Enjoy Fresh Veggies in Winter with Greenhouse Vegetable Gardening
Vegetables can be grown any time of year when you utilize greenhouse vegetable gardening systems. Growing vegetables greenhouse style is almost identical to producing them from a garden outside in the summertime. You simply have to supplement what nature supplies that a greenhouse can’t.
There are two different methods of using a portable greenhouse. One is known as the cold greenhouse method and that is when just the sun during the day gives the greenhouse its heat. The temperature at nighttime normally goes down to about 45 degrees at the coldest and heat does kick on when it gets very cold outside. No growing takes place in this kind of greenhouse, but you can maintain many plants that will come back in the summertime such as rosemary.
Cultivating vegetables during the wintertime necessitates warmth so the warm method is the one to use here. Garden greenhouses have to maintain a temperature of at least 55 degrees F in order for the plants to grow and call for a heating unit. Heating devices can be gas, electric or propane.
There’s scarcely a vegetable that can be grown in a garden that can’t be grown in a greenhouse. Look in seed catalogs to find seeds specifically developed for greenhouse use. If you can’t find those get plants that maintain a compact size or that can be pruned back to be smaller than the outside plants. There is little room in a greenhouse and you do not want it to be taken up with merely a couple of varieties of vegetables.
An important natural action that needs to be undertaken artificially is pollination. Insects, especially bees, do not dwell inside. An example of pollinating a vegetable easily is done by pollinating tomatoes. Tomato vines should be tied to stakes made of bamboo and when the flower is ready the stakes should be tapped both in the morning and at nighttime. You’ll know the flower is ready when the petals start to curve backwards. Pay close attention to this since there are just three days that the flowers will be producing pollen to pollinate the vegetable.
You’ll need to supplement sunlight during the wintertime too so plan on supplying grow lights in a winter greenhouse. Plants normally need 8 hours of sunlight per day. You will also need to provide water and fertilizer on a regular basis.
Greenhouse gardening throughout the wintertime is a bit more difficult and takes more time than in the summertime, however it is also rewarding. You can go to the greenhouse on a snowy day in January and pick a vine ripened tomato. You can enjoy that summer filled taste any time of the year.