Growing tomatoes in a hoophouse

[tgplp]

I built a small hoophouse last September - it gets about 10 feet tall, and it is built over a raised bed that is 8 by 8 feet. It has a window I can open and close, and of course, a door.
I want to grow a couple tomato plants in it to see if maybe I can get a larger variety of tomato to ripen here where it's mild temps all year. I'm worried about it getting too humid in there, so maybe I could open the window and door on sunny days to let the air flow through? Do you think it will get very hot in there? This is my very first hoop house, so I hope these aren't stupid questions! Also, what are some good varieties to grow in hoop houses? Maybe something for humid weather?

Thanks!

Taryn

[troad]

Taryn,

I am also in western Washington and have had a hoophouse for the past 4 years.
Yes you can grow later season and larger varieties with the use of your hoophouse. But, there are some things that will affect the outcome:
1. Yes it will get hot inside.
2. Yes you will need to open the door and window on sunny days
3. Even cloudy days it can get very hot and humid if the house is closed up.
4. A late summer and long cold spell like Spring 2008 can lead to disease issues specifically Gray Mold and possibly others because of the humid conditions.
Watch for overcrowding and leaving the house closed for extended lengths of time. I now remove the covering on my hoophouse once the weather settles a little. I also spray with Bonide at the first sign of trouble.
5. Careful with the watering or you get blander tasting tomatoes it seems to me.
As far as which tomato to grow I would suggest you try a mixture of early, mid-season and late maturing tomatoes. See what works for you.
Lastly, if we get another "summer" like 2010 you can expect to get very few ripe tomatoes and lots of green ones still on the plant come frost time. You still need good sunshine to ripen the fruit. The hoophouse will allow you to start earlier but it won't make up for no sun.

Good luck. I think you will enjoy using the hoophouse.

Len

[tgplp]

Len-
Thanks! Its nice to see someone else growing tomatoes here in wet western washington! Last year (2010) I got a few tomatoes in August, but they tasted... bland. You mentioned something about the watering making them taste bland? What do you mean? I probably watered about once a week in the drier time of the summer. As for overcrowding, how close together should I plant my tomatoes?
What varieties do well for you in your hoophouse? I'm thinking of trying: stupice, amana orange, hillbilly potato leaf, siletz, early girl, and Anna Russian. Siletz, stupice, and early girl should do well in this climate. hopefully, that is. I'll see what happens when I put them in the hoop house!

Anyone else, it'd be great for you to chime in too!

Taryn

[dice]

These should do well in a hoop house:

Gregori's Altai (usually the earliest big pink beefsteak)
County Agent (another early-mid big pink)
Gary'O Sena (earlier than most large dark beefsteaks)
Black Krim (usually early enough)
Grub's Mystery Green (a tasty early-mid-season variety,
compact plant to 5')
Bursztyn (small fruit, ripens about last week of August,
lots of fruit)
Early Rouge (ditto, mid-sized fruit, excellent production)

Good early saladette varieties:
Stupice
Kimberly
Bloody Butcher
Kotlas
Moravsky Div

Those all have the same size fruit as Bursztyn.
Moravsky Div was the earliest of all last year in
bad weather.

Earl's Faux may be pushing it a bit for early enough,
but a hoop house may provide enough of an edge
to get a harvest from it (of more than 2 or 3 fruit).
Outstanding flavor.

[troad]

Taryn,
Good list from Dice. He is from our area and has been growing tomatoes longer than I have. I have not tried those on your list but so much depends on the year.
I have grown Earl's Faux, Brandywine Suddeth, KBX, Stump of the World, Indian Stripe (thank you Hoosier Cherokee) NAR and Lucky Cross to name some of the popular varieties. BUT (and it is a big BUT) you will not get them to produce every year. Last year my Brandywines barely ripened any fruit. The best plants were Black from Tula and Giannini. Akers West Virginia never got one to ripen before Fall.
This year I am going with Moravsky Div and Bloody Butcher plus some other early and mid season plants to go along with a few of the late beefsteaks so I can hopefully cover a cool to medium warm summer and still get some good tomatoes. Sophie's Choice will be one I try in a container. Maybe a plastic cover like Jim uses on his wire cages will get an early start outside the hoophouse.

Len

[tgplp]

Thank you both! Dice, luckily I have some of the varieties you said might work: Gary'O Sena, Black Krim, Grub's Mystery Green, Stupice, and Kimberly.

Also, Troad, I have a few that you mentioned, too: Brandywine, KBX, and Stump of the World. I understand they may not ripen this year.

Oh, I hope we have a warm, long summer this year! (And every year, that is.)

Thanks again for helping me out. Later in the season I'll post how my tomatoes in the hoop house are doing.

Taryn

[dice]

Last 5 years: 2006 and 2009 were great, plenty of sunny
weather, good temperatures for fruit set, fall rains late
enough to not split a lot of near-ripe fruit on the plants.
Everything did well. 2008 and 2010 were terrible, temperatures
10F or more below normal almost all summer, with 2008
saved somewhat by Indian Summer in September. 2007 was
in between. Temperatures were ok, but we got rain and
cooling for two weeks the last week of July and first week
of August, which set things back. September weather was
pretty good in 2007, not really warm but generally not raining,
either.

I always plant a few plants of late varieties, just in case we
have a good year, but I don't rely on them producing.
(Usually I get a fruit or two for seeds even in a bad year.)

[tgplp]

Would cherry tomatoes do okay in a hoophouse? ( such as sungold, sweetgold, supersweet 100, red pear, and yellow pear?)

Thanks!

Taryn

[dice]

Would cherry tomatoes do okay in a hoophouse?

Yes, they will do ok. Usually they do not need it, because they
are early enough to produce well growing outside (with a few
exceptions). The hoophouse does tend to protect them from
leaf diseases carried in wind and rain (botrytis, early blight,
late blight). It usually keeps beet leafhoppers carrying Curly Top
virus off of them, too. (Red pear and yellow pear tend to be big
producers without much flavor.)

[tgplp]

Ok, thanks! ( I agree that red/yellow pear are bland, but they have such a unique shape!) do the other cherries I mentioned have a good flavor out of a hoophouse here?

Taryn

[dice]

The only one of those that I have grown (besides yellow pear)
is Sungold. It was a cool summer year, and I was not impressed
by the flavor. Production was ok. It was growing outside in the
ground.

I thought last year's Sunsugar was a little better, even in
worse weather.

Galina's is good, but it is not a sweet-flavored cherry tomato.
It tastes like a full-size tomato in a golf-ball sized fruit.

Try the Supersweet 100 if you already have seeds. You might
like it. Production and disease tolerance should be better than
average. If it were me, I might grow one of those and one of
the Sweetgold and see which one I liked better, compare
production and earliness, etc.

[tgplp]

I'll grow supersweet 100 and compare it to the other cherries I'm growing. This is probably a dumb question, but does growing tomatoes in the hoophouse improve their flavor?

Taryn

[dice]

Originally Posted by tgplp

Does growing tomatoes in the hoophouse improve their flavor?

I have not tried it. There are a lot of cultivars reported to have
excellent flavor in much warmer climates that seem insipid at
our average summer temperatures in Western Washington. If
temperature inside the hoop house is higher when fruit are
ripening than the outside temperature, that may improve
the flavor of varieties where flavor is sensitive to that. (I tend
to seek out varieties that have good flavor even in cool
summers and ripen before September.)

[tgplp]

Which varieties taste good in cool weather? ( stupice, Kimberly, grubs mystery green, black cherry?)

Taryn

[dice]

Which varieties taste good in cool weather? ( stupice, Kimberly, grubs mystery green, black cherry?)

Black Cherry was just ok. The plant had verticillium, and most
of it died. A couple of branches survived and produced fruit.
That may have affected the flavor. The rest of those have been
tasty in both cool and warm years, with more or less production
depending on the weather.

Aurora always has strong flavor, regardless of the weather.
So does Odessa, although I have never had much production
out of it. Black Krim and Gary'O Sena were still tasty in a cool
year.

edit:
It seems like you are overthinking this. What tastes good to
me may not be the same as what tastes good to you. My soil
is likely different than yours. Your hoophouse will have plants
growing at different temperatures than my plants growing
outside in the ground. Your yard may get different sun
exposure than mine. You have a good selection of varieties
there to choose from. If half of your plants do well, you will
have more tomatoes than you can eat in August and
September. Some of them will be great, and some will be
"soup or sauce".

Have you figured out seed-saving yet, so that you can save
your own seeds from those that you liked?
http://www.vintageveggies.com/inform...ve_tomato.html
http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...g_Fermentation