teamjbar

Hello all,
I have two doubles now—one is about 5 ft tall and the other is about 4. I live in the SF Bay Area, and it only freezes a few times a year here. During one of those overnight frosts last winter we forgot to bring it in and killed the parent plant to these two.

Because the temp only gets to about 30 at the lowest, and because it's so infrequent, I thought perhaps I could get away with using a small greenhouse to let them live in for the coldest months. My question is: Is that enough, without a light bulb to heat them, if I only need to raise the temp a few scant degrees? The variety is meant to withstand most temps in this area.

On the non-freezing but cold nights, the plant seemed to do fine when we left it out, although we were trying to bring it in when we could. Thing is, we're not always here, and anyway the plants are getting too big to move now.

What do you experts think? I thought that by keeping the dew off the leaves, and perhaps raising the temp by 2-3 degrees, a little greenhouse could work.

Abnshrek

#1 a pot is going to reduce your bounty potential. I'd plant them in the ground in your temperate area, put a heat-tape on it and cover the plant in frost cloth.. 15' x 20' can cover a good mat.. All you need is a long stick and covering is pretty easy.. I use a zip strip to close the top of my frost cloth, then drape it around the mat, you can stake the bottom but a couple rocks helps keep it in place.. On the vertical seem I use office clamps.. Heat-tape will keep it from freezing no matter what kind of weather blows in.. :^)

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teamjbar

They are in pots because we'll be moving in the next year or so and I want to take the plants with us. I'm going to look into the products you mentioned. Thanks!

bananimal

Just stick a small inexpensive electric space heater in the ghouse. Play with the temp control to keep it warm in the 50 - 60 deg range. Hang an outside thermometer inside so you can read it easily without opening the door.

I did this twice during the cold snaps of '09 and '10 but I used the garage. Wrapped the pstems planted outside and all the pups were saved.

Abnshrek

That's what I have out in the Garage Storage w/ the plants out there.. I had to turn it down it was 74 in there.. :^)

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sunfish

Get a thermostat that's what they're for

Kat2

Make sure the thermostat is wired to control the heating unit...otherwise all you have is a thermometer.

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teamjbar

I should have mentioned: I have definitely considered a heater of course, but we have electricity issues here…I can't run a little space heater outside. That's why I'm asking if the greenhouse would provide enough protection, to keep the leaves dry, so that hopefully they won't freeze. We rarely get below 32, and if we do, it's only 1-2 degrees.

Olafhenny

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