Greenhouse owners...

Emp_Fab

I am the world's worst gardener.  Whatever I plant gets a disease and dies.  I will overwater / underwater, overheat / sun scald everything and I keep trying but never learn anything!

I gave up a few years back and just used it as a shed.  This year I'm giving it another go.  I've now got an auto vent AND an auto louvre pane and a min/max thermometer.  I just checked and it's 33C in there, which after googling, I discovered is way too hot, so I've adjusted both vents and opened the door.

My tomatoes already have what google tells me is sun scalding, my chilli plants have green moss growing on the soil and several have leaves curling in.

The cucumbers look surprisingly healthy, but it's early days yet.

Why does this shit have to be so difficult?  Why can't it be "stick things in greenhouse, water, wait, harvest crop" ?

octatonic

Imagine if you had children.

snakemanStoo

He could do like I do and delegate the gardening to the children?

ESBlonde

Cucumbers like humidity and warmth but not direct sun,  so shade cloth or that white shade paint on the glass. The tomatoes like the sunlight but wetting the leaves in full sun causes the water globoules to act like lenses and burn the leaves, like a schoolboy with a magnifying glass.
Water regularly once the plants are established. Don' allow them to dry out once fruit have formed or the fruit will split and generally be on the small size. Toms like a good feed at least once a week as well once flowers appear.

Emp_Fab

Thanks for that!

boogieman

We mostly use ours to keep things frost free over winter and to start seeds off in early spring. During the summer it’s just used for some tomatoes and cukes. I usually leave the door and window permanently open after about May or it gets like the Gobi in there. If you’ve got paving slabs as a base or pathway, after a hot day give them a good soaking with a hose in the evening and that’ll cool things down and keep the humidity at a decent level. If it’s too dry the flowers wilt and any fruit won’t set. I rigged up one of those watering timer gadgets attached to a hose and misting jets last year and that saves a lot of hassle with watering every day. Got it all via Amazon and it came to about £40 all in. 

Cucumbers are dead easy to grow and seem less hassle than tomatoes, I just grow them up wires fixed to the roof. But if tomatoes are your thing, a mate who’s a much better gardener than me showed us the best way of growing them in the greenhouse: put the plants in big pots and rest those on the soil, rather then putting the plants straight in the ground. Water from the top of the pot and as above don’t get the leaves wet if you can help it.
Use Tomorite or a seaweed feed once a week once the trusses have set. Don’t let too many trusses form or you just get lots of smaller fruits. I usually pinch out any more flowers after five or six trusses have formed.  Once the fruit gets a decent size and starts to ripen, take off most of the top leaves so the sun can really get to them. You’ll still get nothing like the taste that tomatoes grown in the Med have... 12 or 15 hours of hot sun every single day makes a huge difference....but they’ll still taste a lot sweeter. 

chillidoggy

I also have problems growing stuff, but generally because I procrastinated for so long about what I should be doing, I never actually got started.

I had a plan of putting up a greenhouse on the south-facing wall of the house, specifically to grow sweet peppers, chillis and tomatoes, but when I saw how much it was going to cost, I worked it out that I'd never be able to eat enough to make it pay. I know a few people who grow their own, and they end up giving most of it away because there's only so many recipes you can make before you get sick of what you're growing. And even if you freeze the stuff you still have to eat it at some point, and the freezer isn't big enough to store it all anyway. So I'm back to whinging about supermarket produce.

Is this project actually going to bear fruit, so to speak?

boogieman

chillidoggy said:

I also have problems growing stuff, but generally because I procrastinated for so long about what I should be doing, I never actually got started.

I had a plan of putting up a greenhouse on the south-facing wall of the house, specifically to grow sweet peppers, chillis and tomatoes, but when I saw how much it was going to cost, I worked it out that I'd never be able to eat enough to make it pay. I know a few people who grow their own, and they end up giving most of it away because there's only so many recipes you can make before you get sick of what you're growing. And even if you freeze the stuff you still have to eat it at some point, and the freezer isn't big enough to store it all anyway. So I'm back to whinging about supermarket produce.

Is this project actually going to bear fruit, so to speak?

No need to go all industrial scale with a greenhouse really. If it’s just for yourselves just buy a few plants, stick them in big pots and you’ll have plenty. We did three chilli plants this way last year and had more than enough. Likewise nine tomato plants in pots did the two of us salad every night for a couple of months. Same with potatoes, we just grew three lots of seed potatoes in sacks and got plenty enough spuds for the two of us. 

boogieman

Btw... why is this thread in BCD? You goning to be growing weed or something @Emp_Fab ;

chillidoggy

boogieman said:

chillidoggy said:

I also have problems growing stuff, but generally because I procrastinated for so long about what I should be doing, I never actually got started.

I had a plan of putting up a greenhouse on the south-facing wall of the house, specifically to grow sweet peppers, chillis and tomatoes, but when I saw how much it was going to cost, I worked it out that I'd never be able to eat enough to make it pay. I know a few people who grow their own, and they end up giving most of it away because there's only so many recipes you can make before you get sick of what you're growing. And even if you freeze the stuff you still have to eat it at some point, and the freezer isn't big enough to store it all anyway. So I'm back to whinging about supermarket produce.

Is this project actually going to bear fruit, so to speak?

No need to go all industrial scale with a greenhouse really. If it’s just for yourselves just buy a few plants, stick them in big pots and you’ll have plenty. We did three chilli plants this way last year and had more than enough. Likewise nine tomato plants in pots did the two of us salad every night for a couple of months. Same with potatoes, we just grew three lots of seed potatoes in sacks and got plenty enough spuds for the two of us. 

Well, I say greenhouse, but it was more of a lean-to, really. I was still shocked at the price of the stuff to do it, though.

The other issue is that as the plants will be down the side of the house where I don't ordinarily go, so there's a better than even chance I'll forget about them, and they'll die anyway.

And yes, I reckon Emp is growing weeds. But nothing will be worth smoking.

Nitefly

@chillidoggy about 10 years ago we got a 6' by 4' ali framed greenhouse, delivered and erected, for just under £500 - it needn't be ridiculously expensive.

Our Maud grows tomatoes in the summer, the rest of the time she uses it more as a potting shed, and, as @boogieman points out, for keeping things like geraniums out of the frost in winter. 

She also does a lot of stuff from seeds - marigolds do particularly well.  Dead-head them and collect the seeds ready to pot for next year.

We also have a couple of vegetable trugs - wooden troughs on legs, really - that we use for peas and beans.  There is a fine crop of radishes coming through just now, as well.

As for tomatoes, some of he best we've had have been from varieties that grow in hanging baskets - lovely little sweet and spicy ones that keep on cropping for weeks.

LuttiS

Mrs L is currently trying to propagate some fruit tree cuttings she took from Grandparent house before it was sold. She read all about it, bought some special gel to smother it in and stuff and has bought compost and all sorts of stuff to do it right. She has cut up clear bags to put over them and dutifully tends to them daily.
Looks like they are currently dying.

Last year i cut back a tree in our garden, then used a stick to hold up some netting over tortoise enclosure. Just shoved it in some poor quality soil and left it.
This year, low and behold, said stick has rooted and is growing leaves. 

Wifey not pleased after i point out how green my fingers are.

 

octatonic

octatonic said:

Imagine if you had children.

Emp_Fab said:

Thanks for that!

You are very welcome.

equalsql

 I used to mix lime with water to whitewash the greenhouse when the sun was too strong as this is a classic method adopted by growers in he old days.. but now I use Summer Cloud which doesn't wash off in the rain and apply or remove it according to need. One bottle will last you years.

https://nt.greenfingers.com/images/product_images/extra_images/ST0867D/HI_54_1526471532_f3d154.jpg

Emp_Fab

I used to use a similar product when it was getting too hot in there.  What I don’t grasp is what is more important to the plants, the heat or the light in a greenhouse.  Is it all just about temperature or does the light get enhanced by the glass somehow?  

If I have to open all the doors, windows and vents in the summer and also resort to glass shading - what’s the point of growing things in a greenhouse?

thumpingrug

Emp_Fab said:

  

If I have to open all the doors, windows and vents in the summer and also resort to glass shading - what’s the point of growing things in a greenhouse?

Isn't if for the 90% of the growing season when its not warm enough and you need to enhance the heat whilst at the same time allowing the light.  The last week has been a bit of an anomaly.

strtdv

The advantages are heat, controllable humidity and potentially increased CO2 levels of you want (you can fit a burner).
The glass reduces the amount of light, but provided you have the greenhouse in a sunny spot it's not the factor limiting plant growth

Emp_Fab

Thanks again.  Also, moved to OT.  Dunno why I put it in BCD!

57Deluxe

Emp_Fab said:

I am the world's worst gardener.  Whatever I plant gets a disease and dies.  I will overwater / underwater, overheat / sun scald everything and I keep trying but never learn anything!

I gave up a few years back and just used it as a shed.  This year I'm giving it another go.  I've now got an auto vent AND an auto louvre pane and a min/max thermometer.  I just checked and it's 33C in there, which after googling, I discovered is way too hot, so I've adjusted both vents and opened the door.

My tomatoes already have what google tells me is sun scalding, my chilli plants have green moss growing on the soil and several have leaves curling in.

The cucumbers look surprisingly healthy, but it's early days yet.

Why does this shit have to be so difficult?  Why can't it be "stick things in greenhouse, water, wait, harvest crop" ?

this may not be totally your doing. It is quite possible that the orientation of your garden plus natural or neighbouring vegetation around you is having a detrimental effect on your efforts. You can't always grow what you want where you want it contrary to the BBC Gardening liberal leftie agendas...

SNAKEBITE

Best advice to anyone with a greenhouse is don't throw stones.