April shower's bring May Flowers!

Another month gone... Just like that. At the end of March I saw my first blooms in the greenhouse, It was to be honest exciting, sort of magical... Here we were the end of march... daylilies are just coming out of dormancy and I had bloom coming. 

So lets start out this magic may with a look back on april.

 Stats and Info time!  

Average Exterior April Temp- 67 Degrees

Average Temp maintained in Greenhouse- 70 degrees

Average Humidity In Greenhouse- 74%

Max Temp- 92 Degrees

Max Humidity- 97%

Average propane use- Under 20 gallons for the whole month

Times watered- 4 times

Times fertilized- 1 time

Pesticide used- 1 time

Blunders- 0 

Lessons Learned- 1

Total time spent in greenhouse- 50 hours total

So as you can see I am now spending a ton of time in the greenhouse, this is mostly due to the hour to hour and a half I spend each day spreading pollen. 

The first week to week and a half of blooms was met with great disappointment, As I wasn't having much success setting pods. But after a few long days in the sun, it was like a switch was flipped and the pods started coming. 

I will say this, pods are easier in the greenhouse, but not as easy as some would have you to believe. 

As you can see the average temp inside the greenhouse has stayed nearly the same as last month, which is a good thing!  It has been a bit of a challenge to keep the temps from swinging. Between the heat being set at 60, the vents being set at 70ish, and the swamp cooler being set at 80, all of them overlap a bit.  I can't set the swamp cooler for 75 like I want too since the vents aren't really open enough yet, I can't set the vents for maximum opening yet since when the heat kicks on, they will open and vent the heat... so until the overnights level out at 55+ I can't set the passive vents yet. 

So far I don't need the shade cloth yet which is good, I rather the plants get as much light as possible right now. 

In addition to all this, My lesson learned-  Don't build your benches too high... I had to empty the whole greenhouse out and lower the benches by 7 inches. Most the blooms were too high for my wife to reach, and some were even difficult for me! 

As the plants are coming in for spring, I have been potting them up and letting them enjoy the greenhouse. I moved all the seedlings outside around the 2nd week of april, so I had tons of room to use.  I no longer have tons of room after about 100 new plants came in lol. 

Soooooooooooo want to see pictures???

Lets go. 

A crowd favorite- Steve Todd's "Clown Pants"

"Froggy"

"Strawberry Milkyway"

"Yellow Frog"

"Dr. Strangelove"

"B. The Freak"

"Lucky you"

"The heart of christmas"

"money maker"

"Fried Green Tomatoes" 

"Strawberry Milkyway"

My Fat Princess "Cali"

"Money Maker"

Here are just a few of the hundreds of Photos I have taken so far.

In closing for this month, It has definitely been a bit of a learning experience so far. But I feel like I am getting the hang of it so far.  You pick up knowledge from the weirdest places, and some great mentors also. If anyone ever has a question, please feel free to ask me! 

-Peter-