Any suggestions for greenhouse tomatoes at all?

Well as the new year is now here and my supply of leeks out in the garden starts to disapear im starting to think about what to grow in my new greenhouse i put up late last season :-)

I am going to put some growbag size bags each side of the 8x6 greenhouse and have 3 peppers, 3 cucumbers, 3 tomatoes and the rest being seed trays and some staging.

Last year i grew 6 big 'Tamina' tomato plants in there and got TONNES of fruits from them but was infested with little browny grey caterpillars? They may have been from the white butterflies that fly around, i don't really know. But they knorred into and ruined probably 40% of the tomatoes that were in there. I tried picking them off but as you can imagine with plants that were around 6 feet high, and really tightly packed together, (im new to gardening if you can not tell! LOL) it was really hard to find them all.

I wonder whether anybody knows of a nice sweet tomato that i can grow in my greenhouse that does not tend to attract these caterpillars? The funny thing is, the few plants i had growing from hanging baskets outside did not get that problem? They got blight instead! LOL

Dont get me wrong, i had plenty of really nice tomatoes but if i can avoid that problem this year it will be so much better :-)

Any ideas would be great as i start thinking about this years seeds The Tamina seeds i had were free with a starter pack of potatoe bags which started me off with the gardening bug and they were REALLY lovely...especially in sandwiches with the cucumbers i grew but it might be nice to try something different this year... :-)

Andy.

 

Hello Andy. Shame you had such a problem with the catterpillers.
You could try puting an insect screen on the greenhouse door and windows when they're open to keep the butterflies out. Old net curtains would do. Cheap in the charity shops.
Or you could buy some enviromesh and rig up a screen- but that's more expensive.
Hope you get a great crop from whatever you grow.

 

Thanks Alice. Yes thats a good idea on the net curtains actually I did put up some netting at the front doors last year because i read you should keep the birds out when the doors are open on hot days. But of course the insects probably got in from the windows which are on auto vent in a rather difficult spot to get at as you see below....



But i did hang fleece up in the greenhouse when all my carrot seeds died in the heat so it SHOULD be possible to do something like that.

Yes thanks :-) Thats probably a better solution all round

 

Hi Andy, you could make a little hem (just rough) at the top and bottom of the fleece to make it the length you want it, then thread canes through.
Put up a couple of cup hooks (or similar) top and bottom of the area you want to cover and sit the canes in. Job done.
You can slide the fleece along the canes to open and close as you need so it will make shade for you too. You could use old curtains, enviromesh or whatever you prefer.

Did you have the carrots in the greenhouse to keep them away from the carrot fly ? Otherwise they don't need the greenhouse. Carrots will do fine outdoors under fleece to keep the fly off. The fleece can stay on all their lives.

I only grow a few carrots in pots as I live surrounded by carrot fields. I can get fresh carrot anytime.

 

Hi Andy,
If you are looking for sweet tomatoes I suggest you try some cherry size ones - I grow Sungold (a yellow tom) and Gardeners Delight - these are I think 2 of the best cherry size toms for a greenhouse......very sweet, and normally no blight trouble - have grown them for the past 6 years very successfully too. I put mine in big black pots of tomato bag compost as they are easier to stake. I also like to grow a bigger tomato too - might try that one you grew which sounds good (...I like to try a new one every year !) but usually put these outdoors later in the year and pick a disease resistant variety. As for pest prevention - well I also grow/buy french marigolds and each tomato pot has at least 2 plants in. Butterflies (if they dare to enter to lay eggs) tend to zoom in to these - so I have had no trouble with caterpillars or white fly. Greenhouse looks prettier too!
Worth a try!
Good luck,
Jen

 

I would sacrifice one of the Cucumber plants for something else. You ought to get enough Cucumbers from 2 plants (but raise several plants, they have a habit of wanting to die!)

I doubt you get many fruits from the Pepper? so maybe another couple of those instead?

Melons?

 

Thanks ever so much everybody

But for a few little lessons my dad gave me as a small child on his allotment years ago and one or two my grandmother who was a keen GYO'er for years until arthritis stopped her many years ago i am very new to growing my own veg so forgive me if these thoughts seem a odd or unworkable but though i have learned quite a bit in the year or so ive been trying, i am still completely in beginners corner

Alice, the only thing that makes me hesitate with the mesh idea is i wonder about bees and other pollinators? Im guessing some will get through anyway the same as some of the white butterflies will but that most will be stopped. Will that make a difference though? The guy down the road gave me a tip with runner beans that if you water from the top that this polinates the flowers below? Not sure whether or not that is true but do people think that would be the case then within the greenhouse for the tomatoes, peppers and so on? I guess that would overcome any problem then with keeping bees out if it does?

JWK and Jennlyn, thanks for that :-) I did try minibell last year I think it was because as JWK said, it came free in Gardeners world but those got hit with catapillars as well. But they did not really grow any higher than 12 inches or so tops as i recall so they are easy to lay out along some staging or in some pots resting in seed trays which i can fill with water or something So will definitely try sungold and gardeners delight, thanks Jennlyn, and probably also Amish paste (Thanks JWK) And yes, definitely on the french marigolds too )

Kristen, Im personally not a great lover of melons to be honest but then have not really tried the home grown ones. I only ever had them raw though and i notice you can cook them by looking online so i think i may give those a go. Any suggestions for variety at all? I tried butternet squash (harrier F1 Hybrid) last year in a big pot (about a foot squared) but only really got one very small fruit from that. All the flowers seemed to just rot and drop off. Same with courgettes. But im going to try again with them this year. I have a big meter squared compost bin that i have been working on all last year so plan on adding the bokashi waste to that and some composting worms and maybe chicken manure and just topping up with organic compost from the council's compost tip and growing them in there and just use another compost bin next to it for this year :-)

Last year i grew some Marketmore cucumbers outside which i had a HUGE crop from which is partly why i thought about putting them in the greenhouse this year? I grew them up a large wicker obleisk which made them fairly easy to harvest They have a prickly skin which surprised me as i have never seen that before but they were absolutely gorgeous...and excellent cooked as well which was something I tried doing this year as I had so many of them 2 plants seemed to keep me, my brother, sister, mum and their entire families supplied through the growing season as well as several handouts to neighbours and friends

Anyway, yes maybe i will try changing that plan a little and try some melons...

Alice, I had a meter squared raised bed plot last year for carrots. Carrot fly, luckily, is something i have never really had a problem with yet though i have only done anything for the last 2 seasons, and only then in the very latter stages of the first so perhaps they have not found me yet? I didnt really grow those in pots but i may well try that this year as i tried to grow peas and beans in some big thick polythene containers you can buy at hardware stores and those never really got off to any kind of start unfortunately. But perhaps with carrots it may work the last 2 years i tried Autumn King hoping to use up the packet of seeds (grin) but i cant say i really liked them. They were a little sour for my taste, i prefer something a little sweeter. I have a few packets i had free from Thompson & Morgan when they could not supply the seed potatoe variaties i wanted so I will probably try those this year I have Kingston, Nantes and Adelaide. No idea what any of them are like but it will be fun trying them out :-)

 

I expect the ones you have had have yellow skin and green flesh? If so then they don't taste of much and although you can grow that type, the seeds available are rarely for that type. The ones I grow have bright orange flesh, fantastic taste and aroma. But no point growing them unless you either have the space to experiment, or are sure you will like them.

I think the best "first timer" variety is Sweetheart as it more easily sets fruit than some its more fussy relations! and the fruit grow large - so if you only get a few you can still feed 4 people or more from a fruit.

"I tried butternet squash (harrier F1 Hybrid) last year in a big pot (about a foot squared) but only really got one very small fruit from that"

Dunno about that particular variety, but mine grow vast - probably up to 15' from the plant, so I am sceptical that a pot is enough root-run for them. I give my plants about a gallon of water a day each (in Summer) and plant them into a hole filled with manure so they have good water retention (I plant them on a bit of a mound because they don't like to get their stems wet, and I sink a pot alongside in order to water "into")

"Last year i grew some Marketmore cucumbers outside which i had a HUGE crop from which is partly why i thought about putting them in the greenhouse this year?"

If you can get a good crop outdoors maybe stick to that? Cucumbers and Tomatoes ideally need a different environment in the greenhouse - so you might be compromising having both together. The only real advantage is that Cucumbers in the greenhouse will start to fruit earlier than the outdoor ones.

"They have a prickly skin which surprised me as i have never seen that before"

So called "ridge cucumbers" - the outdoor type. You won't see them in the supermarket! but other than that, and their prickly skin, they are the same beast :thumb:

 

Thanks for all of that Based on everybody's suggestions i ordered some seeds the other day for Gardeners delight tomatoes, French Marigolds (the tomato growing secret variety...i figure i cant go far wrong with that LOL), krakota chilli peppers (will try them anyway) and some of those gro-sure sweetheart melons Will see how those do this year. I got them from seeds by post and got a free packet of swing F1 hybrid cucumber seeds, no idea what they are like but i may give them a try anyway even though i really liked the market more variety. I don't have THAT MUCH room but i doubt if a couple of plants will make a huge amount of difference to be honest. Anyway, chilli peppers can grow on a seed tray in the greenhouse or in a windowsill in the house even so...

Kristen, Yes the melons from the supermarket i tried were watermelons I think. As you say, yellow skin, and green flesh. And pretty tasteless to be honest. I shall look forward to giving these sweetheart melons a go though, it will be nice to try something new :-)

I will be growing the butternut squash this year in last years compost bin which im going to mix in some chicken manure and worm cast into then top up to the top with organic compost so hopefully that should do the trick :-)

So I am all set now for the growing season Will start planting some carrot seeds in fact in the next few days :-)

Thanks everybody for your help :-)

Andy.

 

Grow more Cucumber plants than you need - they die easily when they are young :(

Try not to let their stems get wet - when I pot mine on I make the original root-ball (from the smaller pot) slightly "proud" in the new, larger, pot so the water runs away from the stem.

 

Ok thanks for that I have plenty of seeds so it shouldn't be any problem Will go for about 10 i expect