Journal November 17, 2014 - Closing the greenhouse for the season

The weather has really turned cold, with the forecast calling for the cold temperatures to hang around for the next ten days, so I decided that the olives have had enough chill time.

It was really miserable today, with cold drizzle and a little snow on the ground, which really inspired me to get the job done and close the greenhouse for the season.

Instead of growing warm season vegetables in the tents this winter, I decided it would be better to use the tents to overwinter the olive trees.  Six plants have been placed in each tent, with the left over plants in  seldom used space in the basement.  This arrangement is much better than keeping the plants all together; this way the plants do not take up anywhere near as much space as they did last year.

The LED grow lights in both tents are only running on the vegetative stage, which is very energy efficient.  For the plants in the basement, I am using the low power LEDs used for supplemental lighting in the greenhouse.  Their total wattage is probably about 100 watts, so they are also super energy efficient.  If that was not enough, I have set the photoperiod to local sunrise, sunset, or about ten hours.

It is best to let olives almost dry completely during the winter, with very infrequent fertilizing, so I should have plenty of time on my hands to catch up on some reading till spring.