tomatoes for thanksgiving?

Amazing blooms yet on the cherries. Verry nice!

I like your half barrels planted with lettuce. Your caption said 'experimental'. Are you happy with the results so far? I am assuming there are holes in the bottom for drainage? Are you hand watering the containers?

Here is a link that might be useful: Spiritofplace South Carolina

I actually used this as a water tank for a steer that we fattened up a few years ago. I love the results. The lettuce tastes wonderful. It is more like a baby lettuce. I suppose I could let them grow more, then harvest too. The spinach didn't do as well, I think I planted it too think. I know I planted the lettuce too thick too. I quickly spread it by hand, in the dark.

I wish I had more seed on hand to experiment with. I am going to bring one of them into the house and see if we can grow lettuce in a sunny window and some lights.

There are two small holes in the bottom and I water by hand. I am planning on building more, for free, I hope. The wood that it requires is really small. I am going to ask some of my builder friends if they will collect some for me or if I can "dumpster dive". If that doesn't work, I will craigslist or freecycle to find some. I will probably put them on some sort of sprinkler/drip system.

I am thinking about building 10 of them. Then I can harvest two to three a week and in 3 weeks, I will be back to the first one to harvest again. I like the fact there is no weeds.

I am growing it in a soil less mix. It is Al's mix from the Growing in Containers forum. I used that stuff for hanging baskets of tomatoes and it worked great.

Thanks for the info slick! I'll have to check out the soiless mix.

Here is a link that might be useful: SpiritofplaceSouthCarolina

hey slick Id like to pick your mind please

How far into the winter can you grow. How many weeks out of the year. If one had an inexpensive way to heat say a wood fired boiler with a forced air radiator could you grow year round.

thanks Josh

Josh, Pick away.

Here is my advice on growing year around. I think you can do it without a problem Now, you won't be growing tomatoes and peppers. You will need to grow cold tolerant crops. Spinach, Broccoli, Carrots, Kale, Chard, Arugula, Root crops and etc. What I have learned is that you need to plant them early in the fall (August, September, October) to get enough growth before the light levels start getting too low. I now of a larger wholesale grower who grow spinach through the winter in North Central Kansas. No heat! He uses his high tunnels and adds row cover.

I would check out Eliot Coleman and the winter harvest guide. He grows year around in Maine. Another resource for your location is http://aunaturelfarm.homestead.com/

They are from around Bowling Green. Is that near you? Check out their website. I think it could help.

If you want to heat with wood, I would do it in the spring. If you heated with wood, inside a high tunnel and used row cover, you probably could have tomatoes by the first part of June.

Last year in an unheated hightunnel, I planted tomatoes On March 28th. I did have a cold snap and lost a few, but I had replacements. I started picking tomatoes on the June 25th-ish. Probably could have had them earlier if I would have prunned more. At that time I was charging $3.00 a pound for tomatoes. That was some good money. I would do this and then come back in the early fall an rip out the tomatoes and plant spinach or some other cold tolerant crop.

Growing year around is a real possibility for you. For me, I am hoping that I can grow and harvest 10-11 months out of the year. Every year is different. Currently we have 13 inches of snow, 30-40 mph winds and the wind chill is in the negatives. Spinach still looked good earlier today!

Ask away!

Josh, we have a grower up here that grows year round. cooleyfarms.com. He offers a CSA thru out the year. He started out at my farmers market and then changed his mind about the market thing. He was going to at least 3-4 market days, and that doesn't leave much time for family/farm. He 'retired' from an auto plant when they offered early retirements. He had a 5 year plan to survive on his market money. It's over the 5 year mark, but I think his wife is still working off the farm, but I'm not sure.

Jay, I think 10-11 months would be enough for me. A vacation is nice, even just down time to clean and such.
My market is 6 months, and by the time I do the getting ready and closing up, it's probably at least 8-10 months. Of course, the money isn't there, but I don't have to deal with the early mornings, 5am, every week.

Bowling Green is just 20 min North of me, The feller who grows spinach in winter, does he run lights, how much light do greens require, never realy thought about it growing through the normal season? $3 for tomatoes thats awesome, I will definetly fire up the boiler and grow some early tomatoes.
Now with root crops does that include potatoes, and how much light would they require?
josh

Josh, if you ever get to Crawfordsville, there is a greenhouse for flowers/plants on 231 north of downtown that has a wood-fired outside furnace setting outside of one of their greenhouses. I keep meaning to stop in and ask questions, but haven't yet.

I got $3/tomatoes for greenhouse grown Tomatoes this last spring. They were grown by the Amish in Rockville. I know they start their plants in Jan.

The guy who grows spinach, no he doesn't run lights. You have to adjust your thinking a little. Things aren't going to grow tons in the winter. The angle of the sun isn't favorable. The winter growing is more like a living cold storage. When you get the warm spells in winter, they do grow some, but growth is slowed way down. As far a wood heat and tomatoes. I know of another grower north of me who does that. The plant out in the end of January/Feb and will have tomatoes in May-July. He fetches a pretty high price. I am not sure if he runs lights. I have never seen his operation. I do know that he uses wood heat and he sleeps in the greenhouse, in a recliner, until the weather warms up and the nights aren't freezing. He said this way he knows if something goes wrong and can fix it. He said if the fire stops, he loses everything.

I have never heard of anyone growing potatoes into the winter. I suppose it works, but they store very well so I suppose it wouldn't be worth it. I do know people grow carrots, beets and turnips in to the winter.

Jay

Sounds like your plan of growing 10 months might be a good plan. Starting tomatoes in January, wow.
Bet Febuary might be easier, the light is getting better.
Probably wouldnt hurt to just grow Febuary-October. Would give me November and December for maintenance.
Ill look up that Bowling Green site, and Ill head into Crawfordsville.
josh

I use just regular 4' lights on a stand that has 6 shelves. I got the stand at Sams for about $100, and the lights at Walmart (this last time, normally Menards). I used to use a cool bulb and a warm bulb, but have found out that just the cheap ones work just as good. I replace the bulb as soon the ends start to turn black. There is not as much light from them when that starts to happen.

Jay, I read somewhere about a couple that had to decide whether to build their greenhouse or their house. They built the greenhouse and lived in it for the first year, and then built the house.

That is some serious dedication! I too use four foot lights. I built a stand out of 2 by 4 studs. I use a stud for each corner and then make shelves out our two studs. This way I hang the lights from the shelf above and the plants sit on the shelf below. I have four shelves that are 8 foot long. I can really cram alot of plants in that area. When the lights are one, my kids says that room glows!

Jay

It is amazing how much light those florescent lights put out. I'm going to have to get ready for the seed planting before long. Right now, my shelves have other things on them and I'm going to have to find places for the other stuff. Then get outside and gather all my trays and check them out to see if they are still good. I use no hole trays for underneath the starting trays that I use. I have also used the plastic berry baskets for starting trays, I had some old ones that weren't good enough to use for berries, so I put some 'dirt' in them and used them. That finished them off. I may try some deep meat trays this year. I'm always looking for the 'perfect' tray.

Great thread, Jay I have learned a lot from you the past few years. Thanks.

Thanks Andrea. It is nice to know that what I share is being helpful. I just share from my experiences and the knowledge I have gained from others.

I have used small Styrofoam cups to plant some things in. I punch a hole in the bottom. I started to use these when I ran out of other pots. They worked well.

As a little experiment last year I put radish seeds in styrofoam cups under lights and actually harvested radishes several times. Now I can do that, but can't grow a radish in the garden for nothing!

Andrea

Another thing, I might try doing something like your giant lettuce "bowl" and put it by the back door. I have a wheelbarrow that I use as a petunia planter I was going to do something else with, maybe this is it?

Andrea