Greenhouse Vegetable Gardening: Growing Vegetables In January

PaulC |

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Vegetables can be grown any time of year when you utilize greenhouse vegetable gardening systems. Growing vegetables greenhouse style is almost the same as producing them from a garden outside in the summer. You just have to supplement what nature supplies that a greenhouse cannot.

You can use a portable greenhouse two different ways. One way is using the cold greenhouse system where the sun warms the greenhouse up when it is shining. Night temperatures can go as low as 45 degrees F and after that a heating element will maintain that 45 degrees no matter what the temperature is outside. Plants only are maintained to be planted outside again in the summer using this system but they do not grow. Rosemary is a good example of a plant that will winter over in a cold greenhouse.

Greenhouse vegetables need to have warmth and the second system, the warm greenhouse system, should be used in this case. This method will require more money because the temperature cannot fall below 55 degrees F. A heating system needs to be installed into your garden greenhouse. You can use a propane, electric or gas heater.

There is hardly a vegetable that can be grown in a garden that cannot 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 pruned back to be smaller than the outside plants. There is little room in a greenhouse and you do not want it to be taken up with just a few varieties of vegetables.

Pollination is one of those things that you will have to do for your plants. Pollinating insects do not exist in greenhouse culture in most cases so you have to do it for them. Pollinating a vegetable is not hard. Tomatoes, for example, should be tied to bamboo stakes and the stakes can be jiggled in the morning and once in the evening in order to pollinate. You will have to watch the flowers carefully to find out when you need to do this. When the flower opens and the petals all bend backwards it is time. You will only have three days to pollinate the tomatoes so take a look every day.

Sunlight needs to be given to your plants during the winter when the days are shorter and sunlight is at a minimum. The rule is to give plants at least eight hours of sunlight a day. Fertilizer and water are also necessary to the health of your greenhouse plants.

Greenhouse vegetables during the winter can be challenging to work with, more so than in the summer, but it can be very gratifying. Tomatoes can be picked out of the greenhouse in the dead of winter. You will be able to have fresh vegetables any time of year.