greenhouse 16 x 80

JULY 5th

There is no way I can grow tomatoes in these 8 foot greenhouses all season----I let the tomatoes down twice. The grew to 12 feet long. I had to start another crop rather they had disease or not. When I let them down it would break the older tomatoes that had not ripened yet.---------I thought about taking the darn greenhouse down and adding 3 feet to the height.

But next year I hope things do better. Hope to have 3 seperate Greenhouses with 4 differant Crop times. Sow dates---Jan 1,
Feb 14 , Apr 1, June1.

any ideaaaaaaasssss


cricket

Our wires are only 7 ft off the ground.
What you do is prune the stem to one leader. Keep all the suckers off.
You get a box of clips & string winders from a hydroponic growers supply. When you let the tomatoes down, all leaves are removed that will touch the ground. I usually have first leaf 2 ft off the ground. Lay the stems on the ground in nice neat rows, any unripe tomatoes lay up on the stems. The only thing that bothered mine were grasshoppers. Found out that OFF spray bomb did them in, didn't take much either. I always have it around to use for mosquitoes when I am working in there.
When you took your plastic off, you turned your greenhouse into an outdoor garden, hence the blight. I've had tomatoes in these same holes for years & have no disease so far.
Here it would also get to hot for them if we didn't have fans going.
But at $3.00 per pound for the tomatoes I can run the fans.
I've been getting $300 per week out of there!
Bernie

Greenhouse tomatoes here go for $2 a pound and thats by the experienced professional growers. I guess they dont make much but probly have a bigger business to make up the differance in loss. Florida isnt far a way and they kill the greenhouse businesses.
Yes, I trim the plants to one stem, I do it exactly the way you do when lowering the plants. I guess I didnt lose many tomatoes when i lowered them ---i just hated that they fell off. They were so heavy----one pound tomatoes in clusters of 5 or more. I will just have to be more careful I guess. New at this. And practice makes perfect right?
Thank you so much for your advice. I appreciate every word.
Its a shame I cant have plastic on whole greenhouse and have the top open up. THat heat needs to go.
I can not imagine the heat in there during July----i sweated like a mad dog with the poly off in May. Lost 15 pounds in one month.

close up of the vines.

The vines were so big and the tomatoes were so heavy.

May 26


This message was edited Oct 11, 2005 10:14 PM

hey cricket glad to see you back and posting-my mators are done and i sure miss em!

I miss my mators too. hopefully I will have some by Nov15

There is a greenhouse about one hour south of me. He sows his tomato seed day after thanksgiving but he doesnt get any tomatoes til end of March. He has to Heat the greenhouses all winter. But since we dont have much light in Jan and Feb when his tomatoes start blooming and making tomatoes, I dont see how he gets much out of it. They need lots of light in order to produce.
I am reluctant to try a winter crop.

I need to ponder.

Cricket