2010 Winter Greenhouse Varieties
 

My greenhouse season has started. I planted a couple weeks earlier than usual, but things are going well. I am using coir this winter and got some containers that are new for me. The black one in the photo is a 5 gallon container, and it came with the dried coir already in it. You hydrate the container, and the coir fills it. The white ones are not labeled as to gallons, but they came with coir also which fill when hydrated.

My varieties are:

1. Amurskiy Shtamb
2. Lime Green Salad
3. Vershok
4. Extreme Bush Dwarf German
5. Bushy Chabarovsky
6. Boets
7. Utyonok
8. Russian Cherry
9. Al Kuffa
10. Karat
11. Shchelkovskiy Ranniy
12. Kimberly
13. Glacier
14. Pervaya Lyubov
15. Purple Haze F-3

The photo of the black container is Al-Khuffa. Its already got flowers getting ready to open. The photo of the white container is, left to right, Extreme Bush Dwarf German, Demidov and Bushy Chabarovsky.

Michael,
I don't know anything about the coir. What are the advantages to that over potting soil? Is it for a hydroponic system? Your winter list sounds great...kinda like what my summer list would look like!
Sue

I use coir to start rose cuttings. For some reason, it seems to work the best of anything I've tried. Holds just the right amount of water. I'll be interested to hear how it does with your tomatoes.

Ak:

Its very light. But some of it has some residual salt and you need to use some product like Clearex to leach out the salt. The product I use has already leached the salt out. What I liked is that I can buy the container with the coir in it, hydrate it with my ro water, and then plant-after all I al 63!

Sherry: stay tuned!

Where did you find the 5 Gal. coir pails? Most coir packs I have seen are big enough to do a few 6" pots only.

RTT:

I got them from hydro-gardens.


[url]http://chem-gro.com/cart/product_info.php?products_id=772[/url]

Thanks. Looks like they also have other things I need/want. And their 5G size costs about the same as the smaller ones I've seen @ local garden shops.

RTT:

The only kicker is make sure you factor in the shipping costs when you are deciding whether to order or not.

Everything is going great on these varieties. Al Kuffa has blossoms already. Nice stocky plant. Photo is from today.

Michael,

Your GH setup looks great, as usual! And what a great selection! :)

I know I am late with this - as you seem to have gotten everything started already... I wanted to ask if you'd be interested in growing out a few seeds for the Shirley tomato that I described in the 'Day at Tatiana's' thread.

My second plant of Shirley produced identical fruits, but plain red, as I expected. Not sure how these first unusually colored fruits appeared - may have been a cross?

If interested, I can get the seeds into the mail on Monday - please PM me.

By the way, I also have Psamathe seeds I can add to that (Purple Haze F5 generation, PL line) - not yet officially released, as the leaf type is still segregating, but the fruits are the same as in F4.

Tania

Tania:

I just sent you a pm. I started my greenhouse varieties very early, usually I start them the end of September, this time I started them the first week in September.

I am germinating my plants in rockwool cubes, smallest rockwool cube they produce, in a hydroponic system-its a botanicare microgarden, and it really germinates fast. I placed some persian cress in there on Sunday, and they had germinated by Monday! Also, for cloning plants, it works great.

Here are my dwarves today, October 2/2010

The first photo just shows the coir setup on the top shelf.

The varieties are, left to right, top: Lime Green Salad, Amurskiy Shtamb, Vershok, Extreme Bush Dwarf German, Demidov, Bushy Chabarovsky, Boets, Utyonok, Russian Cherry.

The second row: Al Kuffa, Karat, Shchelkovskiy Ranniy, Kimberly, Glacier, Pervaya Lyubov and Purple Haze F-2

Photos of how some varieties are doing this week. All have a lot of fruit set. Al-Khuffa is starting to turn one fruit.

From left to right, Lime Green Salad, Amurskiy Shtamb, Vershok, Extreme Bush Dwarf German and Silvery Fir Tree (Mixup in what I planted-instead of Russian Cherry, planted SFT).

You can see the very characteristic leaf roll (which is normal) on Extreme Bush Dwarf German.

Here is my first Pervaya Lyubov picked today, 11/5/2010.

Michael,

It is so amazing to see so much advancement in plants growth and fruits every 2 weeks! The conditions in your greenhouse must be perfect for tomatoes.

We are eating our last tomatoes here, and you already got the first ripe one of the new crop, this is wonderful.

Tania

Tania:

Right now is perfect-about 86 or so high, 60 low, nice humidity.

Here is Shirley today that I am growing out for you-its 3.5 inches tall.

I have a extreme bush dwarf german we are having for dinner tonight, plus some boets and a couple other varieties.

Here is utynok today, Nov. 7. Mostly fruit. Good thing I have a nice shade cloth on my greenhouse, or I would be getting sun scald. Its 78f here today.

Glacier is producing some nice, 2 oz fruit. Good taste for a winter greenhouse tomato.

Here is Al-Kuffa, picked today, 11/20/2010.

Michael, Impressive fruit set on such small and healthy plants! Which varieties are the best tasting so far? I would also like to grow some this winter under fluorescent lights, so I am looking for good tasting tomatoes that do not grow taller than 4 feet. Suggestions would be highly appreciated! Artis

Artis:

Utynok, Extreme Bush Dwarf German, Amurskiy Shtamb of the ones I am growing now would be small plants. Of the 3, I think Extreme Bush Dwarf German is very tasty. Vershok would also fit with your plans and is a paste.

My wife and I shared the Al-Kuffa at dinner. It was very good, had some sweetness and nice rich tomato taste.

hi mdvpc,
your plants look super, i hope you will answer a few
questions for me, where in the desert are you, i live
in the hi-desert of southern part of ca.
are the slabs you are growing in happen to be one
of the following atomie bimotrix,grodan slabs,ready
gro super sleevie ,sure to grow slabs ??,regards.

les

Les

I started my seed in grodan rockwool mini-blocks. The tomatoes in the white containers are in a coir ez gro bag from hydrogardens.

I am in El Paso.

hi mdvpc,
check out sure to grow slabs they allow much more air to the root system than any slab on the market and i
think it would be next to impossible to over water,they
will give less support to the plants than coir or grodan
slabs but i think the results could be better??,anyways
i will try them this spring,regards.

les
p.s. i lived in houston from 1982 till 1985 i wish i would
have stayed there.

Les

thx for the info on the sure to grow slabs-I will check them out. I went to school in Houston, from 74 to 77.

Grodan blocks
 

[quote=mdvpc;189485]Les

I started my seed in grodan rockwool mini-blocks. The tomatoes in the white containers are in a coir ez gro bag from hydrogardens.

I am in El Paso.[/quote]
What feed do you give your young seedlings in the Grodan? I understood that they should have a weak all pupose (even NPK ratios) feed but last year was advised that this was too high in N and this was why I had poor early setting. I had thought it was because of colder than normal Spring nights here in the UK. Maybe a combination of factors, but I am never sure on this early feeding.
Thanks Gill

STG
 

[SIZE=2]lesandninamatzek-
STG is a lot of hype. I've used it (hail cubes) and I didn't notice any benefit.
Why do u think this? [QUOTE]it would be next to impossible to over water[/QUOTE]
This is true about Coco not STG. Coco holds 10x its own weight in water. Also allows more airflow to the roots rather than soil or traditional hydroponics.
L8
MJ
[/SIZE]

[URL]http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/cv216[/URL]

I believe this is what ur looking for gill.
How high was ur N ppms last year?

L8
MJ

Gill

I started my varieties in the grodan, with bottom heat. Once they germinated, I put them in a hydro system called Microgarden, with expanded clay that the grodan sits on. Its a 10 gallon, 38 lt, reservoir. The fert that I put in was a cns17 3-2-2 grow, with cal-mag-plus, and followed the manufacturers recommendations for 38 lt. Before I put the seed in to germinate, I soaked the grodan for several hours to bring the ph down. In the microgarden, I kept the ph at 6-6.5. I left them in the microgarden for about 2 weeks, then planted them.