Cricket's Greenhouse

Some see this in market growers forum.
Im just real chatty and impatient for things to get rolling.

Seed house

looking goooooooood!

the big greenhouse--this is
GH #1

Starting on GH #2 this week and have a place for #3, #4 and #5 in the future.
Outside view

inside view

filling it up

Very healthy looking seedlings. You know what that makes me think, that's a lot of transplanting. When I stand for very long out in my little gh, my back really hurts between my shoulder blades, so I don't do it for hours!!!!!!!!!!

DonnaS

pepper seedlings

I build a transplant table just right for my height. Other wise i ache all day too.
If your transplant table is too low---put some concrete blocks under the legs to raise it up. or-- lower it so you can sit down and work.---or get bar stool . what ever it takes to make yourself comfy.
My transplant table is a Pallet with 2x4 legs.
My soil table is not a table but a wheel barrow ---i sit in a lawn chair up to my wheel barrow with my containers and flats to one side ---like an assembly line---. It may take some extra time getting it set up the way you want it to make it more comfy but worth the time.

Cricket

strawberry bed of ozarks

other strawberries---Giant Maxim
center of bed has bulb flowers like---liatris, dahlias, amarylis and upright elephant ears. Cant wait for it all to come up.

tomato seedlings March 10

tomato plants 4 days after transplant
march 14

these are my produce tomatoes Big Beef
They get transplanted again in 10 days to 5 gallon grow bags
Two plants per grow bag.
288 grow bags.

This message was edited Mar 14, 2006 9:43 AM

these are marigolds and tomatoes 4 days after transplant

todays agenda---water

mix soil and fill some grow bags

fill 264 606 flats
and 200 hanging baskets

I didnt have time to sow all my bedding plants so I have 16 flats of 512 plugs each coming by the end of the week or will be here monday that i have to transplant equalling 200 flats after transplanted
Plus I have 8 flats of seedling peppers to transplant equalling 64 flats after transplanted.
and 200 petunia baskets to transplant. all this will fill that greenhouse 1/2 full.
Next week I transplant tomatoes to 6 pks. equaling 138 flats when done.
Then i get to start all over again

Cricket

you GO GO GO girl! i just love watching you do this every spring!
your plants look so darn healthy some of my tomato seedlings are saggy-what do i need to do oh expert one???

Cricket-I thought I was the only one to name my greenhouses #1, 2 and 3. Are those giant cold frames?
I know what you mean about all day long, everyday-7 days a week. I love it, no place I would rather be. We are right in the middle of the crop-all 3 greenhouses are going and there seems to be a thousand things to do. You just go from house to house each day. Its such a feeling of acomplishment when you finish the crop though, isn't it? Did you grow your plugs? I saw those 288's in the picture. I grow mine, and I love the transplanting part the best. I have all shelves in my houses, 3 layers so that helps with the back some. Good luck with your crop,

Saggy----picturing a weak leggy plant . Is that right?

You need sun. Yes grow lights are ok but for full sun loving plants the lights make plants very leggy.

ONe idea of many---is to find an old Pallet--- Take some of the boards off and use them as legs(hammer and nails) and cover the thing with plastic. You can hold the plastic down with concrete blocks or dirt. If you are worried about water sitting on the roof of it then put something on top that will help the water run off before you put the plastic on. Put your plants in it during the day. Even on partially sunny days it will heat up quickly so you want to fix it so you can lift one side of the plastic and let the heat out and some air in.
You can fit a Pallet in the trunk of your car depending on how desperate you are.

Another home gardeners idea is to use the swing set sitting in your yard or find one no one wants. Put plastic over it and use concrete blocks, dirt, bags of compost manure or soils to hold the plastic down.

another idea is----the very old satelite dishes---the big ones--- put some legs on one just tall enough that you can get inside---and put plastic over it. etc...

If you dont have alot of plants---you might spend 10 minutes a day taking them out to the temparary cold frame every day and bringing them back in for the night.
Dont for get to water them good before you go off to work or shop.
Never water at night unless its an emergancy.

Cricket

yes i grew the veggies and the marigolds and alot of other stuff that would be ready soon.
I ordered the long term plugs like petunias and vinca etc..... cause i didnt have time or the place for them right now with us moving.
You gotta name the greenhouses something or no one knows where to go. ( go to the greenhouse and get so and so........... um which one?) The one on the left, the one in the very back------no no no-----#1#2#3#4#5 is alot better.

Im kinda late on alot of seeds -----thursday im sowing hardy hibiscus, white moon vines, lavendar moon vine, hyacinth bean, bee balm, cypress vine, touch me nots, etc.....
I figure I will at least have a nice selection for mothers day anyway. Alot of the vines are go in in hanging baskets. What do ya think?

Cricket

I think you can't beat Tidal wave petunias for hanging baskets. But they grow so well that you probably would not put anything else in there. I love vines-esp the moon vine-nothing better, and you just reminded me to start mine tomorrow lol - thanks. Lavender moon vine? Never heard of it-does it smell as good as the white? Where do you get the seeds? Will the vines fill out enough by early May if you are just starting them by seed now? Do the customers care if they are not blooming yet?

no the customers dont care if they are blooming yet or not. And i got the seeds from a family member who got them from trade here at DG seed trade. the bloom is slightly smaller than the white. the seeds are black like morning glories but bigger. And i dont know if they have a frangrance like the white. I have grown the white before and love it. this is first time growing the lavender.
I grow petunia madness in the baskets. One day i might be rich enough to buy the better petunias. Next year I want to do the double petunias in baskets.
Yes I think they should fill out enough by mid may to sale well. If they dont sell---I will plant them in the yard along the fences.
I have a huge yard with lots of fence.

well the annual plugs came today---early / wasnt expecting that nor was i ready.

Time to transplant

My gosh Cricket- that is so cool that you do all that! I'm trying some of the white moonflower this year for the first time. We're building a patio sometime this spring (when the tax return comes back LOL) and I want to put the moonvine along the side up the back porch next to the patio. :) I think the vines in hanging baskets sounds lovely.

been filling flats

My one person assembly line

The plugs that arrived today
They didnt tell me that they didnt have pink petunias available. I was heart broken cause I didnt get any.
Just white, red, blue.
coleus wizard mix.
Dazzler Impatien mix
Salvia red, white, purple
Vinca mix

Man you need a table! Looking at that picture makes my back hurt lol. It shouldn't be expensive to make a table on wheels that you can wheel on down the aisle as you transplant. Just a frame and throw a piece of plywood on it.I showed one of the girls that works for me your filling pots station and she fell in love with it! She loved the chair part. But I bet that your back hurts some leaning over that wheel barrow all day? Mine does leaning over the shelves and I try to stand up straight.

I have a some what portable transplant table. I just pick it up and move down to the next stack of filled flats.

what is my transplant table? lol A pallet with legs.
My back dont hurt leaning over the wheel barrow. I am pulled right up to it and I sit in a chair. Did you see the chair?

Love that set up with the chair Cricket.

Gonna steal your idea if you don't mind .

I don't mind at all. Thats why I show what I do cause so many complain about their backs---and I dont have back ache doing it like this. Now mind you----I do have to spread my knees apart to fit in front of the wheel barrow. I sit on the front edge of the chair. I fill my flats and stack them up.
I will take pics of the pallet table. Its simple too. Some pallets are heavy and some are light weight. So get a pallet you can handle that aint to heavy for yourself.
If you like me---i toss 3.8 compressed bales every day and shovel like a mad dog. By May I am always ready for WWW wrestling match. Just give me ibuprofen first lol.

you can cut the legs to fit to your height. Or make it so you can sit in a chair.
Most pallets are free. Just ask walmart or somewhere like that if they have any extra pallets they need to get rid of. Fencing companies normally have alot but sometimes sell them for $0.50 each. Not bad for a table top. treated 2x4s are $3 each here. So you looking at a $6.50 work table for the greenhouse. Or In the past I made tables all the way down the sides of the greenhouse to hold my sun annuals and I put the shade annuals under the tables. And I hung the baskets on the edge of the tables. Thats when i only had a 12x60 greenhouse and was desperate for space.

posting what Grow bags look like when full of soil

5 gallon grow bags

posting what a 5 gallon grow bag looks like with tomato plant in it---last years pic

why pay $126 for 42 5 gallon pots when you can pay $126 for 500 5 gallon grow bags.

all these tomatoe were grown in 5 gallon grow bags.

I remember those pics ;0)
How did your squash plants turn out in the bags of compost ?

they did pretty good. i was amazed. they just kept on producing. I had to water them every other day.

wish it was easy to add peat moss to the compost bags without pouring the soil out..... since it wasnt an easy task--i never added peat to them.


Cricket

what did you feed those tomato trees?

trees lol

I fed them a fertilizer mixture.
AT http://www.foodforeveryone.org
they sell a packet of Mittleider Magic. It is the missing elements not found in fertilizers.
You take that packet and add:
20 pounds of 13-13-13
3 pounds of epsom salt
and i add 3 pounds of calcium nitrate.
mix it well
feed each plant 1 teaspoon once a week.

whala---giants.

sowed these tomatoes Mar 11

todays pic march 16

I cheated
Meet my new laborer.
The Mantis Cultivator tiller

He chops my promix.

I haven't started transplanting yet. I am still filling flats and putting the wires on 200 hanging baskets and filling them up.
And transplanting is goin to take longer than filling containers. It should take 3 days to transplant.

I just found out that the large marigolds called CrackerJacks from the Dollar General are cheaper than buying wholesale bulk. One packet has about 200+ seeds for $0.20. And they are very pretty marigolds.

happy gardening
Cricket

ok im tired. I only wired and filled 168 baskets today and put petunias and a few vinca in them.