. I was thinking of taking my backhoe and trenching black PVC say 2in and doing a circulating system like Jack suggests, dot know yet if that would work. I think waiting till the new cover is on then start the engineering in earnest. I have no trouble putting a infrared heater in if a boost is needed.

If I could just win the lottery I would fix us up really nice.

I found out yesterday my Camper Roof while being stored on Ross Barnett cooked in the heat wave, I have to install a new TPO membrane. Also I have a new Pork Tamale to develop for for the Team Competition in

Hogs For The Cause - Food, Music, Charity | 4/5 & 4/6, NOLA - Hogs for the Cause | New Orleans, LA

I also have to fabricate a wash station since the team will not have running water as well as rig a trailer "Turn Key" to pull up that has the wash station, roof, extra water, lights, battery power, etc. The trailer showed up with the boards falling off, one of the signal light mounting brackets torn off and tires leaking air. The new cover for the Green House conversion is on it's way too. The Caddy is in the way. I got to get Rolling!

Explanations are over, Here I'm "Fig Pop Method" rooting fig cuttings from a friend. This fig may be a Smith, not totally positive since the "Mother Tree" figs kept getting eaten by wildlife before I could see one fully ripe.



To start you need a sterile rooting mix without fertilizers. Here I'm using Coconut Fibers, Vermiculite, & Perlite combined to give good moisture retention and drainage.



Preparing the cuttings. First is to mark with a paint pen the variety so later you know what the plant is. Afterwards wrapping the part of the cutting sticking out of the rooting medium with Parafilm prevents the cutting from drying out prematurely.



Using U-Line poly bags as a container you fill it to the desired height. Here I cut on a 45 a piece if 1-1/2in PVC for a shovel. After snipping off the dry end of the bottom of the cutting right below a node you apply Rooting Hormone to the cut and place the cutting in a hole in the center of the medium made by the handle of the paint brush. Finally you wrap a rubber band around the cutting bag sealing it at the top while wrapping under the bottom of the bag to compress the rooting medium around the cutting.



Plastic Totes are popular as containers for holding the cuttings while rooting. I will poke holes in the bags with a toothpick in a week to provide air to the rooting bark. More to come.

Woohoo, fig rooting underway. Wishing you 100% success rate. What is the DENT variety? I'm not sure I've heard of that one.

Originally Posted by SuperDave336

Woohoo, fig rooting underway. Wishing you 100% success rate. What is the DENT variety? I'm not sure I've heard of that one.

Dent is short for Dentist. One of the trees is Smith but now sure which one. I went through 75 bags so I know its one of the three. I'm going over to the house with the mother trees, all came from gourmet fig growers, and will find out if the Dentist had the green fig.

So if I'm understanding correctly they came from another growers house that is a dentist and has different varieties.