Where exactly is NE WI Z? Is that in the US? Toms in the greenHouse. If you live up north where it is cold they are going to cost you a lot. Why? Toms need really warm temps to produce. There are types better suited for the GH, but they all like it WARM. Your heating bill would be pretty high.
IMHO

1eyedJack and the DAWG

Sorry Ole Dawg I Guess I need to fix that. I am in zone 4 WI. About 45 minutes south west of Appleton, WI. I was thinking about those darn maters now the garden is done. Barb

rosepedal (where did that name come from, BTW?),

Yes, there are specific greenhouse tomato varieties. A common one, and the one I have grown is 'Trust.' I'll warn you, the seeds are expensive.

Other varieties you see mentioned are Dombito, Cobra, Laura, Belmondo, Boa, Jumbo, Trend, Perfecto and Capello.

Give them supplemental light and as much heat as you can. Back when I grew GH tomatoes, I always started the seeds in August so I had 4-6' tall plants before it got cool. You will have a hard time getting any decent plants if you haven't started yet. Shake them daily for good pollination. Watch out for whiteflies.

SB

Thank you for the information. Barb

guess we will be planning our GH tomatoes for NEXT year barb!!!

Actually, at least for the 800 acres of commercially grown greenhouse tomatoes in the U.S., the seeding date is about Dec. 15, transplanted Feb. 1 with harvest Mar.15-Oct. 15. There are dozens of varieties for the GH, depending on what size fruit you want. stressbaby is correct about the price. When only ordering a few, they are about 50 cents each. But you only need a few, and after the crop starts, you can very easily take cuttings for all the free plants you need. My last seed planting was 5 years ago, with all subsequent plants started from suckers.

We've grown tomatoes in the greenhouse through the winter for a number of years. I allow the house temperature to go to 40, or a little lower, in the winter. I've used quite a wide variety of seeds over the years, and often have more than 10 varieties growing at once. In my experience, the varieties specifically produced for greenhouses do fine, but so do quite a few of the normal garden varieties. I have found that the tomatoes do fine with little care. You do see people mention shaking the plants to improve polination. I have not done that in years, and really do not see any ill effects. The plants tend to grow rapidly, and even a plant or two will produce more tomatoes than you can use for normal cooking and salads. I grow some paste type tomatoes as well, and have enough to get reasonably frequent loads of tomatoes to make batches of tomato sauce, tomato juice or barbeque sauce. I'll be seeding some tomatoes today or tomorrow. Each plant usually lasts a couple of years in the greenhouse, then I replace it. By seeding periodically, I have a continuous supply. The only supplementary heat I use is a heat mat to germinate the tomatoes; after that, they quite readily tolerate the environment. One of my bigger problems is that I need to protect the young seedlings from birds which like to fly into the greenhouse and peck off the tender young seedlings. Mesh covers help to protect them. By the way, I did try the standard pruning methods for the tomatoes; now, I just let them grow, and attach them periodically to hanging ropes. It saves a lot of time in maintenance to do this.
Renais

Cuestaroble, we're saying the same thing, I think. Start the seeds 3-4 months prior to the anticipated start of harvest. Wouldn't you agree that starting seeds now would not likely yield any toms until Feb at the earliest?

Renais, I'd be interested in hearing about your location and growing conditions. It would be quite impossible for rosepedal or me to grow winter GH toms without supplemental heat.

SB

RENAIS,
Yes, please clue us in as to where your are located. I am very interested in growning TOMs in a GH. Just in case I win the lotery. LOL

ole_dawg

My tomatoes are slowing down drastically in the GH. Nights are in the low 60s, days in the 70s in the Rion now. At this point we're hoping for an early crop in spring.

Do you think a Board similar to this but even easier to use would be a worthwhile thing? They're free and I can set one up in less than an hour. Garden related or even off-topic threads would be welcome. We wouldn't be limited to GH and Garden structures.

renais

Where are you located and what are you growing your tom's in?

Renais,
You must be growing determinate seeds if they are vining? Is there a difference in inderminate or determinate inside the gh other than one takes up more space. I guess I am trying to say. Is one type better than the other. ie easier to grow or not as much trouble. Thanks for the input. I would also like to know what part of the country you are growing them.

ps Greenhouser they had your rion on P Alan Smiths garden show today. That is a nice gh........

SB - We are in agreement. Most tomato varieties are 85-100 days from seeding to first harvest. So seed planted today will bear fruit about Feb. 11, if grown under standard temperatures and light levels. CR

rosepedal

Thanks. Now that I have it the way I want it and the plants are in it, the only thing I wish is that it had a higher ceiling for more hanging baskets. But I can live with the low roof. :)

"But you only need a few, and after the crop starts, you can very easily take cuttings for all the free plants you need. My last seed planting was 5 years ago, with all subsequent plants started from suckers"

posted by cuestaroble
******

I'm curious about these commments...How do you take a cutting and make it grow from an existing plant and when do you do this? What technique is used? How successfull is it?

ringa,
In the axils, the space between the leaf and the main stem, the tomato plant will send out new leader stems. If left on the plant, they will flower and produce fruit and more stems. However, for greenhouse tomato production, these "suckers" are removed to force the plant to be one long stem with only one central leader. To remove the suckers, which are at almost all axils, simply push it forward and them back ( or cut it at the point of attachment), and it will come off cleanly. This part can be placed into any rooting medium and will very easily grow into a new plant. You can do this process anytime there is a 3-5 inch "sucker" in any axil. If you use a good rooting medium and keep it moist, the success is 100%.

Cool, that is something I must try with the plants I still have growing...and then these should have an even better start for the GH than starting from seeds?...I"ll have to do a little research on the anatomy of a tomatoe plant, so I will know (without just guessing or fibbing) where you are actually talking about :) I do think I have an idea based on how you described breaking it off...I have had smaller branches on the sides get wilted or brown, and they seem to have a "clean" breaking off place, so that you dont damage the rest of the plants main stem...

What rooting medium do you think works well?

(rose, I hope you dont mind these questions on your silly question thread :) seemed fitting however...we might all learn something that would be worth trying

rosepedal,
Determinate types of tomatoes are the bushy kind. Indeterminate are the vining types. The reason for growing indeterminate varieties of tomato in greenhouses is related to using the heated area. If you have a 10 ft. X 8 ft. X 8 ft. greenhouse, you will be heating in the winter the entire 640 cubic feet of area. With the determinate varieties, you will only be using a small part of the heated area. With indeterminate varieties, trained up a string to the 8 ft. ceiling, you are using all the heated area. The yields of indeterminate vs. determinate, per square foot of greenhouse area will be several times as much.

ringa,
Just snap off the little sprouts that come out at the leaf bases. (how's that for simple- this is not rocket science, fortunately for me). As for rooting media, I use a 50:50 mix of really cheap "potting soil" and perlite. But, tomato cuttings are so easy to root, it really does not matter. Even putting them in water, or regularly moistened sand, will work.

I posted a thread a while back about planting a tomatoe on it's side to maximize the growth (several stems will come up from the one burried stem and when they do and when they are big enough you can separate them and make them each individual plants, have you heard of this cuestaroble?

A local farmer told me this, I have not tried it yet...

rjinga,
The buried stem will indeed produce more sprouts that you can use for cuttings. If is probably easier to just cut the suckers, as I detailed. My plants in the greenhouse are now 8 ft. tall,with about 20 ft. of stem on the ground and are 4 years old, and at each leaf node,axil, they supply a fresh sucker that will easily make a new plant. Now that the summer outside garden is about finished, I am only starting a few new tomato plants for the greenhouse.

In response to the questions above, let me offer some more information. First, I did not mean to imply that I do not use any heat in the greenhouse. I do heat, but the thermostat is set to 40. The only extra effort I put into heating for the tomatoes is to have the seeds germinate on a heating system (Hydrofarm) so that they are not adversely impacted by the low nighttime temperatures. I had initially planned on an all passive solar greenhouse, but the aestetics of such a structure caused us to go to a greenhouse that receives quite a bit of its heating from passive solar, with a propane backup. (We have thermal mass in water containers, and large raised beds filled with compost.) The greenhouse only ever needs to receive heat in the night. During the day in the winter, the temperature is regularly in the 90's, and the vents are open some. We are located in a zone 5 area, and only have about a three month frost free season outside because we are in mountains. The greenhouse makes growing so much easier. Our relatively dry climate also means that it is almost always sunny during the day, so there is lots of solar gain. I grow in several media: a peat-lite mixture that I make (based on the Cornell mixes), or vermicompost that I produce in the greenhouse. (There is a large worm bin in the greenhouse that processes all the waste materials from the greenhouse, as well as our home.)

I grow almost all inderterminate tomatoes, so that they fruit for an extended period of time. I find that it is generally too much work to be replacing the determinate varieties. Yes, the vines can get to be quite large; I allow space around each plant to let them spread out: plants are in a row, spaced about 16 inches apart, and with about 30 inches from one row to the other. I use 3 gallon pots filled with my potting mixtures. Watering and fertilizing is done through a cheap fertilizer injector from Dripworks, and a simple timer from Home Depot. I water with drippers, 4 times a day, for 10 minutes at a time. Each tomato gets a little over 3 liters of water and fertilizer solution each day. The fertilizer mix is very dilute, and the fertilizer injector is always in the watering line. I use several different fertilizers, but really like the Hydrogardens products. Hope this helps.
Renais

Has anybody germinated seeds from a tomato purchased in a produce market or grocery store. It would be a GH tomato and cheaper than buying seeds. I think the seeds would be true to the hybrid tomato.

John

Most greenhouse tomato varieties are hybrids, meaning one parent plant is crossed with a different plant to produce the seed. Seed from these tomatoes would be a mixture of the parents and most would not be the same as the hybrid variety originally planted. So, yes it would be cheaper, but no, the seeds would not be true to the hybrid tomato.

Renais, you are in the mountains? At what altitude?

I ask because I am developing the impression that a GH at altitude in a given zone is more favorable for growing than a GH at or near sea level, particularly with regard to passive solar. I know a fellow in Denver on another forum who is doing impressive things with his GH.

SB

I grow small fruited tomatoes in my cool greenhouse, starting plants from seeds in early fall. At this time I have numerous small fruits but know that they will not ripen until the sun strengthens in February. From then on until my summer plants begin to bear, I have enough fruits for fresh eating and salads. So altho I don't have any in the winter, the springtime crop is very welcome.

Birkie yea from wi help out a newbie. What temp do you keep your gh at? I am 45 sw of appleton waushara county. Barb