How are peoples greenhouse/polytunnel crops growing?

genuine leather

I have 19 tomato plants,5 varieties which are fairly popular(Gardeners Delight,Alisa craig,Red cherry,Sungold,Shirley) and four cayenne peppers in the greenhouse. Eating toms now for about 5 weeks,starting on the peppers which are still green but HOT!!
The ripening has gathered some speed i think, since i brought in the onions in to dry them.

What are you enjoying at the moment?

martinn123

Nice Crop.

apart from my Tomatoes, I have been picking Gerkins for 3/4 weeks.
Getting 10/12 from each plant, per week, and they are still sending out flowers.

Green Peppers, got 6 so far from 2 plants

The Chillies are still green, think I have to wait till they turn Red.

Potatoes, dug up a couple of ''Sharpes Express'' last week, bit small, but burst out of their skin, boiled, balls of flower, lovely.

genuine leather

martinn123 wrote: »

Nice Crop.

apart from my Tomatoes, I have been picking Gerkins for 3/4 weeks.
Getting 10/12 from each plant, per week, and they are still sending out flowers.

Green Peppers, got 6 so far from 2 plants

The Chillies are still green, think I have to wait till they turn Red.

Potatoes, dug up a couple of ''Sharpes Express'' last week, bit small, but burst out of their skin, boiled, balls of flower, lovely.

Lovely healthy plants martin.
Gerkins i ve never grown, but next season it will be on the list....
Whats you feed schedule?
Sat or sunday i will feed toms,peppers, Runnerbeans( large tub sown so i can place in the g/house in late season)Courgettes with tomato feed. All seem to be doing grand.

Sharpes express are one of my fav spud,i will always sow an early and second early of them Without fail i will grow it every year with a few others, balls of flower and beautiful.

martinn123

genuine leather wrote: »

Lovely healthy plants martin.
Gerkins i ve never grown, but next season it will be on the list....
Whats you feed schedule?
Sat or sunday i will feed toms,peppers, Runnerbeans( large tub sown so i can place in the g/house in late season)Courgettes with tomato feed. All seem to be doing grand.

Sharpes express are one of my fav spud,i will always sow an early and second early of them Without fail i will grow it every year with a few others, balls of flower and beautiful.

Feed schedule?


Water daily, heavy over the past hot spell, and Tomatoe feed weekly, the Gerkins take in a huge amount of water, but are producing volumes of fruit.

genuine leather

Like yourself i just go for once a week feed after fruits set.
Have read about many different feeding schedules,part feeding every other watering etc. I would like to hear some tried a tested methods...

karl tyrrell

Have about 60 tomato plants all the fruit is still green,my son planted pumpkins in the glass house and they are taking over,the corn is flying and we have melons the size of golf balls.when will the tomatoes turn red.

redser7

When did you sow them? You should be stopping them now by taking the growing tips off to give the fruit a chance to ripen.

karl tyrrell

redser7 wrote: »

When did you sow them? You should be stopping them now by taking the growing tips off to give the fruit a chance to ripen.

About two months i never touched them just let them grow

yellowlabrador

my pumpkins are doing really well this year. All down to the heat last month I think. I've alraeady harvested 2 20 pounders and there are 2 more coming along.
What I do is stop too many fruit developing at any one time but let the plant keep on growing. I've also noticed that they seem to root along their path so I make sure I also feed and water under the plant as it's growing. I also give them copious water. I kept my celery plants going for 2 years by just picking stems as I needed them bu they are finally running to seed. The spinach has bolted and I've got a second crop of strawberries. The hanging basket tomatoes are doing the best and the grapes are something else. Shame I don't drink wine but my neighbours will be pleased. I can recommend the Black Hamburg variety of grape to people it;s an almighty cropper. The only strange thing is that my parsley has been eaten to the stem and I can't find the culprit.

redser7

karl tyrrell wrote: »

About two months i never touched them just let them grow

Ok. The light levels are falling off rapidly so you need to cut the growing tips off the plants and keep taking out the sideshoots. Try to focus all the plants' energy into ripening fruit and flowers that are there now, but nothing else.
What a quick season!!

karl tyrrell

redser7 wrote: »

Ok. The light levels are falling off rapidly so you need to cut the growing tips off the plants and keep taking out the sideshoots. Try to focus all the plants' energy into ripening fruit and flowers that are there now, but nothing else.
What a quick season!!

ok thanks will do.

Stressica

My butternut squash are huge now, got about 16 fruits id imagine, the vines have gone everywhere, just hoping they'll start ripening soon, oh these are outside and apart from digging in fym in mid spring, didn't do anything to them

Been getting tomatoes now since June, the bigger toms like shirley/alisia craig ripening away now and my beefsteaks doing well too, cant wait to see them ripen!! have sungold (yellow cherry) and Gardner's delight. Also have tumbler/totem and about 20 red robins (outside)

also had 2 eggplants and about 6 peppers too (only one plant of each, going to do about 8 bell pepper plants next year)

martinn123

redser7 wrote: »

When did you sow them? You should be stopping them now by taking the growing tips off to give the fruit a chance to ripen.

Good advice, I also strip off the lower leaves, exposing the Tomatoes to maximum light.
As they develop , further up the plant, I continue to strip off the leaves what do you think?

redser7

Im not too sure about that Martin. Fair enough you need to take off old and deseased leaves which serve no purpose. And those would be the ones lower down first. It also allows air to flow and light to get through. But you have to keep a balance as the leaves are the solar panels for the plant. So dont over-do it. Some people give their plants a nitrogen rich or balanced feed around now to give the plants a boost to keep the whole thing going longer. I guess observation is key and you have to repsond to the plant's needs rather than apply general rules all the time.

CorsendonkX

martinn123 wrote: »

Good advice, I also strip off the lower leaves, exposing the Tomatoes to maximum light.
As they develop , further up the plant, I continue to strip off the leaves what do you think?

If they aren't bush varieties, Yeah strip them off, I do it truss by truss as the fruit matures on the truss, leave about 4 feet of leaf from the top down do. Deleafing allows air to circulate around your fruit which helps to avoid cracking of the skin that you get when moisture gathers on the fruit skin. Pinch the head out of the tomato plant when it reaches the max height you want it, then near the end strip nearly all the leaves off so the fruit gets as much sun as possible to ripen.

Heroditas

Had 30 chilli/bell pepper plants in the glasshouse this year.
Gave been growing:
Cayenne
Jalapeño
Bell pepper
Habanero
Scotch Bonnet
Naga Jolokia
Moruga Scorpion
A lot of them are outside now because they grew so well and were taking up too much space.
Fruits on all of them bar, funnily enough, the Jalapeños.
Just waiting for the Nagas, Habaneros and Scorpions to turn red.
Have been using the Cayennes and bell peppers for a good few weeks now.

martinn123

Heroditas wrote: »

Had 30 chilli/bell pepper plants in the glasshouse this year.
Gave been growing:
Cayenne
Jalapeño
Bell pepper
Habanero
Scotch Bonnet
Naga Jolokia
Moruga Scorpion
A lot of them are outside now because they grew so well and were taking up too much space.
Fruits on all of them bar, funnily enough, the Jalapeños.
Just waiting for the Nagas, Habaneros and Scorpions to turn red.
Have been using the Cayennes and bell peppers for a good few weeks now.

I had to ''Google'' all of these, sounds like you like your food 'HOT'
Well done in our climate, and chance of a few pic's

Heroditas

Will definitely post a few.
On holidays at the moment but have been meaning to stick up a few pictures for the last while.
Will try to put some up this week.

Mfwic_47

Hi, my veterinarian gent farmer in S. New Jersey (the reason why they call the whole state the "Garden State") sent me 2 packets of tomato seeds, The real Andy Warhol/Campbell's Soup Beefsteak tomato and Earlianas. They just sprouted 27/5 in my 14x20' polytunnel along with 3 regular cucumber plants previously sprouted and 11 Kirby's or pickling cukes, the first of the latter sprouted 7 days ago. I love my sour/Jewish/Polish pickles (as in the wood barrels and New York delis).

Question: Do I have enough cultivating time?

Note: I have also been looking for soil warming cables to get more time. I am not an organic missionary but I don't like messing with Mother Nature!

Frank the Yank in Louisburgh