Someone might be interested in how I grow fruits in a greenhouse. Figs are not hardy outdoors at my location. But with a greenhouse I can harvest figs from June until Dec 11 this year. Hail and spring freezes severely limit production of most other fruits outdoors. Not so in a greenhouse.

http://www.davewilson.com/home-gardens/growing-fruits-and-nuts/cultural-practices/greenhouse-fruit-growing/greenhouse-fruit-production-in-west-texas

Thanks for posting this.  I remember seeing some of your impressive gardenweb posts when I was looking for other folks who were into greenhouse fruit production (in-ground oranges in particular).  Your in-ground orange tree is awesome! (as is everything else)

Steve
This is a very interesting write-up and shows what a benefit greenhouses can be!  
What fig cultivars have you tried growing in the greenhouse and what temperature did you find was too hot for the figs?
Thanks

Greenfin:

Thanks for the kind words! Citrus does do pretty well in my greenhouse. But the setup is optimized for stone fruit so I spend about 10 weeks this time of year getting as much chilling as possible. I'm at about 900 hrs now but will continue another two weeks. If I were only growing citrus, figs, grapes, and other low chill plants I could add additional growing season for the figs. The other thing that would produce more figs would be heating to a higher nightime temperature than ~40F where I'm at now. But heating to 50-60F would be pretty expensive.

I see you say zone 10 greenhouse. What are you growing in yours?

Pino:

I've tried several Celeste strains and found them small and bland. Brown Turkey was big and bland as was Black Jack. Paradiso is very similar to Strawberry Verte, maybe a little bigger but also a little more spoilage. Vista was good and productive but not the best.

On the big figs like Black Jack I think I'm not hot enough and not enough water deficit. I'll need to work on that. The figs will from now on get the hottest spot probably about 100F ave summer high. That's not too hot. CA and AZ have great fig areas much hotter.

In Canada heat and sun would be critical. A high tunnel with some freeze protection would be one option. It's easy to add 15F to daytime temp with a high tunnel.

Hi fignutty, I have 2 different structures that I designed and built as experimental passive solar greenhouses.  I have a lot of pics and posts about these systems at my http://www.greenfingardens.com/ blog if you're interested.

The first is an above-ground 'high tunnel aquaponics' system that uses huge amounts of water to collect, store, and radiate heat.  In its baseline state, it's zone 10; when I set up large outdoor reflectors to bounce ~30% more light in, it's closer to zone 12.  Right now I'm running it 'cool' and growing lettuce/spinach in there while some bananas sit dormant and some pineapples and a guava tree slowly grow.  I fruited some papaya last year, but I hate papaya, so I don't grow it anymore. 

relevant thread w/ pics: http://www.bananas.org/f2/my-1st-flag-leaf-dwarf-cavendish-17882.html
especially post #7: http://www.bananas.org/218284-post7.html


The second structure is a semi-pit tunnel that uses the earth to govern its internal climate.  Last year (its first year), the lowest it got a foot off the ground was 36F.  This year I slightly ratcheted things up by adding a little bit of water (~800 gallons spread over 8 wading pools), and it's been about 5F warmer at corresponding outdoor temps.  But this winter has been colder than last year, so last week when it got down to -10F (!) outside, there was a slight frost inside up near the ceiling that fried a bunch of banana leaves.  P-stems are all fine, though, and there should be a good number and variety of bunches this spring/summer.  In addition to a small banana forest, I've also got some figs, a mango, and a sapodilla in there right now.  Sweet potatoes and beets grew well during their small trials, and strawberries seem to love it.

relevant thread with pics: http://www.bananas.org/f2/my-semi-pit-banana-greenhouse-18518.html

Excellent thread. Most likely adding another green house.

Hey James (Greenfin) you got some neat systems going. I love your pictures.. Mind sharing what kind of plastic did you use for the fig and bananas structure?

Thanks Grasa :)  The plastic over the top of both structures is 6mil Sun Master anti-condensate thermal greenhouse film: https://www.growerssupply.com/farm/supplies/prod1;gs_greenhouse_films;pg109093.html

I use two layers and inflate the space between them with little (40 watt?) squirrel-cage fans to provide extra insulation. 

This thread has very useful ideas.  I am inspired to start planning for a greenhouse.

My wife keeps asking me if I want to put a green house in the backyard.
I think that's a hint.

Here's a pic of fignutty's amazing orange tree that I was referencing earlier:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/citrus/msg0618131017784.html?19

Thanks greenfin. That Washington navel tree is loaded every year and easy to care for. Figs do well also. This Vista fruited less than a year after rooting:

http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n514/fruitnut1/figs/Vistafig12202011002.jpg

A ripe Strawberry Verte:

http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n514/fruitnut1/greenhouse%20fruit%20talk/StrawberryVertefig10612007.jpg

Can see I need practice posting pictures. Are there instructions?

Thank you very much GreenFin! I'll try to post the fancy kind next time. Those little pics that pop up are pretty neat.

I can't wait to have my first greenhouse. A little overwhelmed by the research I need to do, but still can't wait. Will be saving this post. Thanks guys/gals!

My wife was thrilled to see that nice orange tree loaded up with fruit.
We will buy a couple trees for potted oranges in the spring.
I think that in the near future we will have a high tunnel or a green house instead of a seasonal open garden

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenFin
Here's a pic of fignutty's amazing orange tree that I was referencing earlier:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/citrus/msg0618131017784.html?19

Hi GreenFin
Looking at the 6mil Sun Master plastic you use it talks about 52% diffused light.  You mention that you put 2 layers and inflate to insulate.
What is the resulting diffused light transmission? 
I wonder how much light do figs need?
Thanks

I think those numbers are inflated or at least best case. In fact I just bought a light meter to measure under mine, two layers woven poly. Mine is also supposed to transmit 88% with I think 45% diffusion. The diffusion numbers I can't evaluate but the light is highly diffused after passing thru two layers.

Transmission seems to run at best 55% thru two layers. That would be when the sunlight strikes the poly at a 90 degree angle. At acute angles the transmission falls to 20% or lower. But these numbers are difficult to evaluate and I don't know if the plant would see the same "picture" as my meter. The meter may measure wavelengths not used by a plant leaf.

I have had great production and fruit eating quality under similar light levels using IR poly. I think this poly will also produce great fruit even though I'm tempted to try a single layer application.

Highly diffused light is very beneficial for plants because the light penetrates much better into the leaf canopy. Fig leaves are probably light saturated at 20-30% of full sunlight intensity. So total photosynthesis would be much greater with 4 leaves getting 25% intensity vs one leaf at 100%. The transmission thru a fig leaf is probably ~1%. So any leaf shaded by another gets almost no light unless the light is diffused.

I'd say it had plenty of roots. That's why it grew so rapidly. Your greenhouse figs are much less vigorous than mine were, at least judging from your pictures. They might fruit fine. Mine did so well in pots I'm going that direction.

Fignutty, I gave you faulty instructions earlier with regard to how to post pictures.  I've gone back and corrected that post above, with the edit in green text.  Sorry about the error.

Thanks man, I got that part now. Just need to figure out how to downsize my photos.

Yeah, having to re-size is a bit of a pain.  I've started using Microsoft Office Picture Manager for that.  Here's my process:

When I'm looking through a folder of pics and want to use one, I right-click on it, move my mouse over the "open with" option (which causes Microsoft Office Picture Manager to appear as one of the options), and select Microsoft Office Picture Manager.  Once the program opens up with that pic, I click the "Edit Pictures" button on the top near the middle of the screen (which causes the editing options to appear on the right side of the screen), then click on the "resize" option on the right, then select the "percentage of original size" option, type in 40 and click "OK."  Then I click "File" (upper left) then "Save as" and keep the same filename but add " - resized" to it.  Then the file is small enough to add to a post using the "Attach Files" feature.

These are some very interesting greenhouse projects!

Can someone speak to what techniques are used to maintain a proper environment for the figs during the winter dormancy period?  Are the figs covered and are the temperature moderated so the figs don't break dormancy?