Even though it seems like we have such a long growing season, and we really do, there are problems with growing some things due to the high heat. Tomatoes have to be planted early . . so early that they are often killed by a late frost, but if we don’t plant them early, it will get so hot that they will stop producing almost before they start producing. Mrs. Neighbor was telling me that she read that we should plant the largest tomatoes we can find in order to give them a good start and hopefully get a lot of tomatoes before the temps get too hot for them to do well. None of my tomato seeds sprouted because they just didn’t have enough light so I’ve been asking for greenhouse. I wanted something that was small enough that I could just start some seeds to sprouting . . even a nice cold frame would have been sufficient.
Yesterday when Vince went to meet the bull dozer man at Tractor Supply, Vince was looking at the little greenhouses they have in there. We had looked at them and decided they weren’t sufficient to hold up to the sun/wind here but he asked the lady if they ever got in any better greenhouses. She told him that they did have a better one. Someone had special ordered one and they accidentally sent two and it had been in the back for a while. Vince got a great deal on it . . you know Vince!
Greenhouse
All I really need is a place to keep my lemon tree alive and sprout my seeds so this is more than adequate. We probably won’t even set it up til next winter, just before spring. The winds are so bad here that if we left it set up year round, it wouldn’t last long but we can set it up in probably late January or early February and get my seeds going. We’ll keep the lemon tree inside but put it out there when we set it up and that will give it lots of sunshine for blooming.
Maybe Vince will see how useful it is to have a small greenhouse and he’ll build me a real greenhouse! For now, I’m happy as can be to have this one.
Judy, send me the info on that one please. We put a smaller version of that up this past year for some of our more tropical plants and it worked great. With our set up I am not sure we could use one any bigger, but I would love it.
Oh how wonderful, I have been dreaming about adding a greenhouse too. And like you I need to take in considerations of the winds we have in Oklahoma also.. Smart to wait and I hope you will post about it when you do get to use it.
Check to see how many years the plastic is good for, some are only a year, others can be as long as five. the five year plastic might even last longer. Greenhouses are FUN!!!!!
If this doesn’t work maybe a shorter seasoned tomato, one that crops faster would work.
Hugs!!!!
It only has a 1 year warranty but even then, it doesn’t cover the force of nature so wind/sun damage isn’t covered but for the price, it was worth it. Most warranties, no matter how long, are going to exclude forces of nature.
What a deal!
We have a small hoophouse that my husband put up and we love it so much we’re putting up a bigger one. Everything grows nicely under plastic. No wind, bugs, etc. You do need air flow or some way to keep it from getting too hot. Ours has a fan in one end and vents on the other, but it still gets too hot in the summer. The next one we put up will have roll up sides. We’ve seen the Amish in Missouri grow amazing tomatoes in hoop houses with roll up sides.
We’ve thought about the hoop houses but we have so much wind here, I think we have to have something sturdier.
http://lostcreek.net/
This is the type of hoop house we built. We bought our bender from these Texas folks and they are really nice.
Grow lights–Judy. I am sure you read Mother Earth News (yes I know it is a liberal magazine
) but it does have GREAT gardening tips, you just have to ignore the global warming articles. The December 2012/January 2013 issue had the best article for how to sprout seeds. I used grow lights in MT last year and all my seeds sprouted, I did not have to buy any plants.
Hoop houses are surprisingly sturdy due to their shape and flexibility – we used something like that with a tarp for camping and it was amazing what it held up to. I will be interested to see how this works for you.
My son and I got a little one a little over a year ago. I loved it! Still love it, in fact – even if during the almost H, Sandy, it pulled free of the stakes and went rolling end for end across my lawn! I caught it, took it down (in all that wind) and stored the metal parts in the basement, plastic upstairs.
My only problem is that my son has been promising me (since second week in February) to help put the thing back up so I can raise plants (which he insists I shouldn’t even consider starting fro another month or so!). So far, plants are growing inside the house and definitely are on the anaemic side!
BTW – my son is like Vince – he gets GREAT bargains – no matter where he goes! Me? I’m the one that will walk in AFTER the store just raised the prices!