Thanks for the reminder! I acquired many of the plants and I've had them in pots the last year and a half. One slight hangup is that my
greenhouse isn't naturally maintaining above freezing temps :( Unless I add a heater, it gets down to 20F in there on the coldest nights.
To skate by last winter I made a mini
greenhouse inside the main
greenhouse and moved all the nervous plants in there. Last winter I still had hope of the
greenhouse staying warm
enough, this year I suffer under none of those illusions. This winter I did make a temporary
greenhouse for them but the quantity of plants will have to decrease in the future.
As for my list of plants, here's what happened:
bananas - they grew well in the ground. Last year they got 8' tall before dying in the cold. They actually made it down to about 32 before dying.
avocados - they are growing slowly but seem healthy
mangos - it's struggling and looks like crap but isn't dead yet
pineapples - they stay alive if I keep them warm but haven't fruited in two years so I'm not wasting space on them any more
cinnamon - didn't try since I felt I needed to put them in the ground
dragonfruit - grew slowly (1 foot in first year) but died before I had the mini
greenhouse set up
ginger/turmeric - Grow ok in the summer but didn't come back up in year #2.
loquat? - didn't try
papaya? - I planted Mountain Papaya seeds in the ground and a couple grew but died come winter
miracleberry - it struggled for a half a year and died
vanilla orchid - it was doing great but died before I had the greenhouse set up
yagrumo? - didn't try
lemon - they do fine. Harvested 5 lemons this year
mandarin - Growing well but no
fruit yet
My current plan is to reimagine the greenhouse as a Mediterranean greenhouse with plants that can handle 15F. Need to figure out that list this winter and make my
plans. Along with that I'll have a small part of the greenhouse that can be cordoned off with poly to keep warmer for winter growing. The lemons and maybe another citrus will hide inside the edge of that area for protection while not taking up too much floor space.