Hello all,

I'm going to be receiving a lot of different palm seeds in the next month and am going to set up a seed/seedling area. 

What's everyone use as their seed starting area? Greenhouse?

I'd love to have a climate controlled area for the seeds/seedlings so I can enjoy all year long. Located in Central Florida (9a-9b).

I'm going to be setting this up at the property, where my wife and I have started creating our nursery.

I'm open ears on whats worked for everyone.

Thanks,

Halley F.

How small? At one time I bought a 6x6x6 greenhouse for $100 or so from Harbor Freight, assembly not included. I bought it to use as a shadehouse because those are impossible to find in FL. I set it up on our back lanai and for 9-10 months of the year replaced the plastic sides & top with lengths of green shadecloth attached to the metal frame with clamps. In winter I covered it with the reserved plastic and put a space heater inside. I kept pots of seeds and small seedlings inside it on plastic shelving to keep pots off the concrete. I don't have a photo of the whole thing, but a part of it is visible behind the palm in this old photo. You can see the shadecloth attached by a clamp. The whole thing lasted about 4-5 years until the metal frame corroded away. Since then I attach lengths of commercial shadecloth to the top of my birdcage and turn the whole lanai into a shadehouse.

 

Thanks for the reply! Not 100% sure of exact size, but will want one big enough to sow 1000’s of seeds and bring in a few palms in my collection during the winter months. 

I have a small PVC greenhouse (around 3.5' tall, 1.5' deep and 2.5' wide) that I keep in a sunny window indoors. I use it just for germinating seeds and nursing sprouts. There are a few CFLs for added lighting, and two heating mats for germination. Currently I have several hundred palm seeds in community pots, and they share the greenhouse with equal numbers of cycad, cacti and other succulent seeds. Using community pots you could comfortably germinate thousands of seeds in one of these. One drawback to a greenhouse this size is that there isn't any room for seedlings once they get taller than 6" or so, but a positive is that they are fairly inexpensive so you could always buy several.

Edited December 22, 20187 yr by GermantownPlants

I make my raised garden into a greenhouse for the Winter.  PVC pipe & fittings are cheap and plastic & wiggle wire/channels from Greenhousemegastore were around $125 or so. I probably have $200 or so in the greenhouse part of the garden.  It's pretty quick & easy to take down in the Spring.

Outsunny has a nice 6x8 online auction sites. I was very satisfied with the brand. Zippers break easy though so be easy with them.