Petunia Autopsy

I took petunia cuttings Oct. 24 and Nov. 11 and have been caring for them in the garage ever since. There was no indication that they were quickly dying, and some of them put out flowers. But they were not thriving. I took one more cutting Nov. 15, this time using rooting hormone. Over the past month, this one seemed to surpass the others, with greener leaves and a bloom. After a few weeks, roots were visible in the semi-transparent plastic cup, unlike the other cuttings.

Today I decided to take a look at one of the original cuttings to see if it had rooted. No, it had not. There is still some green in the leaves and stem, but this cutting never sent out roots.

That decided the fate of the other seven cuttings that had not been treated with the rooting hormone. They were discarded to make room for a larger pot for the treated cutting. This shows the original petunia pot (#1), which has bushed out several inches since it got a haircut a month ago, and the rooted cutting (#2) in its new pot.

This new pot will live in the heated garage for the winter, but I did plant something in the unheated greenhouse today. I ordered a cheap mini-greenhouse (27.5x19x63 inches) to reside inside the big greenhouse to provide an even more sheltered environment for seed starting in the spring. I tested some arugula seeds for viability on Nov. 15, and to my surprise some of them sprouted within three days. I didn't know what to do with them, so today I planted them in a tray and put them on a heat mat inside the mini-greenhouse. I'm interested in seeing how much (if any) the heat mat raises the temperature inside the mini. My concern is that on a sunny winter day, the mini will heat up even more than the greenhouse and fry whatever is inside. The fan has kicked in several times the past week. The greenhouse temperature reached 87 on Dec. 15 when the outside temperature was 61. Yes, December 15th.

I left the watering can inside the mini, theorizing that it may help with humidity and heat retention. The front flap rolls down, sealing the heat and humidity inside and keeping any pests outside. That's the plan anyway. I put the arugula on a low shelf only because the heat mat cord isn't very long.

Update Dec. 20: It got down to 21 degrees inside the greenhouse last night, and 26 on the thermometer in the mini. The arugula is right on the heat mat and the thermometer is a foot above it, so the arugula didn't get frosted. We'll see what happens if it gets really cold. All of the water in the tray disappeared, so with the heat underneath it I'll probably have to fill that every few days. I also looked at the other seven petunia cuttings on which I did not use rooting hormone. None of them rooted. Without hormone: 0-for-8. With hormone: 1-for-1.

I picked a few carrots (which look good) and beets (which do not).

And finally, we have a broccoli head. It's only about an inch across, but it is there. The coldest it has gotten inside the greenhouse was 16 on Dec. 1 (outside -1). This plant is not exploding with growth, but it is slowly plugging away. I'm guessing if we get a week of sub-zero, that will put an end to it.

Mint

I've been told umpteen times mint will take over so it needs to be planted in a pot. I've sprouted some mint and potted up a few. This is the most robust one and it is already sending out runners.

Real Shutdown Day

Although my "official" greenhouse heater shutdown day was Nov. 18, I kept the thermostat on at 25 degrees to squeeze a few more days out of the peas, carrots, beets and broccoli. It worked for the first three, but as of today there were still no broccoli heads. And all four were impacted by a freeze the last two nights, with the inside temperature getting down to 23 at the thermostat, and probably colder next to the windows. I whacked down the peas and salvaged what I could. I also tried to salvage some cilantro, but it was too far gone. The carrots and beets will be preserved in the soil, but it was too frozen today to pick any.

I unplugged the heater for good, and that's probably it for the greenhouse (except some carrot and beet salvage efforts) until April. The fan is turned off, but its thermostat is still on so I will be able to monitor inside conditions. I also have trail cameras inside and outside, and they also record the temperature when they take images.

Attention moves to the heated garage where I have been potting the parsley, rosemary and mint the past few days, getting multiples of each. Only one thyme sprout made it through to this stage. Some of the petunia and geranium cuttings look good, some do not. I don't have anywhere to put the arugula sprouts, but at least I now know I can use that seed packet in the spring when the soil in the greenhouse thaws out. Along with what I call house plants (aloe, Cuban oregano, basil and oregano) I don't have room for anything else.

Shutdown Day

Today is the offical shutdown day for the greenhouse, but as I mentioned in the previous post that doesn't mean nothing will happen in the next few weeks. I'm going to be gone the next five days so I watered everything thoroughly today. When I come back, there should be plenty of snow peas, carrots and cilantro for an Asian stir fry. I will pull a few beets to see if we can smoke them. And I hope to see something from the broccoli. It isn't supposed to snow until after I get back, so we've done pretty well avoiding an early winter.

Meanwhile, in the seed room, some of the old arugula seeds have sprouted. That took only three days. I probably planted them too thickly, but they are at least 3-4 years old so I thought it would be a miracle if anything came up.

A few final (not final) snapshots:

Cilantro, one mum buried under straw, sage, the other mum (behind the camera) still hasn't gotten its haircut.

The carrots and beets still have impressive foliage.

Outside.

The snow peas picked up the pace the last few weeks.

Lingering, as always.

Transition

I started wrapping things up at the greenhouse today, relocating all the cold-sensitive pots to the garage closet at our house. I have learned from YouTube that the 20 degree mark seems to be the sweet spot (literally) for beets and carrots. They need a bit of a frost to bring out the sweetness. I turned the heater down from 42 today, but only went to 25 because I'm not sure whether some of the other plants can handle 20. It may not make any difference because the forecast lows for the next eight days are right around 32. After that "warm" snap is over, I will decide whether to take the plunge to 20 or just shut off the heater for the season.

The beets have some aphids, so I am spraying the leaves with the soap and have the yellow flypaper deployed. The plants are still healthy, but the greens are going into the compost bin when the time comes. The flypaper gets a lot of bugs, but doesn't get them all. (And the flypaper is a bit disgusting when it gets loaded with dead insects.) The carrots don't have any pests, knock knock.

Besides the beets and carrots, what remains in the greenhouse are a good stand of snow peas, a still-robust cilantro patch mixed with garlic, some extremely sickly-looking radishes, good-looking sage, three chive pots, and leafy broccoli (no heads). The broccoli inherited some aphids from the tomatillo monstrosity, but the soap and some thinning seems to have stopped them on that front.

And there's also two buried mum pots. One of them was looking ready to hibernate, so I chopped off half of the foliage and covered it with straw. I took the temperature of the soil inside the pot when I put it to bed. It registered 51 degrees, and if there are no huge snowdrifts in January I will measure it again then. The other mum is still threatening to bloom, so I will wait about 10 days before doing the same to it. (There's also five allium bulbs that have been buried for several months and won't reveal whether they are alive until spring.)

The plants that were transported included the petunia, six petunia cuttings, the geranium, two basil, and the volunteer marigold. I gave the petunia a 50% haircut and cut the blooms off the geranium before moving them. The petunia cuttings I've done so far are still alive, but don't seem to be thriving. I got some rooting hormone, and used it on the last cutting I did yesterday. The interweb seems to be divided on whether rooting hormone actually works, but if nothing else I'm doing a dry run for next spring when I really do want to get cuttings to thrive.

I have three grow lights going in the closet, the original one hanging in the middle, and two new ones on a stalk. The single is very bright, the double much less so. I've got those two shining within inches of the geranium and petunia. Those are in the big pots at right in this image. On the left are the basil, Cuban oregano, aloe, and the little marigold. The covered seed starter in the middle was planted yesterday with arugula. They were old seeds, so I might get nothing, but they are on the heat mat so I'm giving them the best chance I can. To the right of that are the geranium and petunia cuttings, and the sprouts of mint, parsley, rosemary and thyme.

Update Dec. 17: Most of the petunia cuttings have yellowish leaves, haven't grown much, and roots are not evident. The one treated with rooting hormone is green, has doubled in size, roots are very evident in the semi-transparent plastic cup, and it is producing flowers (which I prune). I think we have a winner. I should dispose of the losers to make room for a larger pot containing the winner. The original petunia pot, which I believe contains three plants from last spring, is still sitting under a grow light and is a lot more bushy than shown at right in the above image. I have pruned a couple of flowers off it it, but not many. So yes, it does seem to be possible to overwinter a pentunia and propogate with cuttings, and it probably would work even better if I had a better space to put them.

As sometimes happens when I'm puttering around the greenhouse, a flock of turkeys came through the adjacent field. I counted 24, I think the most I've ever seen here. They are town turkeys so weren't disturbed by my presence as I went about my business.

Other visitors caught on trail camera in recent days.

Grow lights

The grow lights for the petunia and geranium have arrived. I set them up in the greenhouse, but their home this winter will be in the garage. The Amazon reviews often mention that these are easy to tip over, but I will not be extending them any higher than this. The lighting timer is not real flexible (3, 6 or 12 hours every day ONLY), but I'll probably just set it on 12 hours and see if that works. The lights are not extremely bright, definitely not as bright as the other grow light I have. The light meter measured it as equal to indirect daytime lighting.

The brand name is LBW, as if that means anything. The instruction sheet that comes with it obviously was written by someone unfamiliar with English grammar. My greenhouse project no doubt has contributed a great deal to the Chinese economy in the second half of 2025.

Brackets

I have a plan for hanging baskets at the greenhouse and the house next year. Today I hung the brackets on the outside ends of the greenhouse.

I got four brackets for the house from Amazon about five years ago. For consistency, I ordered eight more of the same, or so I thought. The hooks look the same, but the mounting plate is different. It is narrower and the screw holes are in different locations. I might have to swap brackets in the back of the house (two old for four new), which is a minor annoyance.

I figured the bracket screws needed to go into thick beams if possible. I used a long screw in the top hole on each bracket, but had to use a short screw at the bottom to keep from punching through the wall. The position of the beams, fan and a window dictated where the brackets went. On the east side, I wanted to make sure the baskets would be clear of the fan. On the west side, the high window is rather wide. The brackets are not in exactly the same position on the two walls, but close enough. I didn't measure, but those on the west side are slightly further apart due to the wide window.

I thought the west brackets were a lot lower than the east, but the tape measure says they are almost the same to within an inch. The rim of the baskets will be 70-71 inches off the ground. That will keep the deer from getting to the petunias, peas and cucumbers until the vegetation hangs over the edge by a foot or so. I might shorten the chains a couple links, not just to pick up an inch or so of altitude on the deer, but to get them to clear the swinging lower windows. They are bumping on the west side for sure.

East side, baskets clear the windows and the fan.

West side, baskets don't quite clear the windows.

Resident deer

Winding Down

It is ten days before the heater shutdown, but the greenhouse is already pretty much ready for hibernation. Not much remains to be dug up, and only a few more plants have to be evacuated to the garage. Here's the complete list, clockwise from the far left corner.

• Snow Peas: There are enough pods to have one good stir fry sometime next week, and we'll see if they keep producing when the heat goes off.
• Sorrel: Not one of my favorites so I wished it into the cornfield. (See the original Twilight Zone, "It's a Good Life.") Actually we don't have a cornfield, but there is a field where it ended up because it was too big for the compost bin. Its former spot below the fan is now occupied by a straw bale which I will be using for mulch.
• Late-planted radishes: Some look OK, some do not.
• Carrots: They aren't going to be huge, but we will get some. A few will be allowed to overwinter so they can produce flowers and seeds next year.

• Chives: I trimmed the two large pots and will leave them on the ground at far right for the winter. There is an untrimmed pot on the bench at left that might end up in a garage window. I also stuck some dried chive heads in one of the outside window boxes and maybe they will sprout in the spring. The plan is to have the chives share the box with mint. We will see who wins.
• Beets: Maybe we will get some of edible size. Maybe. The greens are lush and I've used them in omelets a few times in place of spinach.
• Geraniums: After getting haircuts, the three baskets went to their winter home. I have one pot that will overwinter in the garage seed room.
• Cilantro: Still a lot to harvest from the planter, and those plants are not going to seed. The crop in the pot bolted a long time ago and is dried out, but there are very few seeds. I still have plenty of seeds from previous years.
• Mums: I followed through on my plan to bury both pots in the planters. I took the soil temperature next to one of the pots and it was 52 degrees. It will be interesting to see what it is in January (if the greenhouse isn't drifted shut). One buried pot can be seen in the middle of the right planter, and the other is directly below the camera. I will trim the foliage and cover them with straw about a week after turning off the heat.
• Allium: Unseen, hopefully establishing roots. I have scattered some straw as mulch.
• Basil: Two plants remain in the dirt. I will trim off the last of the good branches and compost them before shutdown day.
• Sage: Both survived after almost being smothered by the tomatillo. They take up a bit of room themselves, and I think next spring (assuming they survive the winter) I will leave one where it is and put the other one in a pot.
• Tomatillo: I wished it into the cornfield. See previous post.
• Broccoli: Tall and not producing heads. They have a bit more space now because I thinned them and killed the tomatillo, but I wonder if it is too late.
• Petunia: Still in the greenhouse a few more days until I get additional grow lights for the seed room. I'll give it a trim and try to root some of the cuttings.
• Marigold: I have that little volunteer marigold plant that I dug out of the geranium pot. It will end up in the garage somewhere.

I finally got around to placing trail cameras, one outside looking toward the door, and one inside sitting on a little pot in the lower center of the above image. I'm sure deer and turkeys will show up on the outside one, and moose and bear also have been known to frequent the neighborhood.

The seed room in the garage is getting crowded, and it will have to make room for just a few more items. I'll probably do four more petunia cuttings, and maybe the volunteer marigold will get to spend some time in there. The crunch will come March and April when I will have to find room for dozens of seed starts. This image shows some Cuban oregano and aloe on the sides, seed starters in the back with parsley, mint, rosemary and thyme, and the geranium and petunia cuttings at right. Eight of the 12 cells I seeded with mint now have sprouts, so I took the cover off and turned off the heat mat. I set up a cheap fan in the middle just to keep the air moving. The garage is currently heated to 55, but this time of year will get warmer than that during the day. My latest check of the room was 61 degrees but humidity only 22%. That's what happens when you live in the West at altitude (5,800 feet). We have a humidifier attached to our furnace that keeps humidity at 35% inside the house, but the garage has its own Hot Dog heater which doesn't have a humidifier. The new grow lights will be on the floor to the right, and the petunia and geranium pots will have their winter home there.

Not pictured are the plants in the garage windows and inside the house. These include three basil, several Cuban oregano, several aloe, an oregano, and a Christmas cactus. The two small garage windows are my only southern exposure. If I had to design the house all over again, we would have an attached greenhouse on the south side of the house. Oh well.

I doubt anyone will ever read these blog posts. They are for my benefit. I can go back and read them and plan for the future. If someone finds them useful, great.

Harvest

Yesterday I was looking at the crumbling tomatillo and saw that it had a lot of aphids, so today was the day to harvest. I figured it was a bad idea to put bug-infested tomatillo pieces in the compost bin, so it was secured in a garbage bag and deposited in the dumpster. This was the harvest:

These are the last tomatillos you will ever see raised in a greenhouse I control. The plant was too big for the space, blotted out the sun for nearby plants, is a magnet for aphids, and the sticky fruits are a pain to harvest. After I had it all out of the greenhouse, I sprayed everything nearby with insecticidal soap to take care of any stray aphids, and I even washed my jacket when I got home. I will raise some tomatoes next year, but smaller plants than this monstrosity. Also put out to pasture today were the sorrel, about half of the broccoli plants, and one of the basil. Next (after the new growlights show up next week) is transporting houseplants, the geranium and the petunia to the garage. I'm slowly getting everything whipped into shape for winter.

I was reading about carrots in one of my garden books, and was reminded that carrots are biennials. It is easy to forget that because most carrots are harvested for eating during Year 1. They become woody and inedible by Year 2, but have interesting flowers which eventually produce seed. So I'm going to leave a couple small strips of carrots in the planters over the winter and see what happens.

Tunias

When I was a youth, my Dad would get me jobs watering flowers at local motels in Rapid City, SD. Usually the flowers were petunias, so petunias and I go way back. I have lots of things to try in my first full season in the greenhouse, but I may be most eager to see what can be done with humble petunias.

But petunias are not so humble any more. Supertunias, supercharged mutants developed by Proven Winners in Michigan, are the most amazing petunias ever. (They prefer "hybrid" to "mutant.") I want to do six 16-inch baskets next year. They will spend the first six weeks or so in the greenhouse getting fat, then will be released into the wild sometime in June. I'll probably hang two on the outside west wall of the greenhouse, and four at our house. Three different colors in a 16-inch basket could be spectacular. But the list price is $10.99 per plant. I may buy three or four plants and do some mix-and-match cuttings.

The past few years I've attempted hanging flower baskets in our back yard, but really had no method. In retrospect, the baskets were too small (12") and the petunias were just the cheapest ones I could find.

When the greenhouse arrived in late July, the petunias and marigolds in the baskets looked sick, but they were still alive. I put the deer-resistant marigolds in the outside flower boxes, where the deer eventually killed them. The petunias went into a large pot inside the greenhouse and were neglected for the next few months. In my subsequent research, it said to fertilize petunias heavily, so eventually I did. Now, with my self-imposed greenhouse heating shutoff date of Nov. 18, they look great and I don't want to abandon them to the cold. I plan on trimming them about halfway and putting them in my seed room under a grow light which is on order and supposed to arrive Nov. 10.

There are lots of Supertunia videos on YouTube, including this one by "Up North Garden w/Corey."