How I use my SG green House
I grow giant pumpkins in Snoqualmie, Wa. We are higher up and tend to have cooler nights. I have the 8x15 green house. I have two of Denises potting benches in the front half. As you walk in on the left, I have a 25 gal. Soil Soup compost tea brewer. It fits perfectly inside the bench frame. It is on a stand so the top of the brewer is at the top of the bench. I have goats and make a manure tea with bat guano, worm castings, liguid seaweed, liquid fish fertelizer, and molasses. On the right side i/3 of the way back is the potting bin(pink hard fiberglass) that Denise gave me. At the end of the benches on both sides, I have put a plastic visquine tent the allowes me to close it at night, but open it during the day to allow me to pass thru or wind and sunlight to pass thru. I have two folding tables on each side of the back end. At the rear under the back window, I have a potting cabinet that I store potting supplies in. Over this I have a 500 watt halogen light. I also have an electric heater on a thermosate in the back half. On the left side of the rear half, I have a 4ft. floresence double tube light fixture for plants that have germenated. I have heated proprograting heat mat under the florensence fixture. I start my plants in an ice chest with a proprograting heat mat with a thermosate. It takes two days for my pumpkins seeds to germenate in the ice chest. They stay under the floresence lights for 4 days in 4 in pots. I then transplant them into 8in peat pots for 6 days and put them in the ground. I bury heating cables in the soil where I want to plant my pumpkins. I put up a cold frame over the heating cables and put grow lights in each cold frams on the same light cycle as the green house. I take the plants out of the green house and into the ground into the same conditions. Extreme growing. I'm hoping to have a fruit over 1000 pounds this year, Jerri- Snoqualmie
Dobson - up-side down tomatoe
I had mixed results with the topsy turvy tomatoes. Last year I tried three of them. Two in my solar gem and one hanging from my porch. Of the two inside the greenhouse, I killed one when I went on vacation. I hooked a drip feed to them and one of them did not drain properly and drowned. The other one in the greenhouse did well and I got close to 50 pounds of tomatoes over a period of 6 months - I used early girl tomatoes. The one outside also did fairly well, except that I did not bring it in in time in the fall and it got frosted in September. I only got a few ripe tomatoes from it. Both the inside and outside one, I had to trim regularly or they would have dragged on the ground. The taste of the tomatoes was the same as those grown in the ground or pots - great. Nothing like the ones you get at the super market.
It was fun growing them. This year I am trying a tomatoe tree.
Now I need some help with my christmas catus.
My wife and I have had countless hours of pure enjoyment in our greenhouse.
We have had our 8 by 7 1/2
We have had our 8 by 7 1/2 Gem for 6 years. We use it for starting our plants for our summer garden and also holding over our fucias in the winter time. We use a Mr. Heater propane heater. We bought an adapter so we can use our BBQ propane tank, instead of the small tanks that it is made for.
There is no thermostat, but we only turn it on when it is suppose to freeze at night. Works great and doesn't really cost that much.
We love this greenhouse. It is easy to use and has a lot of room in it for its size. Grows the best tomatoes ever.
I am wanting to try the upside down tomatoe this year. Has anyone out there done this? If so, do you have any tips you can pass on? I always keep our tomatoes inside and they perform wonderfully. Would I benefit from this upside down tomatoe? Might be just fun to try it.
Question to Jerri
Jerri,
How do you move a pumpkin that weighs 1000 pounds. Do you need to rent a crane or something? Just curious.