Tomato Produce Greenhouse SFG

this is a brandywine that had megablossom. It ended up being 3 1/4 pounds with all those others growing on same plant-------and it grew in a 5 gallon grow bag.
All the red showing is one tomato.

Carolyn, you have inspired me !
I have been debating and doing math on several different options of SFG for profit on a large scale, I have had the electric and water service in place for two years trying to decide on a green house venture, now I think the game is on ,, I am going to construct a 20 x 48 foot greenhouse and sfg boxes inside for tomato plants for starters!

Do you use the double layer plastic for your covering? I wanted to use the poly panels but they are outside the budget this year, wondering if the double layer with air gap is worth the extra savings in heating costs, also how much heat do you have to use? I am in ne texas so our temps run about the same.

Hi:
I am so impressed with what you have done with your tomatoes. I am still trying to get one measly tomato plant to produce in my SFG. I planted the plant in mid-July, no fruit yet. What is the best fertilizer for the plant?
Susie

I don't use the double poly. It doesn't Normally get cold long enough here for me to use double. I just use up extra propane.
As for JayBird growing toms in a GH--------go for it.

Heat---I use propane in one greenhouse and diesel turbo in another. they use about the same amount per week. Coldest weeks I used about 50 gallons per house = 20x96 But I do not use or heat the big greenhouses during the coldest of our winter--Late January to late February. But I do have Heat chambers for germinating at that time. My heat chambers are Mini Greenhouses in side the Big Greenhouse-----twice the protection.

heat and pollination. Rather it is hot or warm---I have always had blooms.
If it is too hot---pollination is abnormal and blossoms fall off. If it is too cold---pollination is abnormal and fall off. My toms still produce with temps up as high as 95. Anything higher than that causes aborts. I try to keep the greenhouses between 50 and 55 at night. At those temps I still have production and slightly below that can cause Catfacing. Tomato blossom end looks like it has a weird belly button.

Fertilizer--- for home gardens-----Fish emulsion, Manure Tea, Seaweed, and I like Miracle Grow Bloom Booster or Expert Bloom Booster.
If you want to stay organic all the time---I think its Bone Meal that has a high Phosphorus????????I am not up to par on my organics. its the middle number in NPK.
But I do know that Phosphorus is good for Root development and Bloom-Fruit production.
(K) Potassium is good for Fruit Maturity. The one way I always remember this is cause the giant pumpkin growers hold back on high potassium til near the end of their giant pumpkins last few weeks of life because Potassium excellerates maturity---the seeds within. But moderate potassium is good through out the plants growing stage.


Sjrunner---Your Romas should of had blooms by now. Or at least some clusters showing. I read your other post. If it has nooooo bloom clusters showing---you definitely have a malfunction. Wish we had a picture.
Try liquid---Miracle Grow for tomatoes or the bloom booster since you have not fertilized at all with anything. If you haven't read Mels book yet---you should---it gives great details on adding Organic fertilizers to the soil before you plant. Organic fertilizers are like a long slow release fertilizer to your plants.

a double row of toms----Twined

Thanks Carolyn for the follow up on the tomatoes. Actually this is the second tomato plant that has failed. I planted it shortly after putting together my SFG with the 5 compost blends. I've read Mel's book several times. Perhaps my retention isn't so good. I'll read it again.
Susie

one of the double rowed toms twined= Today




8 DAYS Ago (flash back)

Woot Carolyn! It's so much fun to rewind and look at old photos. You have made a lot of progress!

I haven't finished twining the toms yet.
I been sweeping the gh, watering the gh toms, spraying for bugs to prevent them from showing up, spraying fungicide to prevent it from showing up.
There is nothing worse than thinking -- I am not goin to spray unless I "see" that I have to, and before you know it---- You have to and it is worse than you realized it would be.
"Prevention"

There are hundreds of nice size bloom clusters about to bloom soon.
Anxious


Most of the plants are only 5 weeks and 3 days old from sow date as of yesterday and yesterdays pic.

The Greenhouse Guard

she is thinking----"I don't see any mice. Can I have some cat food now? "

She is an Aussie Cat. orange spots.

CarolynPhillips wrote:
There is nothing worse than thinking -- I am not goin to spray unless I "see" that I have to, and before you know it---- You have to and it is worse than you realized it would be.
"Prevention"

Oh boy, did I make that mistake this year!

Your plants look absolutely beautiful, Carolyn. I am very impressed! And good luck to your guard-cat!

Lookin' great Carolyn!

Off topic

I was in the greenhouse storage shed where I also store Christmas decorations and heard tiny cat meows. Oh my goodness. I do not have a cat that can have kittens. But there are a few stray wild cats around here. I found two new born kittens in a xmas box on a high shelf . They seem to be about 24 hours old. Still have umbilical cords----drying. I never saw the mother cat visit her babies all day yesterday. It was getting cold last night and she still didn't show up. They were cold and hungry - so I brought them in and fed them and put them in a laundry basket and put a 26 watt light over them to warm them up. They are still doing great this morning. One is a male orange striped bobbed tail. One is a female black striped bobbed tail. I didn't know what to do. I was afraid their mom wouldn't come back. Or come back often enough.

If they survive, I guess I'll have two more guard cats.

Congratulations, Carolyn. I hope they survive! Please let us know how they do. I grew up with Mighty Hunter barncats; they really are a huge help. Our current three aren't allowed outside, it's just too dangerous around here.

CarolynPhillips wrote:If they survive, I guess I'll have two more guard cats.

Looks like a good deal. I think a cat could earn his room and board around your place!

Everything you touch is growing so fast! When you get caught up on your work, would you talk about 'proper' watering techniques and how you deal with ventilation. Those seem to be important topics in the 'how-to' references. Thanks :tiphat:

If you haven't raised tiny kittens before, be aware that the most common mistake newbie's make is not stimulating the kittens to urinate and defecate. The next most common mistake is using cow's milk - you MUST use kitten milk replacer. Next is feeding too infrequently, the kittens will get frustrated and start suckling on any part of the littermate they can and kittens often get urinary tract infections from this. They can get fatal kidney infections very easily if they get any urinary infection at such a young age.

Consult with your local veterinarian if you have questions or don't have experience at raising tiny kitties. It is much easier to solve problems on the spot and demonstrate how to stimulate the kittens to pass urine and stool.

Good luck, if I can help answer questions, I will.

Sharon Hollars, DVM

Sharon, I called the vet Friday evening and asked questions. I knew about how to make them urinate and what have ya. Problem was and still is---a bottle nipple small enough for the kittens. We bought kitten milk and bottle from the Vet but the bottle nipple is still too big for these two very tiny kittens. I have being using a syringe and feeding them drop by drop and that takes forever cause they want a nipple and their paws and constantly going somewhere. At first I was feeding them Simalac baby formular---O-K-ed by the vet til I could get them some kitten milk. I think it constipated them. Anyway----I been asking around to see if there was a new mommie cat that could adopt the babies till later when I could take them back but No new mommies yet.



Boffer, Yes I can explain in detail how I ventilate and water in detail.
I will search for some pictures for the details in my photobucket.
I may not have them all ----since i lost previous computer.....I might have to make new pics. Give me a day or two to lay this out for posting.

As for plants growing fast-----We still had a lot of sunshine and warm days til this week.
This week will be "cold" at night and I will have to heat the greenhouse.
That lovely cold jet stream from Canada.
A month ago, I dreamed we had an early frost 1st of October. Dreams can be scary sometimes cause our temp is going down to 39* F tonight.

Ventilation*

I have tried many ways to vent and air out the greenhouses.
With the tomato house---I designed it so the poly comes off easily on the walls in several sections. The gable ends (the top triangle portion ) also come off in a section of their own. They can either be loosened at the top and lowered a small amount during warm days or taken off during Hot days. Heat rises---so the heat in the greenhouse goes out the gable ends. A fan helps to pull this heat out or cooler air in.
The poly is attached to the greenhouse using Wire Lock.

On Hoop Houses---or Tunnel Houses---
I constructed a 2x4 down the side of the greenhouse about 3 feet high and sometimes higher , using pipe U clamps to hold the 2x4 onto the galvanized hoop. This was a 3 foot high curtain to allow air flow into the greenhouse. At each hoop, I had a nail on the outside and the inside. The inside nail had a 2 foot rope tied to it. I would roll the poly backward and up to the 2x4 and reach inside for the rope and pull the rope to the outside and tie it to the outside nail ---holding the curtain up. The poly was rolled backward to prevent rain from collecting into the rolled poly.

Inside-----2x4 with nails and ropes. Also may be able to see the U clamps holding 2x4 to galvanized hoop.

another pic of 2x4 fastened to hoops

16x96 Hoop house covered with poly, 2x4 down side to make curtain 3 ft high.

inside views of poly rolled up and rope holding poly up.

A hoop house that had tomatoes growing in 5 gallon grow bags ---with a 5 ft curtain.
Poly held up with rope on side curtains. (year 2006)

I love growing tomatoes and I love my plant sales business. I do not have a lot of money so I do everything the poor mans way.


A previous picture shown-----Tomato Hoop House.
The side curtains were rolled under and tied up-------then the Roof poly was loosened from
one side ----rolled over to one whole side and tied with the curtain.
Roof poly was later rolled back over the top and fastened back in place.
(year 2005)

CarolynPhillips wrote:I love growing tomatoes and I love my plant sales business. I do not have a lot of money so I do everything the poor mans way.

And I was just thinking how clever you were with your different set-ups!