Fantastic! Congratulations! Go for it! No harm done in trying tomatoes over winter. Maybe try some that are said to be cold tolerant. :)

Ahah, the welding twins.
Amanda I am trying a couple in the GH to over winter. One of them, Polar Baby, was bred for Alaska and is said to be a very compact bush. Its not out of the ground yet but I am hoping for it to appear soon.

Mantis *hopping back down his hole, and pulling the cover over to fool the welding twins that there welds were strong enough to hold him, he he he*

Mantis, where did you get the seeds from for Polar Baby?

TGS Spatz, would you like some?

I'd love some, Mantis. Would that be possible? :)

Cold tolerant tomatoes? Sounds almost like a contradiction doesn't it? A pot of basil would be useful too!

When would be the latest to start seeds?

Off to Google "Cold Tolerant Tomatoes" :)

Amanda

Sure thing Spatz, but I haven't got you address so email me and I will drop some in the post tommorow.

Cheers
Richard

Thanks, Richard. Mail is on the way. :)

Definitely try growing tommies over winter Amanda! You might not get robust flavour, but at least they'd be home grown and worth eating, unlike supermarket tomatoes. Yeah!

PP

Anything is better than that stuff they sell as 'tomatoes' in the supermarket. Definitely worth a try. Oregon Spring might be good. It's supposed to be cold tolerant. It's a lovely little plant. Good in a pot. Want some, Amanda? Richard? The flavour is nice, too. Well, for an early one. :)

Please don't denigrate supermarket tomatoes. They're very useful. I use the juice from them to ferment my real tomato seeds when there's not enough!

Well done Amanda! If it's a smallish space, you'll want smallish tomato plants. Dwarf varieties or just small plants would be good. Silvery Fir Tree should do well, as would Scoresby Dwarf and a number of others I can think of.

Just remember, in a glass house, you'll need to give the tommies a helping hand to pollinate.

Raymondo, who is looking forward to winter piccies!

Great news Amanda. Enough for a couple of tomatoes? What size is it going to be?

I'm putting together a small glass house this weekend which will be made of, nearly all, recycled products (I bought some hinges). It will only be large enough to start seedlings in winter but it's better than nothing.

You'll have to post some pics when it is up and running!

Yeah, piccies would be great!

I'm not sure I'll get my act together and get the greenhouse up and running soon. There's too much to do. :(

Stupice and Gold Dust are determinate tomatoes and supposed to be cold tolerant, too. I'm sure I could spare some seed, Amanda. Let me know.

Hopefully all you glasshouse fiends will be mindful of a proverb.

And Ray - you found juice in a supermarket tomato? When? Where?

The glasshouse is 1.9m x 2.4m, so I figure tomatoes in pots long one side and a bench for seedlings along the other. DH said the aluminium frame is pretty weathered but if we used something called "etch primer" first, we can paint it, without ending up with the peeling paint look. Beaut! I'm thinking Brunswick Green. And a pot of flowers by the door. :)

Putting it up will take a bit of time. Need to put down a concrete floor first to help hold the heat, paint all the bits, run electricity and water over to it. Make a bench. I was thinking of rigging up a fan to help with ventilation and polination like the Up Overs do for growing under lights. Bottom heat for at least part of the bench...

Also I was reading about Aluminet - a sort of metallic shade cloth - used on the *inside* it's supposed to be good for keeping the warmth in at night. Do you all remember someone last winter putting pics up here of a really cute greenhouse full of great looking tomato seedlings? It had an Aluminet curtain. I'm pretty sure I've seen it at Bunnings.

Would I get more tomatoes if I used some mini cages - say 4 or 5ft - and grew the tomatoes up? Maybe cherries? Actually, I do have a Red Robin in a pot. Funny looking dwarf plant but it is producing a steady supply of tasty little toms.

Amanda

Amanda
That's probably about the size I'd need for a couple of tomatoes, but once I get started, an acre under cover wouldn't be enough! LOL
I'm not sure what to recommend to grow but I've been doing some research recently and there were a lot of recommendations for a fan. They say you need to replace the air every minute. Assuming your gh is 2m tall then you have a volume of over 9 cubic metres, therefore you need a fan which pushes about 9 cu m per minute. Have a browse on the Greenhouses and Garden Structures forum. There is a lot to be learnt over there. I think if you're going to grow tomatoes, a fan is essential.

Fans, concrete, jeez you guys are getting fancy. Makes my old greenhouse made of laserlite and second hand louvres sound a bit poor cousinish :-)

Now, now Mantis! Remember the First Ripe Non-Cherry? You didn't really think you would have no challengers with Finbah out of the way?

Amanda

Hang about, Welder, I'll be getting ripe toms from June through to September. Way ahead of you guys!

But then Finbah, you will have gone to the Other Side so you'll be disqualified!

Besides which, with all these greenhouses being built we'll all be getting ripe toms from June through to September too. :)

Amanda

*mumbles, grumbles, kicks carpet*

*Mantis desperatly trying to think of a cheap heating system for GH*

Wow Amanda, aren't you the lucky one!
I was pretty pleased when I scored some old poly pipe from work to make a polytunnel with, but you've got the real thing! We'll be waiting for the photos!

Will it be known forever more as the "Conservatory"?. I must say, that has a nice ring to it!!.

Mantis
For a cheap ( relatively) heating source for your greenhouse try to find an old parrafin heater. They are a bit stinky but the CO 2 will help the tomatoes grow!

Amanda, why not a dirt floor covered with sawdust or just hay. Good insulator, the GH will keep the ground a little warmer than outside, maybe a vertical insulating film inserted around the edge to stop the heat dissipating through the soil. You could then plant things in the ground. Don't know if that would work. A concete floor would act as a heat sink, but you have to actually heat it up first, which means as much as possible of it exposed. Just thinking out loud really.

And Finbar, 2 or 3 store bought tommies provides at least a of teaspoonful of juice!

With the climate in WA will the tomatoes overheat during the summer months?

I am thinking of starting some tomatoes plants with a greenhouse.

Yes the greenhouse will overheat in summer - we get temps up to 48ºC here - it doesn't bear thinking about what the temperature it will get to under the glass. It will have a shade cloth cover over it mainly to protect the greenhouse!

I intend to use it though winter and spring - to raise my seedlings ready to transplant and try growing a few things through the winter too. We get pretty cold up in the hills and even if I hadn't lost my seedlings last year I was still off to a late start.

The weather here is weird - it's like we skip spring - and go straight from frosty nights to 35ºC days. Last year was such a disappointment - frost on October 14!!! How can I get a tomato ripe for Christmas with that?

I've built a shadehouse over the past few weeks too, which I'll use through the summer, and hopefully combined with the glasshouse for winter I can get around the problems...

Amanda

My green house turns into a shade house in summer. It has louvre windows around three sides that I can open and I put shade cloth over the top. The temps in it dont get much above the temps outside.

Mantis

Sage Horticultural has a nifty little hothouse that opens up at the top to let summer heat dissipate quickly. They provide a shade cloth/bird net option to cover it when it's open. Okay, it's a bit on the pricey side but it's an idea worth adapting methinks!

My glasshouse is an Eden, on their NZ website Assessories page they show an illustration of the shadehouse cover that it has. Another interesting thing on that page is an automatic vent opener - I'm definitely going to send away for one of those - it doesn't even need electricity!

For anyone curious look on the Glasshouses page - the one I have is right at the top. :)

Made progress toward getting up today. The earth moving is almost done, retaining and concrete tomorrow...

Amanda

Here is a link that might be useful: Eden Greenhouses

I think my homemade GH with the louvers really kicks butt on the tomato front, because the breeze blows through the plants just like outside. When they are open the GH is open from about three foot above the floor, to the roof. So maybe modifiying your GH so that the sides could be opened as well may help.
Mantis

Well, it was a tough job cos it turned dang hot but we have concrete...

{{gwi:2114581}}

Amanda

Any spring projects underway? I need inspiration from the Sandgroper whose incredible welding, carpentary and building skills make handimen look like they're all thumbs... calling Amanda!

Good god woman, is there aything you can't do. ?.I know who to call if ever I need open heart surgery.

Lots of things I can't do - gardening being one of them still :(

It's had me down a bit so I haven't been talking 'cos I've been too much of a misery. Mum always said if yer can't say something nice and cheery yer should hide in yer room.

I'm fighting back now - studying art at TAFE. I can still hardly believe they let me in. Doing sculpture. I got a credit for the welding so I get to play with the clay instead. I made an egg carton in terracotta. I understand egg cartons...

Still can't throw a decent coffee cup on the wheel - I can centre OK but then keep ripping the tops off them when I start raising the sides... sheesh and Adam makes it look so easy!

So no veges in sight. The chooks are still laying tho...

Just one day at a time.
Amanda

Amanda,

It's great to hear your voice. You've been a great source on inspiration and the chook fence is still holding up despite much leaning on the rails with beer in hand to watch the girls dancing.

I'm looking forward to hearing about your patch and greenhouse.

Warm wishes, Grub

"Lots of things I can't do - gardening being one of them still"

Amanda! Is that the same person who
- gave us a fool-proof recipe for pasta
- inspired us to get pasta machines
- inspired us to get out and preserve tomatoes, etc
- made this super-dooper lettuce bath
- welded herself into finbar's heart
- has this fantastic duck setup
- had grub make this amazing chook enclosure
- makes fantastic egg cartons out of clay
- is a wonderful person to know
..and that's only the tip of the iceberg.

We all missed you, you know. :)

Hi folks,
Have hot house, will grow tommies! Arrived today. Waiting for the cool of the late afternoon (don't laugh, it's hot today!) to start putting it up.
Yeehaa!

We want piccies of your completed hothouse. I'm sooooo envious. Just you wait, I might have some scrap material left over and can build myself a proper greenhouse. One day.

Amanda,
Throw a pot and plant it out with a cherry tomato or two.
Show us your glazing and painting skills? We need inspiration!
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

I had forgotten how skilled Grub was at making the most rampant wanderings seem like they're on topic...

No art stuff to show - too fragile - but here's a pic of the greenhouse being finished off earlier in the year. Looks good for the coat of paint and clean up. A lot different to the pile of bits we bought - a neighbour looked at them being unloaded and thought we'd been had. Not now...

{{gwi:2114582}}

Nothing growing in there it's being used to store manure - cos I'm using the manure shed for pottery - probably says something about my skill level...

Unless I'm mistaken that a cat's butt bottom right? Amazing how those attention-seeking critters alays seem to get in the picture. Have another stab at growing things, please. I never took you as a quitter! As Martia would say: Go Girl.

Yes it's difficult to avoid cats around here - seeing as we have six of them...

Not a quitter Grub. Grief is a tough one. Combine it with a big dose of injustice and no answers... There are no answers. Climbing out of the dark place I'm stuck in takes more than I have had to work with. The things that used to matter to me don't seem to work now. I can't figure it out.

Like I said before: I'm doing my best. Taking one day at a time and all that.
Amanda

Yeh, a fighter. Not sure what's going down in your digs in The West, but it does not sound good. Hope you can find some sanity betwixt these pages and posts. There are a lot of you tough chicks on the land. Look at McLeods Daughters. They have shown the way. Would you like some tomato seeds to cheer up your day? Best wishes and I'll be checking back soon.