Enjoy Fresh Veggies All Winter Long With A Greenhouse Vegetable Garden
Veggies can be cultivated any time of year when you utilize greenhouse vegetable gardening systems. Growing vegetables greenhouse style is nearly identical to producing them from a garden outside in the summer. You merely need to supplement what nature provides that a greenhouse can’t.
Growing vegetables throughout the wintertime requires warmth so you will need to provide the right conditions for plant growth. Garden greenhouses need to maintain a temperature of at least 55 degrees F in order for the plants to grow and involve a heating unit. Heating units can be gas, electric or propane.
There is scarcely a vegetable that can be grown in a garden that can’t be grown in a greenhouse. Look in seed catalogs to find seeds specifically developed for greenhouse use. If you cannot find those get plants that maintain a compact size or that can be cut back to be smaller than the outdoor plants. There’s little room in a greenhouse and you do not want it to be used up with just a couple of varieties of vegetables.
Pollination is one of those things that you will need to do for your plants. Pollinating insects do not exist in greenhouse culture most of the time so you have to do it for them. Pollinating a vegetable isn’t difficult. Tomatoes, for example, should be tied to bamboo stakes and the stakes can be jiggled in the morning and once in the evening so as to pollinate. You will need to watch the flowers carefully to discover when you have to do this. When the flower opens and the petals all bend backwards it’s time. You will only have three days to pollinate the tomatoes so take a look every day.
Sunlight has to be given to your plants throughout the wintertime when the days are shorter and sunlight is at a minimum. The rule is to provide plants with at least eight hours of sunlight a day. Fertilizer and water are also necessary to the health of your greenhouse plants.
Although your plants will require more care when grown indoors in the winter, the harvest will usually be more than worth the extra effort. Enjoying that delicious taste of a freshly picked veggie from your vegetable greenhouse garden is a pleasure that can’t be beat.
Sarah writes for the Home Greenhouse site. You might be interested in her recent article on learning how to build a solar greenhouse.
categories: vegetable greenhouse garden,vegetable gardening,greenhouses,gardening,hobbies
