Supporting Cordon or Indeterminate tomatoes in the greenhouse.

This post applies to Cordon or Indeterminate tomatoes being grown in a greenhouse. If you are planning on growing tomatoes in a greenhouse, and you don't know the difference between indeterminate and determinate, you should research the variety you plan to grow before starting. The type mostly grown in greenhouses is indeterminate.

Actually, a recent question in the comments section regarding the wood posts in the greenhouse prompted me to do this post on how I solved the tomato support problem. My solution may not be the best, and it is certainly not the only way to solve the problem, it is however what seems to work best for my purposes.

As seen in the photo above there is a small bamboo stake inserted in the pot next to the plant. A length of poly twine is attached to the stake with a wire tie and the twine is wound clockwise abound the plant. The twine is attached to a length of 5/8" oak dowel above the plant. I fasten the twine using a simple slip knot and leave about about a foot of extra twine so that the slip knot can be loosened to allow more twine to be wrapped around the plant as it grows.

For additional support I attach a few vine clips where I think they will give the best support. The vine clips are small plastic rings that have teeth that grip the twine and the ring clips loosely around the plant providing additional support. There is a clip visible in the photo on the right side slightly above the green fruit. Clicking on the photo will enlarge it to better show the clips.

The plant in the photo is one of the expensive hybrid Trust plants. Although it seems to be a nice plant, the plain old Super Beefsteaks actually are larger plants and have many more flowers and developing tomatoes. This should prove to be an interesting experiment, however, it is much too early in the season to form an opinion one way or the other.

Again, time will tell...

Bypass the produce section

Although the plants in the above photo are continuing to provide fresh produce everyday I have already started replacements. We have been harvesting the outer leaves of these plants for several weeks and we have enjoyed many a nice meal from this planting.

This time of year I browse the gardening forums and people are writing about planting lettuce in their gardens, and soon many will be asking for all kinds of help with plant diseases and bugs. Some write that they have been waiting for months to get back to gardening.

With such a simple alternative available I can not help but wonder why urban hydroponic gardening is not more popular. It could be that hydroponics has a bad reputation due to the people growing illegal crops. I get comments frequently like: "one of these days the cops are going to pay you a visit to see what you are growing in that greenhouse." My reply is that they are welcome anytime, and that I will treat them to a nice healthy salad if they stop by.

Recently I watched a documentary on nutrition, and the person being interviewed stated that the produce in the supermarket travels, on average, 1500 to 2000 miles to get to the market, is more than a week old when you buy it, and has lost 40% of its nutritional value by the time you eat it. And, and this is a BIG AND, Lord only knows what it was sprayed, and fertilized, with when it was grown!

I prefer to bypass the produce section.

Trying Navada Lettuce

Navada lettuce seeds have been in my freezer for sometime, however, up until now I have never really given this variety a serious trial. The above photo was taken today and my first impression is that it does look promising.

Since I built the grow chamber, and it performs so well, I have decided to continue to grow lettuce indoors permanently. Growing lettuce in the greenhouse during the warm weather is really a challenge, so the greenhouse will be only growing warm weather crops and flowers until fall. In the fall I will add some chard and beet greens.

Below is some information that I found online regarding this variety. And, as always, time will tell...

Nevada Lettuce

48 days. Possibly the best in its category, this extremely uniform, all-green Batavia lettuce performs in all kinds of climates. Nevada has a tall open head with thick, bright, lime green leaves that are crunchy and have a wonderful nutty flavor. Very resistant to tip burn, bolting, and downy mildew, plus tolerant of lettuce mosaic virus. For the market gardener, Batavia lettuces can be stored longer than other types when cooled at picking and kept refrigerated.

Getting crowded

It is just about time to set some plants in the soil garden and I am thinking this coming weekend is when it will happen. The probability of frost for this area after May 15th is only about ten percent, and I will check the long range forecast for five days and decide to plant, or not to plant. Planting can not come too soon as the greenhouse is getting crowded and I am starting to get frustrated when attempting to get at plants to attend to them.

The tomatoes and cucumbers along both sides of the greenhouse have been attached to their overhead supports using vine clips and twine. They will be grown to completion in the greenhouse. The peppers, on the large green container in the upper right, and all of the plants in flats are destined for the soil and annual garden. Actually, I have been removing flower buds from the peppers for a few weeks, but now it is time to let them do their thing.

In a book on greenhouse growing that I recently read the author stated that only a tiny fraction of home greenhouse owners actually grow in the greenhouse. They use them for starting seeds and then bring plants in at the end of the season to extend the season. We know one other family in the area that has a greenhouse and that is what they do also. I just can not imagine having a greenhouse and only using it a few weeks a season. Well, to each his own I guess.

And the beat goes on.

My gardening book says that a Calceolaria plant should be discarded when it stops blooming.

That is all well and good, but, it seems the plant did not read the book, as it just continues to bloom week after week.

It could also be because I did not follow the book's instructions regarding growing Calceolaria. It makes me wonder if anyone else has ever tried growing one of these hydroponically under lights.

Planted my cucumbers.

The sun finally decided to make a rare appearance today, so I decided to transplant my cucumbers into AutoPots and get them into the greenhouse.

These are Little Leaf cucumbers, and they are living up to their name, as the leaves are indeed small.

I found the following description online:

Compact plant produces high yields of small emerald green color cucumbers. An excellent cucumber for salads and pickling. This parthenocarpic plant produces cucumbers without pollinators. Does well under adverse weather conditions. Developed by the University of Arkansas. Disease Resistant: Angular Leaf Spot, Anthracnose, Bacterial Wilt, Cucumber Mosaic Virus, Downy Mildew, Powdery Mildew.

The seeds were not all that expensive and let's face it two people do not need a lot of cucumbers. I may very well grow these indoors next winter also.

The season is officially underway.

Today I spent just about the entire day soaking and mixing coco coir and perlite and planting tomatoes. While I was engaged in doing this, the outside temperatures were in the low 40s, and the wind was howling like a banshee. At one point, tiny flakes of ice crystals were striking the polycarbonate panels. What a strange day to be planting tomatoes.

As the forecast for tonight calls for temperatures in the lower 20s I have added a small oil filled electric heater to the greenhouse, in addition to the small forced air heater. Both units are set for the mid forties,however, along with residual heat from the day I will not be raising the temperature all that much. The trade off of running the lights should compensate for the heat

The photo above is the south facing side of the greenhouse, and that is the side where I am using the tomato specific nutrients. The opposite side has also been planted, except for two pots which are reserved for cucumbers.