Greenhouse Uses When Growing Tomatoes
Greenhouse Uses When Growing Tomatoes
Greenhouses have many uses when growing tomatoes. They can also be great when growing other fruits and vegetables also. I will be explaining everything we use the greenhouse for from before the growing season starts to when the season ends. Being from Pennsylvania, there is about 4-5 months out of the year we do not use my greenhouse. We have a 10×12 cold frame greenhouse if we would add heat we could use it year round but for me, it is not worth the heating cost to do so. The small 10×12 greenhouse we have is a great size we fermented and dried seeds from over 7,000 lbs of tomatoes in this greenhouse and had over 700 plants started in there for the beginning of the 2021 season. The 2022 season, we plan on starting more plants and saving more seeds in this same greenhouse. I will also explain the different heating sources that can be used in a greenhouse, just in case you are thinking of using a greenhouse year round.
Growing Early Tomato Plants
We start all my tomato seeds indoors at the end of January to the middle of February. We use lights until the beginning of March when we start transferring my tomato plants out door to my greenhouse. They will stay out here until the middle to end of April, depending on the temperatures outside. If it is warm we will start planting my tomato plants early, but if it is colder we will wait til the last week of April or first week of May. But using the greenhouse from March until April helps in the process of hardening off the plants. With the weather starting to get warmer, we do not have to use heat that much unless it is going to be a cold night. I add an oscillating fan to help strengthen the plants too.
Fermenting And Drying Tomato Seeds
When we start picking tomatoes to squeeze them to start the seed saving process, this is where I am glad we have a greenhouse. When fermenting the tomato seeds a greenhouse is great because of the heat that is generated helps aid in fermenting and the odor that is give off while fermenting can be over powering. Especially if you are letting your seeds ferment for days. We leave the seeds to ferment from 4-5 days before rinsing them off, but 7 days max during the height of the season because we are busy. After rinsing the tomato seeds off with a hose and a strainer. We place them on a styrofoam plate and place them back in the greenhouse to dry for 24-48 hours. Depending on how hot the greenhouse gets from the weather outside, before packing them up. Sometimes the drying process might be longer if there are a few rainy days in a row.
Heating Sources For A Greenhouse
The cheapest way to heat a greenhouse is by a wood stove. A wood stove can be great if you are getting the wood yourself but can become more costly if you have to buy the wood to heat your greenhouse. Another benefit to wood is it aids in helping plants along with gas and fuels you would burn because of the carbon dioxide it gives off that plants absolutely love and thrive with. Kerosene is the cheapest out of the gases and fuels to use for heating a greenhouse. Then you get into gas for heating let it be just gas or propane this can be costly as well but all the ways above all give off carbon dioxide for the plants. Lastly, is electric, which is the most expensive way to heat a greenhouse and has no carbon dioxide benefits.
