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What are some good fruits that could grow inside a high tunnel that couldn't grow outside in zone 7?

 
Posts: 142
Location: Western Kentucky - Zone 7
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So as my wife and I are looking at buying a piece of property I am developing plans to diversify the property for food and farmer's market potential. The NRCS no longer has a property minimum for the hoophouse program and so I am looking to make the one acre a growing dream of all kinds. I like the idea of growing some citranges and pineapple guava and such, but are some cold hardy options that could survive the high tunnel, but not outside? We will inevitably grow vegetables and such in the hoophouse, but I want to focus on border line tropical fruits.
 
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I've got a Lychee nut started from seed on my window ledge. It actually needs some hours of low, but not freezing temps to produce fruit, so it may not need a whole high tunnel.

I'm thinking hard about trying to grow some Mexican Avocados. Apparently if I start at least 12 plants from avocados produced in Mexico, statistically, 2 will be able to both survive and produce. Again, they may just need "support", not a full high tunnel.

There are people locally growing olives. I'd love to try them also.

So much depends on the actual spot a plant is growing in. For example, I have 3 mulberry bushes, all of which are clones. One is between a metal shed and our farm road (1 lane). We had some sudden cold nights, all it's leaves abruptly turned yellow and the shrub has been bare for at least 3 weeks. The second one is just north of a row of compost bins and has some wind protection from north, east and west. It's been gradually changing its leaf colours and dropping leaves, but there are still some on it. The last is in what I consider a cold area of the property at the bottom of a north slope. However, it's got a fir tree over it. It is still bright green leaves with almost no loss. I did not set out to run this experiment in micro ecosystems, but the difference amazes me.
 
pollinator
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Kevin Goheen wrote:So as my wife and I are looking at buying a piece of property I am developing plans to diversify the property for food and farmer's market potential. The NRCS no longer has a property minimum for the hoophouse program and so I am looking to make the one acre a growing dream of all kinds. I like the idea of growing some citranges and pineapple guava and such, but are some cold hardy options that could survive the high tunnel, but not outside? We will inevitably grow vegetables and such in the hoophouse, but I want to focus on border line tropical fruits.



Any idea how cold it will get in the high tunnel? Do you have the ability to heat it in any way if you have an unusually bad freeze? I would suggest avocados but it's hard to locate the hardy types commercially, even the nurseries that sell them never use hardy rootstocks. Anything below 20°F is going to cause significant damage even on most hardy cultivars.
 
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loquat might be a good one, but might borderline work outside in zone 7. pushing a zone or two might really open up more citrus possibilities too.
 
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Location: Piedmont, North Carolina - 7b/8a
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These guys have some interesting citrus varieties that would probably work.  They are in zone 8 and could probably give you some guidance on what would work for you.  Never ordered from them but I have heard good things.

http://mckenzie-farms.com/index.htm

 
Winn Sawyer
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Mark Griffin wrote:These guys have some interesting citrus varieties that would probably work.  They are in zone 8 and could probably give you some guidance on what would work for you.  Never ordered from them but I have heard good things.

http://mckenzie-farms.com/index.htm



Stan is great, definitely recommend checking out his stuff!
 
Kevin Goheen
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Location: Western Kentucky - Zone 7
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Winn Sawyer wrote:

Kevin Goheen wrote:So as my wife and I are looking at buying a piece of property I am developing plans to diversify the property for food and farmer's market potential. The NRCS no longer has a property minimum for the hoophouse program and so I am looking to make the one acre a growing dream of all kinds. I like the idea of growing some citranges and pineapple guava and such, but are some cold hardy options that could survive the high tunnel, but not outside? We will inevitably grow vegetables and such in the hoophouse, but I want to focus on border line tropical fruits.



Any idea how cold it will get in the high tunnel? Do you have the ability to heat it in any way if you have an unusually bad freeze? I would suggest avocados but it's hard to locate the hardy types commercially, even the nurseries that sell them never use hardy rootstocks. Anything below 20°F is going to cause significant damage even on most hardy cultivars.



I am estimating it will be about 10F in the high tunnel. Which we can grow several extreme Tropicals here like maypop, poncirus, pawpaw, and such. So, I figure it would open doors for some additional fruits like some lemons and certain oranges that can tolerate just under 20 degrees maybe with something like Christmas lights or something of the sort as a support heat.
 
Winn Sawyer
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Kevin Goheen wrote:maypop, poncirus, pawpaw



I think all three of those are hardy outdoors in your zone, no need to put them in the high tunnel.

Hardy avocados can definitely take just under 20°F once established, but 10°F would kill them. Maybe if they are completely draped in incandescent string lights they'll make it through, especially if you also use those soil heater cables or something similar to keep the roots from freezing.
 
Kevin Goheen
Posts: 142
Location: Western Kentucky - Zone 7
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Winn Sawyer wrote:

Kevin Goheen wrote:maypop, poncirus, pawpaw



I think all three of those are hardy outdoors in your zone, no need to put them in the high tunnel.



I agree, I was meaning they have tropical cousins that aren't.
 
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Unheated greenhouses tend towards the same nighttime low temperatures as the outside air. They collect the radiant cooling just as effectively as they collect radiant heating. Huge thermal masses in the greenhouse can help moderate temperatures in both day and night.
 
Winn Sawyer
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Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Unheated greenhouses tend towards the same nighttime low temperatures as the outside air. They collect the radiant cooling just as effectively as they collect radiant heating. Huge thermal masses in the greenhouse can help moderate temperatures in both day and night.



This is true, but I've found many things can handle the same or similar temperature much better when they are in a greenhouse than outside. Even just an unheated cloche over a small avocado tree kept it from getting any damage at 17°F last winter when the uncovered trees grafted with the same variety suffered severe damage nearby. Even if the greenhouse roof is collecting the radiant cooling, it seems to dissipate that cooling effect in a less concentrated way than if the leaves are exposed directly to the sky at night.

This may not apply to all plants equally, but for avocados it seems any form of cover increases hardiness significantly.
 
Joseph Lofthouse
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Right. The temperature in the greenhouse lags behind the outside cooling temperature at night, so the plants spend less total time at the nighttime low temperature.
 
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Hello, I live in zone 6b which I think the zone map just changed due to climate change so I'm now in zone 7a. Southern tip of Illinois is about a 30-45min drive for me so that's where I'm at in illinois. We have a 10ft high x 60ft long x 20ft wide greenhouse that we heat with a double barrel wood stove over winter to keep Temps above 50°f, at the lowest we dip to 40° on really cold mornings. We don't interrupt sleep cycles to stoke the fire so last load is put on about 10:30-11pm unless it's a really cold one out there. Last year we had a 2 week period below zero Temps. I think the lowest it got was -25° f  wind chills, burr it was cold and we got ice during that too which was a big deal for my greenhouse cuz we have double layer poly for that air bubble insulation. Anyway this summer we harvested a pineapple that was growing in there for 2 years and yesterday we got our first jackfruit that actually had fruit inside of it. We started that tree in 2018 from seed. So it is possible to get tropical fruit out of their native zone. We have 3 jackfruit trees, 3 lemon trees, 2 blood red orange trees, 2 avocado trees, 1 mango tree, dwarf Cavendish banana, ice cream banana, and pineapples growing inside of our greenhouse in the ground, cant wait til we are getting fruit from everything. We have the floor mulched deep and the exterior of greenhouse we just insulated the ground from the exterior ground so winter ground Temps don't leach into our greenhouses warm earth patch. We rented a trencher and put recycled styrofoam board in the earth as a insulated foundation. We will see how the pans out this winter when we hit January's cold snap.... you can grow anything anywhere if you set your mind to it!!! Decently cheap too we only use electricity for 4-5 fans out there, which doesn't cost alot and the heat is free we run a tree service on the side so get paid for collecting firewood and mulch for our greenhousery hobbies. Our future plan is to switch over to a climate battery greenhouse!!!
 
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