Help Needed for my little greenhouse!

dvoakes · 26-07-2011 8:35pm #1

Hi Guys,

I'm a long time browser first time poster and I really need some expert advice. I bought a little green house around May time and bought some nice plants and some compost to get myself started. I water religiously and feed every saturday and the only thing I have to show for it so far is 1 broad bean!! My Strawberries which I put in hanging baskets haven't produced anything, my peas which I planted from seed and have stake and put a little net around for them to hang on to have produced pods at the top but the bottom of the plant is gone brown and I have 1 singular broad bean growing in a grow bag. I'm obviously doing something wrong but I just want to know is it too late to salvage my harvest? I can post pictures if it helps, I would really appreciate any advice that anyone could give me, my 3 year old son keeps asking me when we can eat the strawberries that I planted and I don't know what to tell him!

Thanks in advance,
Dave

kylith · 26-07-2011 9:03pm

I'm sure someone with more experience will be along in a minute, but strawberries, peas and broad beans don't need to be in a greenhouse.

brian_t · 26-07-2011 10:44pm

Growing inside a glasshouse there may have been a lack of insect pollination which is required by most crops.

It's easy to forget that bees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the flowering crops we rely on for food. Among them: apples, nuts, pears, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash, tomatoes, sunflowers and cucumbers. Along with citrus fruit, peaches, kiwis, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries and melons.
Crops like oilseed rape (increasingly used in biofuels), alfalfa, peas, runner beans and broadbeans also rely on visits by bees and other pollinating insects to improve the quality and quantity of fruits and seeds produced.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/3302327/Bee-decline-threatens-our-dinner-and-the-countryside.html

looksee · 26-07-2011 11:49pm

Its probably too hot for them. Strawberries are really hardy and would be fine outdoors all winter. Peas and beans are also grown outdoors, and the point about pollination is very good.

redser7 · 27-07-2011 7:18am

Next year try something like cherry tomato plants (Sungold, Tumbling Tom). They will do very well in a greenhouse and are easy enough to grow. You will get a bumper crop from about now onwards. Don't keep the greenhouse closed up on bright and sunny days as they get too hot.
In the mean time why not buy a punnet and pop them under the leaves. 3 year olds are smart but you might just get away with it :-)

dvoakes · 27-07-2011 9:58am

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the suggestions I start 2 weeks holidays tomorrow and first on my list is sorting out my little greenhouse, I put everything in the greenhouse because we have a misbehaving dog that would run riot with the grow bags all over the back garden! Thanks for all the tips and i'm sure i'll be back!

Dave

Help Needed for my little greenhouse!

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