Northern greenhouse variety recommendation?

13 years ago

Hi. I'll describe the situation first, then ask about the type of tomato we're seeking...

Situation: Just north of the 49th parallel, in southern British Columbia, Canada. Growing season tends to be 150-165 days outdoors. The daylight hours are somewhat shortish in the mid spring and late fall. We have a greenhouse (extends the shoulder seasons), but do not like to spend too much on energy for heating it in earlier spring or late fall.

Tomato variety: This year we were happy with the size and flavor of "Black Crim" tomatoes - good size, round, juicy, low-acidic taste. We bought them as seedlings from a local nursery. But three problems: 1) they were not indeterminate varieties, and while growing them in the greenhouse helped the plants to grow tall, we could have managed a longer vine (per plant). 2) the production of flowers (hence, fruit) was not at all remarkable... fewer tomatoes than we expected. 3) the larger, ripened fruits tended to remain "green shouldered" (stem ends didn't ripen so well).

This was the first year we'd grown Black Crims.

Can you recommend on the basis of your experience a tomato that does well in northern greenhouse situations? That produces prolifically, on an indeterminate variety plant? And that is low-acid in flavor?

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Comments (6)

joel_bc
Original Author
13 years ago
Are there no northerly greenhouse gardeners here? or did I phrase my question in the wrong way?
ekgrows
13 years ago
Joel,

Are you talking about growing tomatoes in your greenhouse during the growing season - so you could plant them earlier, and harvest past the first frosts?

I'll chime in with my opinion and experiences. We grow a lot of tomatoes in high tunnels - unheated - but are able to plant them a little earlier than the outside plants. We plant all sorts of heirlooms (mortgage lifter, black krim, brandywine, kelloggs breakfast, pineapple, etc) as well as a few hybrids - but almost all of the tomatoes we plant are indeterminate.

I am confused about your black krims - because they are an indeterminate variety. I have 2 plants of my own, one in my small hoophouse, and one outside in the garden. The plant in the hoophouse is over 8' tall, and producing better than the outside plant. I honestly have found this to be the case will all the tomatoes I grow - they do better and grow taller when grown in houses. The krims do have green shoulders.

So - Do you have a favorite tomato? If so - try that in your greenhouse! I adore black krim - it is on my grow list every year - as is Rose de Berne, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Brandywine, and Jersey Giant. All are indeterminate, and from my experiences - all grow well in houses. On a side note, my black cherry has taken over my home hoophouse, and is choking out 3 other tomato plants. I can't even walk thru it anymore - I have to crawl!

Hope that helps!
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Steve that is very useful info indeed! Wow if I double glaze I’ll more than double the R value I didn’t know that! If that’s an expensive option I might have to go for the 6mm twinwall. So many options! Right now my citrus overwinter in this overhang on the front of my house sort of like a diy porch and I just hooked a large piece of bubble wrap sheet onto the underside of my overhang and taped it all around to the house so it kinda makes a covered diy porch although only barely as the overhang is only about 1.5ft in depth so it’s such a pain to water in there but it does face south. I guess it did fine only because the house gave off some residual heat plus it gets more sun than the backyard does anyways I was hoping the glass would be even better than this piece of plastic bubble wrap but since the future greenhouse doesn’t butt up against the house I might be out of luck there :/ I’ll definitely look into the double glaze glass and see how expensive it might be. I did ask about the twinwall and it wasn’t all that much cheaper so I figured why not go glass since I can see it from the house I’d want it to look nice as well but I really want to make sure the citrus are happy that’s most important so I might have to ask them about the twinwall 6mm poly. how much warmer does everyone’s greenhouse stay with heaters and what kind of heaters and what kind of glazing?
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joel_bc
Original Author
13 years ago
We used to grow outside in the garden area. We just put up the greenhouse this year. We want to grow the tomatoes in our greenhouse now, because otherwise we always have a shortish season, and some years we have cool nights too.

No, the krims were determinate. None grew taller than six feet, and half of them were five feet or less. Outdoors, we used to grow Beefstake or Doukhobour Heritage varieties, as these did okay with our weather - but now we'll consider many new possibilities. We've arrived at the idea that INdeterminates may be better for us, now. The G.H. improves our "weather".
ekgrows
13 years ago
You will be amazed at the difference, and most likely, want to grow tomatoes in houses from here on out. My business partner looked at the tomatoes planted outside vs inside a while ago, and said "Why do we even bother growing tomatoes outside?" I don't think we will next year......
joel_bc
Original Author
13 years ago
Yes, ekgrows. We're convinced.

So this is why I posted with the question, because we don't at all feel tied to our old favorites, variety-wise. I'm very much interested in new options.

So what varieties have you folks (in northern-greenhouse situations) had experience with?
joel_bc
Original Author
13 years ago
As to the size of fruit we're hoping for, if they averaged the size of a tennis ball (and we could pick them before the skins split), we'd be happy.

Northern greenhouse variety recommendation?

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