If I had a Greenhouse......

[Pulsegleaner]

Sword beans

If you COULD grow sword beans, you would want to try out some of Jibril's stuff (only available as an all in one mix at the moment) He has the most INCREDIBLY colored and patterned sword beans.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/878024...ck_sum=a73aa7e0&ref=shop_home_active_10&frs=1

He also may have the African Lablab beans I have searched for, eventually (he had them last week, but his shop was saying that all his seeds were "not available in my country". Now the seeds are available again, but those seeds are not there. I assume he'll get this all straightened out eventually (at least, I hope so, besides the lablabs, he has a brown seeded version of Kersting's Groundnut now.)

 

[Dirtmechanic]

i'm with you there @digitS' because around here it would be very expensive to heat and light enough to get much production in the cold and cloudy winter months. if it were big enough i'd have it over the house and then at least you'd not have to also heat the house. would probably have to run a dehumidifier in the warmer months though to keep the stuff in the house from getting mildew or fungal issues.

the other problem i see from such a thing is that you now have created a habitat to overwinter the bugs that used to get killed off by the cold winter season and so what may not have been much of a problem before can then become an issue. quarantines only work as well as the enclosure quality. something like Biosphere II when it was built had a very minimal exchange with the surrounding area but now that has long since changed.

fire ants? crazy ants? ...

what would i grow? sweet potatoes, small citrus trees, bananas, tomatoes, greens of all kinds for all year fresh parsley and cilantro and others too.

Good call. I just saw a closeup of an ants' face. Creepy!

 

[flowerbug]

Good call. I just saw a closeup of an ants' face. Creepy!View attachment 52886

that is a very strange picture...

 

[Dirtmechanic]

that is a very strange picture...

Yeah! There is a micro-photography competition that showed up in a news feed. Heck of a camera lense too.

 

[Jane23]

If I had a greenhouse, I would be growing the things that cannot grow in Montana, like a banana or coffee tree.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Actually, coffee can be grown quite easily as a houseplant, and the beans can be roasted in a standard kitchen oven. It's simply a matter of making sure you get the right species of coffee ( you want an Arabica as opposed to a Robusta. Robustas are hardier, but Arabicas produce better beans. There are a handful of other species, but they are tough to find)

https://www.tradewindsfruit.com/coffea-arabica-coffee-seeds

Bananas are a little harder, in that you have to find one that actually MAKES edible fruit There are a few here.

https://www.tradewindsfruit.com/search.php?page=1&section=product&search_query=banana

 

[Jane23]

Good call. I just saw a closeup of an ants' face. Creepy!View attachment 52886

Actually, coffee can be grown quite easily as a houseplant, and the beans can be roasted in a standard kitchen oven. It's simply a matter of making sure you get the right species of coffee ( you want an Arabica as opposed to a Robusta. Robustas are hardier, but Arabicas produce better beans. There are a handful of other species, but they are tough to find)

https://www.tradewindsfruit.com/coffea-arabica-coffee-seeds

Bananas are a little harder, in that you have to find one that actually MAKES edible fruit There are a few here.

https://www.tradewindsfruit.com/search.php?page=1&section=product&search_query=banana

Great. Now I have a new goal to achieve in the coming years. Might as well through chocolate plants into the mix as well.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Great. Now I have a new goal to achieve in the coming years. Might as well through chocolate plants into the mix as well.

Chocolate is much harder, both in the growing and the processing. Coffee can be a houseplant because it can flower and fruit at shrub size. But cacao needs to grow up into a full sized, very large tree to produce. There ARE places that sell cacao seeds, but given how recalcitrant they are and how quickly they spoil once cleaned, you're probably better off going to someone who sells exotic fruit (or a fancy supermarket that does so) and buying a whole pod.

And, even if you CAN get pods off your tree, it takes a lot of effort to convert those beans into cocoa, let alone chocolate. You have to ferment them, dry them, roast them (usually) grind them, add the sugar and stuff, conch them (the process that makes chocolate creamy, without this, chocolate is sort of granular and crumbly, like those Taza bars or the "hockey pucks" they melt for Mexican hot chocolate. mold them and let them set. A lot of work for what would presumably be a very tiny amount of chocolate. Even the white pulp around the beans (which is very tasty, and a pickers perk) isn't really enough to justify the labor for an individual.

It's sort of the same reason I have never considered growing my own tea. Growing a tea plant is fairly easy (if you live somewhere semi-milk, like Great Britain, you can actually grow it outside). But most of the magic in really premium tea comes from the special qualities of individual famous tea bushes and the centuries of skill on how to cure and prepare the leaves. On my own, I could just make basic green tea, and I don't like that.

Then again, if it makes you feel any better, I'm currently toying with the idea of growing my own nutmeg tree, which is almost as foolish as chocolate.

 

[Jane23]

Chocolate is much harder, both in the growing and the processing. Coffee can be a houseplant because it can flower and fruit at shrub size. But cacao needs to grow up into a full sized, very large tree to produce. There ARE places that sell cacao seeds, but given how recalcitrant they are and how quickly they spoil once cleaned, you're probably better off going to someone who sells exotic fruit (or a fancy supermarket that does so) and buying a whole pod.

And, even if you CAN get pods off your tree, it takes a lot of effort to convert those beans into cocoa, let alone chocolate. You have to ferment them, dry them, roast them (usually) grind them, add the sugar and stuff, conch them (the process that makes chocolate creamy, without this, chocolate is sort of granular and crumbly, like those Taza bars or the "hockey pucks" they melt for Mexican hot chocolate. mold them and let them set. A lot of work for what would presumably be a very tiny amount of chocolate. Even the white pulp around the beans (which is very tasty, and a pickers perk) isn't really enough to justify the labor for an individual.

It's sort of the same reason I have never considered growing my own tea. Growing a tea plant is fairly easy (if you live somewhere semi-milk, like Great Britain, you can actually grow it outside). But most of the magic in really premium tea comes from the special qualities of individual famous tea bushes and the centuries of skill on how to cure and prepare the leaves. On my own, I could just make basic green tea, and I don't like that.

Then again, if it makes you feel any better, I'm currently toying with the idea of growing my own nutmeg tree, which is almost as foolish as chocolate.

I was reading about getting chocolate tree, but they are a controlled plant. It is not something you can easily, or legally buy in the United States. It is a silly dream I know I will not be able to realize, but in a perfect world I would have one.

I definitely am planning on expanding my garden to include a lot of herbs for tea next year. If I can improve the soil enough for them to go. A nutmeg tree sounds like a good thing to add the fantasy green house.

I love bananas and so does my husband, which is why I was debating the banana tree.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I was reading about getting chocolate tree, but they are a controlled plant. It is not something you can easily, or legally buy in the United States. It is a silly dream I know I will not be able to realize, but in a perfect world I would have one.

I definitely am planning on expanding my garden to include a lot of herbs for tea next year. If I can improve the soil enough for them to go. A nutmeg tree sounds like a good thing to add the fantasy green house.

I love bananas and so does my husband, which is why I was debating the banana tree.

Buying a plant may be controlled, but buying the pods and growing your own plant is not (provided you buy your pod from a legal source, which both a southern US based fruit vendor (like Miami Fruit) and a supermarket (like H-mart) is. You may also be able to find a Florida or Southern California based private seller somewhere like Esty, and they're OK as well (it worked when I needed some exotic citruses). Avoid sellers in Hawaii, while technically U.S. soil, it has its own set of import rules (from what I have heard, it can be hard to legally transport plants and animals from island to island, let alone to the mainland).

And I understand the wishes overtaking the reality. My perfect world greenhouse would have to be big enough to hold a whole FOREST. Actually, it'd have to be big enough to hold about a dozen different ecosystems, since my seeds are hardly limited by any particular climatic zone. In fact I'd actually need some REALLY special enclaves for some of the more finicky ones, like the Chilean Hazel (Gevunia avellana) with it's need for sea spray cold and totally phosphorus free soil. Or an area for the Andean stuff that I could set up at early spring temperatures and more or less equal days and nights year round. Heck, they could hand me the keys and title to Epcot Center, The New York Botanical AND Kew Gardens, and it STILL probably wouldn't be enough room. I suppose what I REALLY need is someone to invent a way to teleport to anywhere on Earth instantly and the legal right to set up a garden anywhere AND move the products wherever I wanted, so I could grow all these things in situ.