Tomato Produce Greenhouse SFG

Different watering systems that I have used.

Mostly------manually. I prefer manually because I have control over where the
water ends up. It disperses the fertilizers more evenly. And I can inspect the plants
as I water.

PVC.
I have no pictures---so try to imagine.
Use 3/4 inch PVC. Cut it the length of your bed-- no more than 30 feet. Water pressure lessons greatly after 30 ft. I then glue a faucet on one end of the PVC and glue a cap on the other end of the PVC. Then drill a 1/16th of an inch hole every 1 foot ----depending on your watering needs.......it can be every 3 inches or 6 inches. I used it for watering 5 gallon grow bags so I drilled holes every 12 inches....(one hole per grow bag/pot)
Now---I hooked the faucet end of the PVC to a hose pipe----------and Yes--Both ends of the hose pipe need Female ends. The other end of the hose pipe was hooked to a Timer. The timer was hooked to the main water supply faucet.
This can be arranged to supply several water lines.

When I grew tomatoes in the greenhouse in long grow beds---I used soaker hoses on Timers. It is best if you make the soaker hoses no more than 30 feet long so you have the correct water pressure. You can buy soaker hose T adapters at Home Depot and assemble the soaker hoses in any fashion that you need so long as the hoses do not curve and kink which causes them to crack and break. Home Depot also has end caps for soaker hose materials.

I have also assembled my own watering system using 1/2 inch water tubing.
I also purchased aqua turents with sprayer stakes that has to be inserted into the water
tubing. I do not have pictures-----but I do have the watering system rolled up and sitting in the greenhouse storage shed and can take a picture of it. I used a #16 nail and punched a hole in my 1/2 inch tubing every 12 inches and inserted an aqua turent line into that hole....yes it took some time---but you only have to do it once-----and sometime in the future if you need to make repairs. Home Depot has tubing and the small aqua turents and sprayer stakes but i do not like them......I prefer to buy mine from http://www.hydro-gardens.com . request a catalog. It is for commercial and home gardeners. I use to think that making this type system sounded too complicated and I never would do it for a long time. Then one Tax season--I decided to try it out. It was easy. Just time consuming. And worth the time. I like it better than the PVC watering system--------but I also learned how to make the PVC system better Than how I set mine up= simular but more holes. (have not tried it yet)
I will give you the link to that source ---and hope it does not offend SFG
http://www.foodforeveryone.org
they have books showing how to assemble watering systems using PVC. I think it is in
the book called Let's Grow Tomatoes.

The best greenhouse structure Prices I have come across is
http://www.atlasgreenhouse.com

They do have 16x96 hoop houses but you can request to purchase only
a portion of that..........for instance.
If you want your hoops spaces 4 feet apart and you want it to be 40 feet long===then purchase 11 of the 16ft wide hoops.
Poly comes in a roll 100 feet long and I do not think they will sell the poly in shorter lengths.
My first 16x96 hoop house was only $700 after shipping. Plus my ground cover , plus my poly and wood framing. The prices have gone up--------but think of what you could do with a Tax Refund. Tax Refunds have bought all my greenhouses----because it was a large sum of money that wasn't counted for on bills. This is how I have gradually built my business over the past 11 years.

heating-----------thats another story

Wow ...never knew some of that stuff existed .... thanks for the links :!:

Thank you, Carolyn, for sharing this all with us! Really interesting and great info.

Off Topic: Vet says kittens are premature. Most likely why they will not have a bowel movement cause digestive systems are not developed enough to process the milk. Should of diluted the milk or gave water. Also---the male kitten died today. I knew he would--he was fading. Female is not a fussy kitten. She has been standing up for a few seconds at a time. But still seems weak to me but could be normal cause new kittens sleep a lot. I did dilute her milk but no bowel movement yet. Sorry for the graphics. This seems to be very important since she is premature newborn. As far as I know--We are assuming she is about 5 days old now. The corners of her eyes have darkened-----assuming this is her eyes getting ready to open in about 5 to 7 more days---unsure since premature.

Awww.... so sorry, sweetie!! You did everything you could. I hope the little girl makes it.

"little" sneak peak

Thank you Megan.

well, the female kitten died. Guess I can get back to my regular routine.

My heart goes out to you, Carolyn. You did your best, and it's not your fault. Maybe the Momma cat knew what she was doing when she abandoned her kittens. But you gave them a few days of love, warmth, food, and care that they would never have had, otherwise, and I'm sure that somewhere both those kittens are purring at you and loving you for it.

I drug out the watering system.

I believe hydroponics call it a "Run to Waste" system. Meaning it is used in hydroponic systems but the excess water is not collected and reused. Excess water just runs out
the bottom of containers and wasted.

This is an ugly pile of watering tubing----looks dreadful---but it wasn't.
The watering systems are in 30 ft lengths. Give or take a few. The rolls are just stacked
on top of each other----tis why it looks a mess.

This was one pile of Mess.

The sun was shinning brightly today so the picture may not be clear enough
to see how each aqua turret has a sprayer stake and how it is just inserted into
the water tubing-----with no extra devices needed to hold it there.
I did learn quickly that you have to insert those little turrets into the punched holes right away because your newly punched hole starts to close up right away---which also keeps that tiny turret tightly set.

Since I grow tomatoes in double rows---- and the plants rather in the ground or in pots---are 1 foot apart, I set the aqua turrets every 6 inches down the water tubing.

Laid the watering system down the center of the double row of toms

then I set an aqua sprayer turret in between each tomato plant spraying towards
the center of the bed. The spraying span does not reach the center of the bed
but it does get moist if watered long enough. When using any type of fertilizer---organic or not----try to put the fertilizer where the water spray hits the soil.

Tomato Plants are 6 weeks old today from the Sow Date: Aug 24th.
Blossom buds are showing some yellow petals but Not Open yet.
I predict they will open Tomorrow or Thursday. Which will be very nice cause we have an early cold front right now and cold front should be gone by tomorrow.

I normally keep two vines per plant and normally the second vine is about 18 inches up the main vine but this time I am keeping a sucker/vine that is about 13 inches up on the main vine. It is a strong sturdy sucker that is growing faster and more dominate than all the other suckers below it. Now that I know which two vines I am going to train and prune the plants to, I can start pruning all the other suckers off and "gradually" prune all the leaves below the first blossom cluster.

6 weeks old today from Sow Date.

A closer picture of the aqua turret sprayer stake.

Mature blossoms today. 43 days from sow date.

I opened the greenhouse this morning----went back out an hour later ---within that hour---Guinea hens went in---fluffed around in the grow beds---destroyed my green bean bed and left 3 plants remaining. Fluffed up some of the tomato beds and did a little damage but nothing I can't handle. Left feathers everywhere.
They had a hay day.

Now I have to block the Guineas from coming in.

Very sorry to hear about the babies. I worried that there was a problem when you told me momma left them and didn't return. I had hoped for the best, but if the vet said they were premature, there was likely nothing ANYONE could have done, no matter their training. Thanks so much for trying.


And I very much appreciate all the info on your tom set-up! Such great info!

came across an old photo and laughed once again.
Was cleaning out the tomato house one day a couple years back and
saw this.
I don't know how it happened. Assuming he missed his landing.
I stared at this thing forever when I first saw it.

The squeamish should not Look.

Click here to Look:

My greenhouse tomatoes are not grown strictly by the "All New Square Foot Gardening" Book. It is grown by the old Square Foot Gardening method.

I am confused on what I should do now.
Should I continue to show the progress of the tomato production?
Or should I request that the entire Topic be deleted from the
"All New Square Foot Gardening" Forum?

Carolyn, I am enjoying reading this thread. Please keep updating us on your progress.

Please continue posting! This is such an informative thread. I think many of us take away a little bit to use in our own situations...sure wish I had the space, etc to duplicate what you're doing!! Thanks so much for all the time you've shared with the rest of us.

CarolynPhillips wrote:My greenhouse tomatoes are not grown strictly by the "All New Square Foot Gardening" Book. It is grown by the old Square Foot Gardening method.

I am confused on what I should do now.
Should I continue to show the progress of the tomato production?
Or should I request that the entire Topic be deleted from the
"All New Square Foot Gardening" Forum?

I am hoping this was a joke? If you have learned nothing on this forum it should be that we are all doing our best with what we have and following the methods Mel contributed as well as possible. Is there anywhere that led you to believe this forum was that rigid? I hope not!

CONTINUE TO SHOW PROGRESS, PLEASE, PLEASE,PLEASE.
Al

Not at all, Carolyn... I'm really enjoying your thread!