Member discussion regarding the methods, varieties and merits of growing tomatoes.
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April 5, 2007 | #1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: NY
Posts: 2,618
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Nothing Is Permanent
It’s always fun to have your first tomato as early as possible and it’s always nice to get as many ripe tomatoes as possible from your late season varieties. (even you like fried green tomatoes)
Until someone can come up with frost tolerant varieties, you have but two options: get a greenhouse or move to warmer climates. For various reasons, it’s not possible for many of you to install a greenhouse; therefore most of you don’t even bother going to the “Undercover Gardening” forum to see what’s going on there. I am posting here just to let you know that I have come up with a way to deal with my needs. Go there and check out my thread (Removable Lean-to Greenhouse )and let me know what you think. My needs (NY, Z6/7):
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April 6, 2007 | #2 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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You could grow some in a white- or reflective-lined
16'x16', 10' deep hole in the ground with a plastic or lexan cover. (10 feet down, ground temperature is a steady 53F in temperate latitudes. I would probably use Siberian cultivars at those temperatures, anyway.) Walls need to be shored up well so that you don't get a cave-in while you are down there harvesting, but you can probably make wall supports do double duty as trellises. The neighbors will think it's a cold-frame or something, unless they actually walk up and look into it.
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April 7, 2007 | #3 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: NY
Posts: 2,618
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Quote:
dcarch
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April 7, 2007 | #4 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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dcarch:
"I will need a few lbs of TNT to blow a hole that big." See, you do need a backhoe. A couple of tweaks for anyone contemplating this seriously: Dig the hole in land with a slight grade, and use a rigid top cover. This allows digging a rain trench around it on top, and most rain will run off the rigid top cover into the part of the trench on the downhill side, while still keeping construction of the top to a single plane. (Rather like rain running off the top of a lean-to.) One can bury 50-gal plastic drums at the downhill corners with spigots opening inside for recycled rainwater access. To water when it hasn't been raining, refill the barrels from the top. A second line defense against having it become a swimming pool in a deluge is digging another hole a little deeper around 20' away, dropping in a couple feet of gravel, and burrowing a hole from the greenhouse pit to that other hole with a 6" or 8" air-powered hog, at a slight downward angle. (A "hog" is a torpedo-shaped tool used for digging underground conduit holes, etc. Runs on compressed air.) Then put drain pipe in the hole made by the hog, with a screen on the uphill end at the greenhouse pit. (This second hole can be filled in afterwards.) One would need some sort of trapdoor in the top to get in and out, of course, unless one builds a downward slanting entrance to a regular door in the side (which might make it more convenient to get a tiller in and out; something to consider when designing the wall supports, too, how to make sure that you can still conveniently amend the soil.) I saw a picture of this kind of underground greenhouse once a long time ago. It was nothing like this elaborate, just a 10'x10'x10' hole with regular 6-mil plastic on top that had ripe tomatoes on green indeterminate plants around the walls while there was snow on the ground around the top of the hole. I don't know how the person that grew those tomatoes kept it from becoming a big hole full of water in a heavy rain. I suppose this does not really qualify as "portable", but it does have low visual impact on the neighborhood if that's what someone really wants that has the resources to build it.
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May 13, 2007 | #5 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: NY
Posts: 2,618
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Greenhouse removed yesterday.
Everything went according to plan. Going to have tomatoes much earlier than last year! http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=4486&page=5 check out the video. dcarch
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May 14, 2007 | #6 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Woodstock GA
Posts: 418
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I never thought about digging a giant hole in the ground for a greenhouse, would be great for my favorite plants....
I like your green house solution. I was just telling my wife yesterday I might want to make our garden into a greenhouse but I don't need one all year, just form October/November till April.....And I like the idea of quickly setting it up and taking it down like you have done. Do you know how important it is when choosing the panels to consider the design regarding letting light through? I think I would consider using the corrugated clear plastic pieces people use for roofs over patios, but not sure if enought light would be let in.... |
May 14, 2007 | #7 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: NY
Posts: 2,618
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Quote:
The insulating walls will minimize the need for heating. The design requires very little other structural elements, therefore it is very transparent. dcarch
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May 16, 2007 | #8 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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Anyone tried Lexan for one of these?
I don't know about its light-transmitting properties with a UV resistance coating, and Lexan is not inexpensive, but it is very tough material (you can't throw a rock through it, for example). Lexan is not limited to 4'x8's or similar sizes, it can be bought in long rolls 4' or 6' wide (probably other sizes, too, but those widths are a standard product in the US, not special order from a factory).
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May 16, 2007 | #9 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: NY
Posts: 2,618
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Quote:
Other special properties which cannot be done with glass: 1. you can cut, drill, screw poly. 2. poly panels can be cut into any shape. 3. Poly panels can be cut with a hole in the middle. 4. You can heat bend/curve poly panel. 5. You can glue poly panel. special considerations: 1. Poly panels expand/contract much more than glass with temperature changes. 2. Poly panel will curve when one side is more moist than the other. 3. Less abrasion resistant than glass. 4. fire. dcarch
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