Localized Greenhouse Effect

[Eric Johnson]

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Now that I have enough boiler capacity to heat our greenhouse, I am bound and determined to actually grow some food this winter. I'm off to a modest start but remain optimistic that we might have green beans by February, and hopefully some lettuce long before that. I also have some broccoli started, but they take a big pot and a lot of soil, so we'll see. I'm working with some old seeds, so nothing's guaranteed.

Anyway, I'll try to drop a progress shot in every once in awhile just to break up the winter monotony.

Maybe by spring I'll be able to report how many pounds of beans there are in a cord of wood.

It's all organic, of course.

 

[My_3_Girls]

Very cool, Eric - I just wish I had the space for a project like yours.

 

[PAJerry]

Neat project. I've gardened in the basement under a set of 4 -40w tubes in the past. The only vegetable I was really successful with was spinach. What kind of light set-up are you planning to use or do you have a greenhouse? I've heard that the marijuana growers use high pressure sodium lights to get the intensity they need, but I really can't see using that much to grow vegetables.

 

[Eric Johnson]

It's a regular greenhouse--you just can't see the glass in the pic. The compact flouro bulb is just there to trick the baby bean plants into thinking it's still light after 4:30 p.m. I switch it off around 10, but leave it on all day just to take the edge off when it's overcast. It helps to baby those little plants.

The right grow light at this stage of the game would be a Metal-Halide bulb. Once the plants are ready to bear fruit, you would switch to a high pressure sodium. Usually that kind of lighting is used in a more confined space, and often under clandestine circumstances.

But no major lighting here. I'm counting on the midwinter sun to deliver the goods. It will be nice not to have to battle the deer and the bugs.

Here's an old shot of the greenhouse.

I've grown quite a bit of food in there in the past. It's trickier than outside gardening in some ways, but there are obvious advantages.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Well, they're growing. I got them a little too wet (newbie container gardening mistake) and that slowed them down a bit, I think. That and the recent lack of sun. I transplanted the bean plants into larger pots last night. When you do that they appear to stall for about a week. What's really happening is that they immediately begin setting roots in the new soil, and don't put on much above-ground foliage until they get a nice rootball established. This is an old peat-based soil mix, and peat tends to go acidic over time. I mixed some lime in to buffer the ph, so hopefully it won't be a problem. But it could be, so stay tuned.

 

[babalu87]

Try Spinach too, at least you know the hands that picked it will be clean.

Nice set up Eric, you could container grow tomatoes and move them inside in early October and have fresh picked ones for Christmas
You could also grow Figs and be the envy of every Italian in your community.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Thanks, Babs. I've done tomatoes, but that's a big plant with big appetities. The figs is a great idea. My wife, after all, is Sicilian.

 

[begreen]

Hey, mine too, a couple generations back.
Looking good Eric, though you'll want to get those puppies into bigger pots sooner than later.

 

[pegdot]

I know it's an idea that been around a while but if you've never read the book or tried it you might want to take a look at this site.

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

I love this method for growing produce since it allows me to control how much of what I've got ready for harvest at any given time. No more having more squash than I can give away! lol It's really great for a salad garden or for growing fresh herbs. I built my own boxes, tables actually to eliminate bending, out of scrap lumber.

I'm jealous of your greenhouse, BTW! :coolsmile:

 

[Eric Johnson]

Hey, thanks Peggy! The nice thing about gardening (heating with wood, too), there's always something new to learn. Actually, I have some flats about that size made out of oak pallet stock and I used in the past for growing lettuce. They have chicken wire on the bottom, over which I put newpaper or burlap and then fill with soil mix. But I like the segmented approach. I'm going to modify one of mine and see how it works out.

Still getting the kinks worked out of the greenhouse heating. I need a couple more radiators to really do it right, but I'm thinking now that maybe infloor radiant would be a better longterm solution. So for now, we're just limping by, but it's gardening, you know, so it's fun. Joe Brown suggested heated grow stands, which would be great for seedlings. The old greenhouse actually is made up of two 12 x 12 units, so I'd eventually like to have separate climate controls for each. But not this winter.

BG -- I transplanted them right after taking that picture. They were pretty far from rootbound, but as I said, pretty wet, so it was time for some fresh soil and extra room for expansion. I expect that within a week, they're going to take off, hopefully with the help of the sun.

 

[eba1225]

I have tried tomatoes in my GH but initially for some reason I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting tomatoes from the blossoms until.........I started nudging the blossoms with my hads to fertilize them because there were no bees in the GH to fertilize the plant. ONce I did that tomatoes started to form but......they had the taste of store bought tomatoes in the plastic wrappers.

I actually planted the plants in the ground in the GH because there is no floor in my GH.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I've grown some pretty big tomato plants but, like you, haven't had much luck with tomatoes. Maybe one or two per plant. I think it's entirely doable, but only with more skill and knowledge than I have at the moment. So I'm inclined to stick with the easy stuff--lettuce, beans and some greens--at least for the time being.

 

[eba1225]

Yes the tomato plants were huge, but not a tomato until I nudged the blossoms to fertilize them. Lettuce worked great but my problem is that do not have a considerable heat source like you, and thus I can only extend my growing season a couple of months rather than grow all year.