Tomato Produce Greenhouse SFG

I am glad your still here and doing well, the economy is another story. Welcome back

I been pinching the tops out of the tomato plants so they don't put energy into plant growth. Have a lot more to pinch and prune.

side view of toms loaded with fruit.

closer view of fruit---one of the smaller ones

Looking great, Carolyn! Your harvest is scheduled for Christmas??

Some of the tomato plants growing in the raised framed bed. Soil 6 inches deep
( commercial compost and peat moss only ). Frame made with 2x8s. Bed is on top of rock filled ditch. Plants are doing very well. This bed is actually doing better than all the rest.

I am hoping to harvest Dec 15. I could actually sell green toms now but then i wouldn't have ripe ones til much later.

Sweet Million Cherry --one cluster

Awesome !!!

wow *eyes bugged* i'm in awe!

so beautiful!

So glad to hear from you again. Tomatoes are looking good. Hope everything stays on schedule for your mid December harvest.

Carolyn ,, do you have problems with the guineas getting on the greenhouse roof??

Just read thru every post in one sitting and can't wait for the next update!!!

You are inspiring...

Those tomatoes look divine. I wish you a bountiful harvest.

Jay Bird, yes the guineas were a problem for a short while. They did get on the poly roof and caused a few tiny wholes. They haven't been on the greenhouse in a long time though. I think they were just exploring trying to figure out the best place to roost and decided that was a bad one.

Well, it's Dec 14 and I don't have ripe tomatoes but they are trying. Many are turning orange. It has been sooooo cold. Colder than normal as many in these parts know. I am actually surprised they are turning orange. It is taking a lot of fuel and not even heating it like I should. Next year I will have to start the plants 4 weeks sooner.

I want a fried green tomato real bad but I want red ones even more so I have resisted the temptation until they are loaded with ripe ones. I like green tomatoes just before they start to ripen---they have a better flavor..

This pic is not the most mature out there, but the best view. Some have more orange than this one.

all the lower leaves are yellowing and the plants are looking poorly. Lots of rain, less sunshine, less fertilizer, freezing temps outside, its looking bad in the greenhouse.

So glad to hear from you again.

Sorry you are a little behind, ripening wise, but just the idea of having ripening tomatoes in mid-December fills me with envy (the nice kind)

Hope you are able to get the photo up, I want to see them.

i posted a pic, i dont see it though. hm

this is a different one. It has soil splashed up on it. kindly dirty. I'll eat that one.

You can send that dirty one to me, just leave it on the vine a few more days and then mail it. Should be nice and pink/red by the time I receive it.

I think I read that you can wrap green tomatoes and put them in a root cellar and then pull them out and ripen them as you want to eat them, but I can't remember where I read it. That doesn't help when it's on a massive scale, but it's an idea to consider for salvaging some of them if you have a really cold snap.

Carolyn, I just wanted you to know that I 'm going to try growing tomatos your way and with all the information you have given I think I can do it. Normally I just buy a tomato, put it in the ground with a cage around it, that's it. Pinching and training it to go up a twine is totally new to me. With the little space I have behind our mobile home I should be able to have more plants in the same space where I normally plant 4 toms. I want to make a 4 poster peeler post frame (that way it will sit on top of the ground and be 8ft tall) to hang the twine. I can then cut it to fit the area I have for them. I think this is a big Thank You for your posts with all this great information.
Al

Your welcome Al. Glad I had helpful post.

I have grown the toms outside using the same method. Down here where there is a lot of humidity---it helps to space the vines out so they get more air circulation instead of one big cluttered plant full of fungus. And it doesn't take as much time as most fear to prune the vines every few days or at least once a week. (on a home gardeners scale) I have a new bed that I am working on in my back yard. It is 16 inches wide and 20 feet long. (16inch cause i use concrete cinder blocks) .. It won't produce commercial size production but will produce plenty for me to can tomatoes. About 20 single vines with at least 6 clusters each vine and each cluster can be estimated to be one quart jar of toms. Thats a lot of quarts. We can use at least 75 quarts a year plus all the summer slicing we can handle. I was writing a book about tomatoes, but lost it in a fire. I don't have the heart to start over.--------but the title was "Tomatoes" "A Gardeners Obsession" . I wish I had all the pictures I use to have. I had pictures of growing toms in every fashion you could dream of.

Wow, that IS a lot of quarts.

CarolynPhillips wrote:I was writing a book about tomatoes, but lost it in a fire. I don't have the heart to start over.--------but the title was "Tomatoes" "A Gardeners Obsession" . I wish I had all the pictures I use to have. I had pictures of growing toms in every fashion you could dream of.

Hearing that just breaks my heart, Carolyn. I hope one day that writing will appeal to you again.

Carolyn, I'm sorry you lost your first edition but hope something will inspire you to begin the rewrite of the first edition and make it even better. Photos can be acquired over time and new illustrations may inspire new thoughts and ways to express them. I for one believe you love what you do and the passion is obvious, please give it some time and find the heart and begin again, the title is perfect and the story is worthy, you should tell it your way!

miinva wrote:I think I read that you can wrap green tomatoes and put them in a root cellar and then pull them out and ripen them as you want to eat them, but I can't remember where I read it. That doesn't help when it's on a massive scale, but it's an idea to consider for salvaging some of them if you have a really cold snap.

You don't have to have a root cellar, Miinva. I picked the last of my green tomatoes on Nov. 4 when a freeze was forecast. I simply placed two layers in a cardboard box with layers of paper towels between. (Newspaper would have been better but didn't have any at the time.) I covered the top with more paper towels and placed the box in our garage. It is insulated but unheated. (My grandmother used to ripen hers in an unheated spare bedroom.)

The tomatoes have been slowly ripening, and we had fresh tomatoes for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and we still have a few left, one of which will accompany our traditional southern New Year's Day meal of hog jowl, blackeyed peas, and cabbage later today.

The tomatoes aren't as good as vine ripened but they are more flavorful than anything available in the stores. This is the latest we've ever managed to keep tomatoes, thanks to our unusually warm fall weather which extended the harvest.