How many here grow food gardens inside green house year round?

[me]

Anyone doing it?

[The Cook]

Not many things will grow at 110°F which is what the temperature is in mine right now (4:45pm). I am planning to start some tomatoes and basil outside on the deck in the next few days. When it gets cool enough I will move them into the greenhouse. I live in North Carolina.

[me]

Oops.... I guess I should have worded it better

Can you grow food in the WINTER months in your green house?

If yes..... how do you grow stuff in the summer? Cant you open the green house up entirely to keep heat from building up?

Please bear with dumb questions....as you can tell I know NOTHING abt growing food. Nor greenhouses

[J.C.]

That all depends on how elaborate of a greenhouse you want to operate. Some of them have totally controlled environments. For the most part, trying to do what I think you want to do, you are going to have to learn to do some canning, some drying, some dehydrating and just generally acting like the proverbial squirrel and "gather up nuts for the winter".

Yes, you can grow in a greenhouse year round, but you are going to have to be selective in what you grow, when. And here is the old boogaboo, the old "what works for others, doesn't mean it will work for you".

I don't know if you have done this yet, but one thing you really should do, actually two things, is pick the brain of your NEAREST agricultural extension agent and get in touch with your local or closest Master Gardner program.

[The Cook]

Maybe if you are willing to pay for the heat to keep things from freezing, especially at night. And I am not sure what I would want to grow in the winter. Forget most of the summer vegetables because it is not just the temperature, it is also the amount and kind of light. I plan to try to keep a few tomato plants and basil going this winter. Then about February the greenhouse will be full of seedlings since I start almost all of my plants from seed.

I have the door and vents open all of the time in the summer. I have enough room outside to grow all the summer fruits and vegetables that I want (that grow in my climate). And I think that most of the things do much better outside in the real dirt with sun and rain. We have an asparagus bed with over 100 plants, and a strawberry bed with over 200 plants. We also have some fruit trees. This spring we grew collards, broccoli, rapini, potatoes and peas. This summer I am growing tomatoes, peppers, okra, squash cucumber and 3 varieties of watermelon. We planted beans but the insects got to them first. There may be a few things that I have forgotten.

If you are really interested you should find some books on gardening and greenhouses.

Where do you live?. Does anyone near you grow vegetables? If so, go talk to them.

[simy1]

I have two gardens, one of which I almost not touch before november 1. Around Thanksgving i cover the beds with poly tunnels. The tunnels keep the soil almost unfrozen inside (it might freeze for a few days, but one sunny day is enough to thaw). The plants are cold-hardy vegetables planted in late spring to late summer. They are typical of winter gardens the world over; collard, savoy cabbage, kale, carrots, radicchio, various mustards. I also have beets and parsnips in the tunnels. This is SE Michigan and I usually harvest until february and again second growth starting in March.

You can of grow vegetables through the winter, so long as the vegetables established themselves the summer before (grow is perhaps the wrong word, you keep them alive for winter harvest). The light is more than enough. They grow veggies under cover in France, after all, which is much farther North than here.

[David Hare-Scott]

Are you making assumptions about where the OP lives or do you know?

I plan to try to keep a few tomato plants and basil going this

Perhaps your experience would help the rest of us more if you said what your climate is.

David

[Farm1]

Well vegetable also grow on the Equator and that is much farther North than here!

[The Cook]

No I do not know, but I did ask in the last paragraph of my reply, which you snipped. A greenhouse cools fairly fast after the sun is no longer on it. The temperature in the greenhouse is now 64°F and the current outside temperature is 61°F. The sun us just now reaching the greenhouse at 7:30am Eastern Daylight Time in the US.

I did mention in my first response to the OP that I lived in North Carolina. To be more specific I live in the western part of the state in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Latitude: 36.26 N, Longitude: 80.85 W. I can be on the Blue Ridge Parkway in 25 minutes. The climate is moderate. Average first frost in the spring is May 1 and average last frost in the fall is November 1. We get freezing temperatures and snow in the winter but not constantly. In the summer it gets as hot as 100°F on occasion.

Does that give you enough information?

[me]

I live in north Missouri

From what I gather here..... it sound like growing a food garden all year round is just impossible without a significant investment in infrastructure

I guess I better move to Big Island Hawaii and do it there!

[The Ranger]

There's the "Pay me now or pay me later" axiom. Moving to -- and then living in -- Hawaii would take that infrastructure investment, and then some.

The Ranger

-- Greeks like me have a basic flaw - we tend to build watches when people only want the time. -- Dimitri, ACC Aug. '05

[The Cook]

You can possibly grow a garden year around, but not tomatoes in January or broccoli in July without a major investment. You need to do some serious research on gardening and your climate. You can grow some things in hoop houses during the winter. There are books available on extending the harvest. Find you county extension agent and see what information is available there.

Since you said you knew nothing about gardening or greenhouses, you should start by setting out a few plants and see what grows. That is if you are really interested in year around gardening, or gardening at all.

[gonzo]

Wow. If you are not familiar with winter gardening, do indeed check out extending the harvest. Then do a little reading up on the works of Eliot Coleman:

Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long

summary: covers shift your garden 1 zone south for each layer (unheated hoophouse, floating row cover)

I'm in zone 5 and when outdoor temps are 0-10, it can be as high as 40 in the hoophouse. When the sun really comes out, it can get as high as

50 (temps always lower at night though). I have 3 months in the dead of winter when life is tough for the plants, and 3-4 weeks either end of the season when plants are just fine under cover.

Bottom line: hoophouses are great for beginners, not a huge investment in time, material or infrastructure. If you really want to get into winter gardening but want to start small, I suggest a couple cold frames to get you going.

[David Hare-Scott]

Yes thank you.

David

[simy1]

Huh? A PVC pipe for each hoop costs $1.60. 100 feet of 12 ft poly costs $27. The clamps will cost you another $20, and you have to have some bricks to hold down the poly on windy days (concrete chunks will do as well). If treated well, the poly lasts three years and the clamps and hoops last forever. You are looking at $15 per winter harvest.

[Jan Flora]

Naw. They don't have any topsoil and the weather never gets cold enough to grow rhubarb, raspberries and other good stuff.

Just visit Hawaii when you can : )

Jan, in Alaska

[The Guy]

Yes things grow all year round on the Big Island but you also have a real bug problem. Been there done that.

[me]

what did you do there?

can you share the story?

[Steve Newport]

Something I find interesting in this respect. I live in Sussex, UK. Locally during the 19th and early 20th Century a local family developed a system of using greenhouses mounted on rails/. They then were able to move each complete greenhouse over the plants as reqired.

Excellent.