Veggies in the winter

While watering in the GH today, I found my first cucumbers and blooms on the tomato plant. We've had so many cloudy days I was very surprised to see the flowers. I'll be picking cukes by the end of this week from the look of things, I'm anxious to see how they taste.

Oh, how cool is that!!!!!! So tell us more....when you started the plants, what kind of heat you used, etc. This is so exciting!

It is exciting, isn't it? This is my first year doing any winter plants. I have a little milk house electric heater set to kick on if temps drop below 50º and about 100 gallons of water that helps keep it warm at night. The tomato plant is a tumbling tom, started late October. I will do that different next year. The cucumber vine started the first of November. It is a big surprise that the cuke did better than the lettuce and bok choy, but maybe it is my fault that it didn't get watered as much as it needed; the cuke had a much bigger pot.

My big fern that usually dies down to the dirt is still green and setting out new fronds, and the geraniums are blooming. One of the blackie sweet potato vines has survived, the other dropped all their leaves, I'm hoping the roots are okay and will recover.

Today I plant my wave petunias, spring is getting close.

I'm planning on really working on winter harvesting this next winter. When I should have been starting plants for the greenhouse this past summer/fall, I didn't think I was going to be home this winter. Needless to say, I really have nothing growing to speak of.

wherever i am i shall be sgabird google ne
Crap-
Hi this is being sent to all my patient customers so ur order has not shipped yet I am running a very successful business here and I will not tolerate this crap
att does not have a phone number u can call and talk to a live person I asked them

hello for the past 3 days i have been having issues with my internet provider AT & T they had 2


them repeatedly demanding immediate resolution and as they have my internet phone and TV i told them if a live person did not contact me within 5 minutes i would find a new provider they did not so by next week i will be using a new phone, TV and internet [providers after which i will catch up
thanks for your consideration
we shall see what I have been studing the net for the last 3 yrs yep

Bruce




this is being sent to anyone in my address book as i will be deleting all entries because i don’t remember who most are
I am also finding there is absolutely no way to contact anyone from att w/o answering a million questions since I am not able to get an answer from att someone will it is what it is it just doesn’t matter

I am also going to try and raise vegetables in my greenhouse and I need answers to some questions.
Do I need to use a special seeds for greenhouse gardening?
When is a good time to start the seeds?
Will regular potting soil work?
What about lighting? Is flurorescent lighting necessary?
Thank You for your help.

Retired -- where are you located? What do you want to grow, and when? Big difference if you want to grow tomatoes or lettuce during the cold months (or if you even have cold months). Are you planning to grow in the ground, or in containers? Need more information!!

:-)

This message was edited Sep 9, 2010 8:22 PM

for tomatoes: if you have some already growing in the garden, either dig one up or take a cutting and root, it will save months of growing time to production. I used the same cuke seeds as in the summer garden. I plant in pots as my GH has a concrete floor.

Thank you for your comments. I live in Idaho.It does get cold here. My greenhouse is heated. I have planted some cherry tomatoes and plan to hang them from the ceiling. Have any of you tried this. The cucumbers I planted in pots are doing well. I'M so excited! I found three cattleya orchids on sale at Lowes. I hope I can keep them alive and that they bloom again. The greenhouse has been great fun since retirement.

I tried growing tomatoes in the GH the first year I had it. They are white fly magnets! I couldn't control them no matter what I tried, and I went to some heavy stuff! I finally got control of the situation by moving them outside when the nightime temp was projected to be 22° (rare here in Charleston, SC). Froze those little suckers to death! Froze the tomato plants to death too, but it solved the problem. The white flies had spread to other plants in the GH, but I had no problem controlling them with pyrethrin/rotenone/Safer Soap sprays. They were totally gone within 2 weeks. Needless to say, I've never had another tomato inside my GH...and no more white fly, either. If you see one white fly anywhere in the GH, get the tomatoes outside. They'll be your source.

Hello fellow GH owners,

A major challenge and opportunity faces me. We have a new greenhouse which is a "hoophouse" at 6,500 feet in northern New Mexico. Too far from practical electricity, it is drip irrigated. I note today it is ninety degrees in there due to the 318 days of full sun we have here, and the ground temperature is 60 degrees. We vary in temps about 40 degrees from noon til midnight. This is zone 5a. This soil here is clay, and even though finely tilled this spring, it reverts to hardpan in a single year, so I've found the hard way, with the combination of added water from the drip system and air temps in the 100=116 degrees during growing season , when the ground temps are high eighties.

I have access to both a dry stream bed and also 4-5 year old horse manure which is black, so I consider it compost. It is very friable. I have raised one of the beds 6 inches and have plans to raise the others this winter since I do not want the extraction problems I faced last fall when trying to harvest root type plants from the clay which had turned into granite in a summer.

My wife had a heart attack on Thanksgiving and she now has three stents in her heart and the knowledge she is diabetic. Thus, our entire lifestyle as to eating must change.

Relatively new to gardening, I plan to extend the growing season here early and late and believe this is possible. I believe raising the other three beds as I have just done to the 3 x 24 will be helpful in that the combination of aged manure and creek sand should be good for vegetable growing. I also want to learn about solar heating of this greenhouse.

So hoping to learn about both the best seeds to plant both early and late would be appreciated, but also the most practical way to heat the individual beds so they retain heat overnight here would be extrememly beneficial to me. Sorry to run on so long, but I wished you to be aware of the major circumstances and challenges I am facing.

Thanks,

Gene so

I am by far no "expert gardener" geneso, but got hooked on Rodale's preaching "the soil is everything" as a teen-ager, and stuck with it through the years. And it works! (It's also WORK!, but worth it). Clay soil is actually a good thing---has lots of plant nutrients locked up in it! You've already spotted this---the horse manure is your answer. If you have an unlimited supply of it, till a generous portion (4"-5") into your veggie beds before planting. Once planted, use the same manure (another 4"-5") as mulch around the beds. Do this for 4-5 years, and you'll be able to jam your hand down to your wrist in frothy loam...And veggies that start to scare you!

Yup...gonna harvest lettuce, celery and bok choi

And carrots just planted

now that is cool!

i just got my GH up . Its 61 in there today and temps are 20 outside ! the sun is my friend :)
so i m looking forward to starting lettuce
i have a Dragons Mix
asian bak choy and some other asian greens
deer tongue and strawberry lettuce. i love that one.

Sue, did you find the Red Deer Tongue by any chance, or do you have the green?

Curious,
Shoe

The green.
Didn't know it came in red?
Going to try a new one Winter Density bib type,slow to bolt

Ok, thanks. I used to grow the red but can't find available seed for it now.

Enjoy that greenhouse!

Shoe