PVC Winter protection & green houses a link

Let us know Mike...in pictures, maybe an intro too! 😀

Found his summer pics: :occasion5:
Knocked my socks off!

http://members7.boardhost.com/PennHardyPalms/msg/1313978626.html

Barb

STUNNING back yard!

totally tropical looking, and a ttal stark contrast from what PA Deutsch Lancaster really looks like. I do not think he is Amish with that jammin' swimming pool!

Jim's memory is better than mine (obviously)

Wasn't this the guy who used pallet wrap?
That'd be quite the dance around the ladder(s)

Jim, any finished pics of his protection on that site?
I looked and didn't see one.

Barb

http://exoten.dyndns.org/cgi-bin/hardy.cgi?function=2&index=5EE8B271C66B65CF

Nice to see videos like that to get idea of things to do. It's light, expandable, inexpensive.

I use flexible 1 inch plastic electrical conduit slid over rebar hammered in the ground. I cover it with vapour barrier and make a vestibule or flap door. This covers a group of plants to prevent the ground from ever freezing and supplemental heat can be used on the end of a thermocube.

Darn! Those pics are on the other computer, so that there is our patio door lean-to with supplemental thermocube controlled lightbulb heat we keep the pindo and joshua tree a little dry and fairly warm. At least till they get to the height of the glass. We do have many more panes, I suppose we can stand them upright.

Adam

Re that Pa guy.

This page has a video about half-way down the page that shows him dismantling the entire protection.
The process is sped up which makes for a quick video.

http://members7.boardhost.com/PennHardyPalms/msg/1303067406.html

Adam, I love your trunking yucca!

Barb

Best thing is to plan ahead and already have your base structure build in,
so you don't have to disturb the palms roots later...

Jim,

That is what I did with my small PVC structure. When flush with the ground it's easy to hide for the months it's not up.

Barb, thanks. That's a trunking Yucca glauca. So hardy.
The Electrical conduit hoophouse:

After, of course, we capped the ends and taped it all shut.
Last year, it was 11'w x 8'd x 6' h
Using all the same materials but new plastic, this year we made it taller (8h, 8d, 7w)
Adam

Nice idea, Adam, thanks for the pic.

Years ago when I was only growing vegetables 😆 😆 I built (yes...just me) the same structure using PVC pipe lengths.
At the ground, they nicely fit over some metal rods we had kicking around (no idea what they were for).
I pounded the metal rods into the ground with a sledge hammer and happily, the pvc pipes we just slightly larger than the rods and slid right over them to the ground.
Then lengths were duct-taped so they wouldn't "sproing" back up.

The toughest part was jumping up in the air to catch the loose PVC end when the other one had been attached to the metal rod. :help: 😆

But that method won't work for me now as the two areas with palms/yuccas are up against the house, there's no room for a hoop house in a four-foot wide bed.
Unless I want to kill 6 feet of lawn adjacent to it.

How old's that yucca glauca, Adam?

Barb, The glauca has been in the ground two years, but it was cut from a massive (12' x 10') colony of twisty, windy Y. glauca in a far too shay area. The colony had to be over 15 years old. Its growth snaked along the ground and must have rarely if ever flowered. There was a horizontal length eight or ten feet long on one section. They since have removed that planting. I am so glad to have taken my half dozen "samples" before they did.
Adam

Adam, you were on your toes to be there at the right time! 😆

I've never rooted a yucca.
Can you give an explanation/timeline of what you did?

...just in case a huge yucca tree falls across the hood of my car while I'm in town... 😉

Thanks
Barb