Well Arlene, you're way down there in Georgia!
I'll toss some seeds out as soon as I get the bales in place, AND start some indoors at "the recommended time", just to cover myself....

Good idea. I start mine early Jan. to put out end of Feb. so that's why I suggested mid Feb. for you. About 6 weeks before your last frost, if I'm not mistaken. And I could be!

I'll read the instructions!
And I know Bitbit will recommend a variety!

I like to shop seed savers' and Seeds of Change.............

OK, this is about winter and food, but it's about bringing trees indoors.
If anyone knows of a better thread for it, please let me know!

Up here in Pittsburgh, if I try to grow avocado or citrus or many other things, I will have to single handedly wheel them into the house. I need containers large enough to handle the roots while small enough to fit in my 30" back door... AND i need advice on how to artificially light the basement (and warm it if necessary) to keep them alive.....

I don't have any plants inside so have no helpful ideas on that.

SOMEONE will have experience.........

My grandmother used to have these little wheeled platforms that her planters set upon. I wonder if those would help you, Critter. I haven't grown any trees that have to be moved inside, because I didn't have a good place to keep them. If your door is 30" wide, you can use a large pot, at least ten gallons (though I haven't done the math), which I'd imagine could hold a dwarf fruit tree.

For the broccoli question, I think the answer is different for Critter and Arlene. In zone 8, a late summer or early fall planting will give a winter harvest, and if you have a variety that produces side-shoots, you can keep harvesting until spring. In zone 5, I don't think the plants will stand all winter, so your best bet would be to start the seeds inside in winter and plant them out in early spring and harvest in late spring. Broccoli needs a bit of warmth to germinate, but once the plants are established, they can take quite a bit of frost. You want them to get to harvestable size before the weather starts to get hot - highs around 80 made my Brassicas go bitter, so aim for harvesting before that.

Thanks, bit!

On the tree thing, I missed saying that I will have to build a ramp about 8 inches up to the back door. So what I have pictured in my head is some self built RECTANGULAR planters that I can fit on my "dolly" aka "hand truck" like the ones people unload delivery trucks with. Ideally for the lifting part, they would be 29" by something much less than that ..... the skinnier the better for my ability to tilt the hand truck.....

My question is: are there ANY trees that can live and survive an indoor winter in such a small container and still produce fruit??? And if so, HOW do I light and heat them in the basement???

I know, it's complicated.....

Lots of good broccoli info here, and I will come back to this thread.
I think you need a south facing window, or else fluorescent lights for plants indoors.
There are some bulbs which give same wavelengths as the sun. These might be useable in a lamp?
Sorry---don't grow trees in the house.

Critter, here in so. Cal. every one has an avocado tree in their yard. The only way you could ever get fruit in your climate would be if you have a true dwarf variety, and hand pollinate it. Avocado trees become huge and tend to bloom in late winter. They are shallow rooted, heavy feeders, and take an average of 7 years to produce fruit. The fruit takes about a year from bloom to harvest. I have been told that if one has different varieties, one can get fruit year round, but there isn't much info about culture on the net. The only dwarf trees I've seen are as wide as they are tall and have very small fruit. I'm sure someone will deny this, but In my opinion, aside from kumquats, Meyer lemon, and a few other citrus, tropical fruit trees won't produce edible fruit in the north, unless you have a LARGE green house and hand pollinate. In my yard Lemon, Lime, and Avocado all bloom in late winter. There's a reason those darn things are so expensive!

Yes, you can get full-spectrum lamps, I think fluorescent tubes are the most common but there are also brighter types (halogen, maybe?). I've done very little indoor gardening, but if you ask around among people who start seeds indoors, you might be able to get some suggestions. I doubt you'd need to add any heat, because your basement should never freeze. Citrus requires a winter chill (it doesn't grow in the true tropics), so a cool basement should suit it as long as the light is sufficient, but I think Carol has a point about it not producing well under such conditions. I don't know anything about avocados, but it sounds like her advice is good there too.

If you build your ramp long and with a shallow slope, you should be able to roll a plant on casters without the hand truck, which will mean the container can be heavier without risk of injury or toppling.

Alternatively, you can container grow trees that are suited to your zone such as apple, pear, or cherry without having to move them, or a zone 6 plant like peach, fig, plum, or apricot might be OK if you have a warm microclimate on your property or can offer winter protection. Almost all have dwarf cultivars that can be grown in a large pot. If you're not tied to the idea of a tree, hardy kiwi should thrive for you; it's a climber, so you'd need to offer some kind of trellis above your container, but it's quite prolific. Or try a pawpaw (not papaya, which is sometimes called that), a native fruit tree, if you like its flavor.

Just brainstorming here, sorry if my ideas are all over the place. I never had the space for trees, but I would really love to have a mixed fruit orchard one day.

(Edited post when I saw Carol's reply.)

ctcarol said:Critter, here in so. Cal. every one has an avocado tree in their yard. The only way you could ever get fruit in your climate would be if you have a true dwarf variety, and hand pollinate it. Avocado trees become huge and tend to bloom in late winter. They are shallow rooted, heavy feeders, and take an average of 7 years to produce fruit. The fruit takes about a year from bloom to harvest. I have been told that if one has different varieties, one can get fruit year round, but there isn't much info about culture on the net. The only dwarf trees I've seen are as wide as they are tall and have very small fruit. I'm sure someone will deny this, but In my opinion, aside from kumquats, Meyer lemon, and a few other citrus, tropical fruit trees won't produce edible fruit in the north, unless you have a LARGE green house and hand pollinate. In my yard Lemon, Lime, and Avocado all bloom in late winter. There's a reason those darn things are so expensive!

THANKS! That's a lot of good advice! I'll still tend my Haas from the pits from the grocery store, but not pin so much hope on them...........
Some time when I can afford it, I will be building an 8x8 "greenhouse " shed. There will be room for a single tree, maybe 2, if I make it so......

Some good info on Avocados http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/av...

Thank ya ma'am...........

I started some lettuce late last summer (my first lettuce crop ever) and it won't die! I assumed that the first hard frost would completely kill leaves that juicy, but no.

They looked pathetic after the hard freeze, but we've had warmer days since then, and they came back blithely like "who cares about frost?"

The only varieties that came up for me were
- Merveille des Quatre Saisons ("all seasons butterhead" indeed!) and
- 'Forellenschluss' = 'Flashy Trout's Back' (Loose, open head.)

'Flashy Trout's Back' is called an "open-headed romaine type", but I would call mine "loose leaf". It was speckled for a month or two, but then went over to all-red when weather got cool.

I have to admit that my lettuce-palate is plebeian. Both of those have a slight bitter after-taste that I'm not crazy about. Pretty, but I hope I get some plain Romain to come up next year.




-

Nah, I can't stand bitter lettuce either. Green Ice is a good one to grow. I like it because I like iceberg (I know, I know) and Green Ice has a nice thick rib that makes it crunch, not floppy and limp like a lot of leaf lettuces. Four Seasons is a good butterhead and I got a new Yugoslavian red this past spring that made some really, really nice butterheads too.

Is it too late to harvest my rose hips? (after weeks of on-again off-again freezing)

I don't know anything about them. Hopefully someone who does will jump in here for you.

RickCorey said: 'Flashy Trout's Back' -

ew, What a horrible name for a lettuce!

>> a nice thick rib that makes it crunch, not floppy and limp like a lot of leaf lettuces.

Yeah, "floppy and limp" is the worst!

I do like Romaine, perhaps becuase i associate it with high-calorie Caeser salad.

>> 'Flashy Trout's Back'

I kind of liked it, but now that you mention it, it does sound kind of fishy.

I was going to say that it's easier to pronounce than 'Forellenschluss', but I just figured out how to remember that name! 'For Ellen Schluss'.
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa 'Forellenschluss')

Mostly I like Italian names for vegetables. "Mangiatutto". "Pisello Rampicante Gigante Svizzero". Just the idea that there's a snap pea called "Swiss Peas" makes me giggle ("Swiss Cheese"). Then the fact that Italians renamed a FRENCH pea in Italian, and called it "Swiss" ...
Snow Pea (Lathyrus oleraceus 'Carouby de Maussane')

The Italian heirloom loose-leaf lettuce 'Bionda a Foglia' should be sung to the tune of "La donna è mobile")
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa 'Bionda a Foglia')

The lovely Hawaiian name for Batavian / summercrisp lettuce variety 'Anuenue' means "rainbow. How to pronounce it? Like "Ahh, Louie Louie" with Ns instead of Ls.
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa 'Anuenue')