Switching zonesive

Gene Mirro mirrog@yahoo.com
Fri, 19 Oct 2012 07:02:11 PDT
I live in SW Washington state.  I have a greenhouse, but I am trying to phase out all my tender plants.  It's too expensive to heat the greenhouse, especially on those rare five-day cold spells down to 15F.  There isn't enough light in the winter:  too cloudy, sun too low in the sky at this latitude.  

I am a big fan of indoor growing under lights.  A basement or laundry room is ideal for this.  All of the waste heat from the fixtures goes into heating the house.  So you have 100% energy efficiency.  You don't have to go outside to get to the plants.  Pest control is a problem; you have to restrict your use of pesticides in your living quarters.  

For tender plants that go dormant in winter, like Haemanthus, I grow them in the greenhouse in summer, and move the pots into the laundry room for the winter.  



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