Kailebw
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Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2014 6:37 pm

Growing a tropical, or vegitable greenhouse

My question basically is "What kind of sweet looking, tropical plants could I put in my greenhouse without a heater?".

I live in the Pacific Northwest (just north of Seattle) and we just bought a massive property that I now have to learn to take care of, along with a greenhouse. I started roughly researching the different plants I can put in there and eventually decided to use the beds along the windows for exotic looking plants like colorful, large-leafed foliage, succulents and exotic flowers. Unfortunately I don't have heating, nor the money for it, and the girl I plan to fix it up with is only interested in the greenhouse for vegetables so now we have to come to an agreement on where to put plants. She says I might be able to hang pots from the rafters for some plants and for some of the low-light ones we can use the only wall without windows, which still gets plenty of light. If that's the case then I really wouldn't mind letting her use the beds along the border but I still don't know which plants I can grow without the heater.

This site is where I think I got the majority of my information and features a lot of cool plants
https://www.merrifieldgardencenter.com/o ... house.aspx

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Your winters are not very cold there. Even though you are so far north, you are in zone 8, so you have a lot more choices than I would, here in zone 6. There are hardy bananas, some of which are dwarf, so as not to take up much room. Some ginger (e.g. Zingiber mioga) would be hardy for you. Elephant ears would be hardy and they come in green, black and I think some variegations.

Someone made a nice pinterest page of tropical plants for zone 8: https://www.pinterest.com/bruckenkopf/f ... in-zone-8/

It's very pretty with lots of colorful stuff, but you need to check them. She put caladium in there and I don't think that would be hardy for you.

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applestar
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Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I realize you are concentrating on winter and keeping the greenhouse warm enough, but have you thought about summertime and if the plants can stay in the greenhouse without getting too hot? You may also have to think about what to do with them then.

OK, just to answer your question about edibles, no heat and in zone 8...

I'm thinking most citruses, hardier Mexican avocado, and hot pepper plants would overwinter. Figs, Pomegranates and Tea shrubs, too, though in zone 8 you may already be able to do that without protection of greenhouse. Oh! Maybe kiwi or grapes vines. There are certainly ornamental winter hardy banana (and palm) and some edible bananas that might survive or you could likely use the space to store them in dormant state during the winter.

You could probably grow greens and maybe peas and maybe Asian greens, broccoli, etc. all through the winter perhaps with supplemental lighting.

In the summer, I suspect you might grow things that gardener's in England and Netherlands "grow under glass" because it's cloudy most of the time and not get hot enough: Cucumber, melons, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes? Strawberries might get an earlier start, but you would need to hand pollinate. Same for cukes and melons, but you can grow parthenocarpic cucumbers that need no pollination. ...but oh boy, I look at those and immediately think diseases and pests would be a big problem. But then, this might not be the case for your climate? Oh, another example might be sweet potatoes.



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