056 Cold Climate Greenhouse Basics. Growing Winter Tomatoes.

If you’ve been bit by the gardening bug, it won’t be long before you’ll be craving a hobby greenhouse. With a greenhouse, you can get a jump on spring planting, keep tender plants from freezing in the winter, and, perhaps most fun of all, starting all sorts of delicious fruit and vegetable varieties from seed, varieties you possibly wouldn’t find at a nursery. And there’s no reason why you can’t be growing tomatoes, peppers, greens, strawberries and lots more anytime of the year…if you have a properly outfitted greenhouse, even if you live in snow country. Today on Garden Basics, we get tips for cold climate greenhouses, special considerations for those of you who want to be munching on fresh, homegrown cherry tomatoes while shoveling snow.

I’ve got a few tips for you, as well, about which tomato varieties do best in the winter greenhouse.

Also, Debbie Flower has a way to keep your homebound kids enthralled with a simple science experiment…growing radishes in CD cases.

It’s Episode 56 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you by Smart Pots. And we will do it all in under 30 minutes.…let’s go!

Links:
Smart Pots
Sturdi-Built Greenhouses
ATC Hazards by Location for determining local snowloads  on rooftops.
Growing Winter Tomatoes in a Greenhouse: Tips

More info including live links, product information, transcripts, and chapters available at the home site for Garden Basics with Farmer Fred.

Got a garden question? E-mail: fred@farmerfred.com or, leave a question at the Facebook, Twitter or Instagram locations below. 

All About Farmer Fred:
Farmer Fred website: http://farmerfred.com
Daily Garden tips and snark on Twitter
The Farmer Fred Rant! Blog
Facebook:  "Get Growing with Farmer Fred"
Instagram: farmerfredhoffman
Farmer Fred Garden Videos on YouTube
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases from possible links mentioned here.

Thank you for listening, subscribing and commenting on the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast and the Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter.

Transcript

Farmer Fred: 0:00

Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by smart pots the original lightweight, long lasting fabric plant container. It's made in the USA, visit smart pots.com slash Fred for more information and a special discount, that's smart pots.com slash Fred.

Farmer Fred 2: 0:20

Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, well you've come to the right spot.

Farmer Fred: 0:32

If you've been bitten by the gardening bug, it's not gonna be long before you're going to be craving a hobby greenhouse. With a greenhouse, you can get a jump on spring planting, keep tender plants from freezing in the winter, and perhaps most fun of all, starting all sorts of delicious fruit and vegetable varieties from seed varieties you possibly wouldn't find at a nursery, and there's no reason why you can't be growing tomatoes, peppers, greens, strawberries, and a lot more anytime of the year if you have a properly outfitted greenhouse, even if you live in snow country. And today on Garden Basics, we get tips for cold climate greenhouses, special considerations for those of you who want to be munching on fresh homegrown cherry tomatoes while you're shoveling snow. I've got a few tips as well about which tomato varieties do best in the winter greenhouse. And Debbie Flower has a way to keep your homebound kids enthralled with a simple science experiment, growing radishes in CD cases, it's Episode 56 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you by Smart Pots. An we'll do it all in under 3

Farmer Fred 2: 1:46

Here on the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred minutes. Let's go podcast. We talked a while ago about greenhouses and how they can do a lot of good if you want to get into gardening and extend your seasons maybe into early early spring or late late fall. Or what about all our friends who live in really cold climates where maybe your main concern right now is, "Will my snowblower start?", well, you too can have a greenhouse, and a lot of people are still in the gardening mode, and they want to be able to grow things over the winter. And even if you don't live in really cold country, a greenhouse can get you through a frost or freeze very easily. And you will love how comfortable it is in the wintertime. We're talking with Mark Seibert, Mark owns Sturdi-Built greenhouses up in Oregon, and Mark, a greenhouse is a great solution for just about any gardener, I guess as long as you have the room.

Mark Seibert: 2:38

You're absolutely right, Fred, and Hello, everyone. Thank you for supporting us. And we're calling here from Portland, Oregon. And it's beautiful and sunny. doesn't rain every day. But yes. Back to your question there, Fred. A greenhouse is a controlled climate. And the idea is you want to grow something, let's say you want to grow a salsa garden, that salsa garden is going to need to be propagated all year long. Whether it's 20 below outside, or 80 degrees outside. So whatever your temperature is inside, that the control climate in your greenhouse, can provide access to food year around. So what we'll want to do is make sure that you can do so efficiently. And at the same time. It's also a great solution. If you've got some sensitive plants, let's say you've got a Meyers lemon, and that Meyers lemon is out in the cold, what's it gonna do? Not gonna be happy. So you want to overwinter most of us will put it in our garage, or put it into our front room for the winter. But if you want to keep it in a greenhouse, you want to keep it where it's gonna get the natural light. overwintering are sensitive plants, such as your lemons, limes, or mandarins that are in pots in the greenhouse, and it'll be a refuge from the cold.

Farmer Fred: 3:52

Citrus does well in a greenhouse or for that matter in a sunroom as well. And we'll touch on sunrooms, too, in this. So for people who live in really cold climates, what are some of the special considerations that they have to figure out and, and then proceed.

Mark Seibert: 4:08

That's great. So the first thing is location location. you need to understand how much solar radiation you'll Now what about the air around those plants? How do you heat a receive in your greenhouse, and that's a bit based on the azim th of the sun as it comes i. And you've got other consider tions as well. So we're gonn, I'm going to touch on ways t keep your, you know, to prop gate, I'm going to touch on h ating the greenhouse and st rt off with some of the techni ues you can use to warm your oil or warm those peat spots So the seeds propagate. One is called a heat mat, comme cially available like 110 volt, two by four foot, heat mat, ou put all your peat pots on th t, that heat will just rise rig t through that peat pod. see s will sense the warmth, they' l begin to sprout and you' e good and you're golden a that point. Another method f you've got a grow box, and y u say how do I Get that same t chnique in a grow box, we have a commercially availabl called soil cables. And basi ally they wind through the the oil and they basically warm t e soil. So the same thing happen. greenhouse, you have got choices, you can do electric heat, you can do radiant heat from the floor, you can do propane or natural gas. So when you're thinking about this, the first thing is the cost. If you are up here in Oregon, you'll find that we've got runner river electricity, and we get our electricity really inexpensively. But in other areas, electricity cost is high. So maybe propane or natural gas. But at the same time you just pick what's best for you, you'll have to know that, you know gas heaters will may require venting, because, and they but they are clean burning nowadays, and a great solution. You'll want to pick it up from on a thermostat because you don't want to go in 24 by seven nor do you want to be wedded to your greenhouse. So you don't have to go out there every 10 minutes to adjust. So get yourself a good good thermostat there. And that way there, you can get the heat in your greenhouse. And of course, that heater needs to be sized for your cubic feet, and the manufacturer or greenhouse supplier can help you to get it sized.

Farmer Fred: 6:20

Now what about the walls of a greenhouse in really cold country? I would think that as they would say, the R value would have to be up there.

Mark Seibert: 6:27

When you're thinking about a greenhouse you think of this beautiful glass structure. Do you look through and but if you think of glass, what is this thing called R value, which is the thermal resistance, right? And that our value on our home is like R-11 up to R-24. On a greenhouse, it's a little bit different because glass has an R value, not very impressive. R value one. So how do you increase that value, so you can keep your heating and cooling costs lower. The way you do that is to add additional glazing. Now that can be done different ways different manufacturers and suppliers of greenhouses have different solutions. One solution is you use a different material on the outside, such as a plastic, like a twin wall polycarbonate. Another Another option is to put a second layer of glazing, which basically uses that technique to increase the R value, you won't get up into the teens, but you'll be able to get at least around an R value of three and a half or so max on your walls and your ceiling that'll allow you to keep your heating costs lower. Well creating that perfect environment for you.

Farmer Fred: 7:33

that brings up another issue that we've probably should touch on and that's humidity in a greenhouse. How do you keep moisture from forming in between a double glazed greenhouse wall?

Mark Seibert: 7:44

Yeah, but you know, greenhouses are by definition, a moist environment. So humidity if you need to add humidity, the inexpensive and easy way to do it is to get yourself a a timer in a misting kit and put it on end just get your floor wet. Have a fan on the wall to mix up the air circulating fan. And that's how you can add humidity. Without much cost at all. You can certainly buy expensive humidifiers that will do exactly the same thing. But just a simple solution from Home Depot long as you've got like a nice floor and you can just spray it up floor and then let humidity happen.

Farmer Fred: 8:25

But then again, how do you keep the moisture from forming between a double glazed wall?

Mark Seibert: 8:29

Well, that moisture which you need to do is keep the air circulating inside your greenhouse, we recommend a wall mount oscillating fan, oscillating fan has a couple of benefits, one of which is to keep that air moving around so it wicks off. And that adds humidity to your greenhouse. The second thing is if you've got a second pane, double glazing is going on, you want to make sure that air circulates. So you don't want to seal it in that that interior one you want to make sure that air circulates by having air gaps. The other consideration when you're looking at a wall mount oscillating fan is it will basically add it as it moves that air around. It'll strengthen your plants because but there's a little bit of wind aid, your plants will grow up stronger. Think of the tomato growing up in a windless area, how strong would it be?

Farmer Fred: 9:22

another advantage of having an oscillating fan in

a greenhouse: 9:24

If you're growing tomatoes over the wintertime, you want that slight breeze from an oscillating fan to help pollinate your tomato flowers. And to give a little strength to those tomato plants. Those tomato plants stems will develop stronger if they have a slight breeze on them. Otherwise, they're kind of limp but if you've experiencing any sort of self pollinating plants that you're trying to grow, that fan can come in very handy.

Mark Seibert: 9:50

You're absolutely right. And I I tell customers I say look, if you want to have a successful experience at a fan. I've had customers who said no, I don't want to do that. And now call back and say I've got mold growing. Well what do you think? Add a fan.

Farmer Fred: 10:09

We're glad to have Smart Pots on board supporting the Garden Basics podcast. Smart Pots are the original award winning fabric planter. They're sold worldwide. Smart Pots are proudly made 100% in the USA. I'm pretty picky about who I allowed to advertise on this program. My criteria, though, is pretty simple. It has to be a product I like; a product I use; a product I would buy again. And Smart Pots clicks all those boxes. They're durable. They're reusable. Smart Pots are available at independent garden centers and select Ace and True Value stores nationwide. To find a store near you visit SmartPots.com slash Fred. It's Smart Pots, the original award winning fabric planter. go to SmartPots dot com slash Fred for more info and that special Farmer Fred discount on your next Smart Pot purchase, go to SmartPots.com slash Fred. We're talking with Mark Seibert of Sturdi-Built greenhouses up in Portland, Oregon. And we're talking specifically about greenhouses for cold winter climates. Let's talk about light. you mentioned earlier about the azimuth of a sun and Boy oh boy in northern latitudes, that sun is pretty low in the horizon for a lot of the day. So I would think situating a greenhouse where it can see the sun. On the south side, it should be an area where there aren't any tall trees around.

Mark Seibert: 11:38

Exactly. So you know, when the sun's lower, the plants still need their light, especially if you want to propagate and for sun loving plant like peppers. So what you'll do is you'll get some LED lighting, that is the best solution. There's a company in California called California Lightworks. They offer a great solution for vegetative growing and I think their their business of growing light offers 25 square feet of growing to great solution. And we can thank our friends in the cannabis industry for all their great investment into LED lighting. So that is the growers best bet nowadays, you can still use other forms of lighting by for bang for the buck, the LED lighting will work best for you in the longer term.

Farmer Fred: 12:22

Alright, so we've got a fan to help ease the humidity and mold situation and pollinate the plants. We've got lights for the plants, they'll probably need that extra light in the dark days of winter. We've got a heater, but we still need water.

Mark Seibert: 12:37

Yes, you do. Because you know when you think of your greenhouse, it's best to have a hose spigot inside your greenhouse so that way there you don't have to think of running a hose over the snow and having a freeze up and all the nasty things might happen. So the idea is yougo underground and then you bring that that hose spigot inside your greenhouse, you can connect and you can propagate there with free flowing water. No one wants to be hauling buckets of water out to your greenhouse.

Farmer Fred: 13:04

Exactly. So if you live in a cold climate where you're basically shutting down your outdoor water system, before you build that greenhouse, you may want to do some trenching and put in some water pipes probably 12-18 inches down and bring it up where that greenhouse is going to be. So let's talk about snow and the green house and just how much snow can a greenhouse hold before it collapses?

Mark Seibert: 13:30

That's a great question. so we talked about we measured in terms of ground snow load, if you go to a website called "ATC hazards by Location" for at no cost to you. It's run by a structural engineer organization, they do a great job and a great service, you can type in your address and get your ground snow load and your wind load. Once you know that, then you can say okay, what do I need to support? Now, if you put too much snow load, even on your own home, your roofs gonna collapse? So what are they doing your home they actually add strengthening to your home structure. same principles apply to greenhouses. So as you work with designing your own greenhouse or buy one a kit or from another supplier, what you can do is just to have some saying my ground snow load is 30 pounds 50 pounds 80 pounds per square foot. What are you going to do to make sure my greenhouse is not going to to collapse? May I share a story friend of one of our customers,

Farmer Fred: 14:36

please do.

Mark Seibert: 14:36

Okay, we have a customer in Colorado. They purchased one of our greenhouses and of course they wanted they didn't want any posts or anything but they're in the mountains of Colorado and they we told them, look with your snow load. You need to put posts in. Fortunately, they agreed and they put the post in. A few weeks later we got an beautiful photograph. Their greenhouse waist deep snow. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Because the greenhouse is looking great and standing tall in that beautiful Colorado snow.

Farmer Fred: 15:10

You have a lot of great pictures on your website at Sturdi-built.com of your customers greenhouses, and there was one of a greenhouse in Alaska. It looked to be completely encased in snow. There was a lot of snow on that roof and I'm shaking, I'm wondering, how long is that greenhouse gonna stand?

Mark Seibert: 15:29

we hope they last upwards to 30 years, the using tempered glass on a roof which is stronger than standard glass. That is the key when you've got heavy snow load as tempered glass on the roof. You want to add posts, you'll probably need beams to support those posts to transfer the load from the roof down to the floor.

Farmer Fred: 15:48

Alright, and by the way, if you're wondering what that website was Mark mentioned, the exact website is hazards dot ATC council.org. And that way they'll help you figure out what you need for wind loads, snow loads, even tornadoes, or even seismic information.

Mark Seibert: 16:07

And you know, if you let's say you know, you will find some cases they don't have the information they'll call that a case study area or special case area. If that's the case, your next go-to location, your next go to place for information is your local county or local city and they should know the ground snow load for your location or be able to guide you.

Farmer Fred: 16:28

Are there any special considerations for flooring in a greenhouse in colder climates?

Mark Seibert: 16:33

From a flooring standpoint, we know the general rule on a greenhouse is you always want water to go into the ground. But if you've got by having your heater on, and keeping the greenhouse 68 degrees, or 62 degrees, you're not going to have any problem with freezing. If you don't have it heated, then you're going to have problems and it's not going to be that perfect growing environment. From a flooring standpoint, we prefer to have a porous floor. So the water from that excess water goes back into the earth. Well at the same time, I would just guide your customers and your listeners to basically the only need to pave where you walk. So if you've got benches, just put pea gravel under those. But just put some pavers down what kind of paver should I put down? bricks on sand pavers on sand, or you can just put pea gravel or you can build yourself a wooden boardwalk. Whatever you know floats your boat on that one, you'll be able to have a good rolling surface that's safe and sturdy for you.

Farmer Fred: 17:30

All right, drainage is key just like for plant life drainage is key for a greenhouse. instead of just a standalone greenhouse, are sunrooms an option for people in colder climates?

Mark Seibert: 17:42

Yes, they are. Sun rooms are a good option. Because the home provides some insulation, even a heat sink for your greenhouse, particularly if your sunroom is facing a south or east or west where there's just a lot of radiation coming in during the times that day, morning or evening. The idea is that if it's attached to your home, it becomes a natural heat sink. And then also depending on the color of your home, it could reflect light off the wall back to your plants. And that also would depend on what kind of glazing you have, whether it's a clear glass or it's a polycarbonate. So I like when at the tests the home not only for, for come for its heatsink, but also for convenience. Think of this, if your greenhouse is free standing and you need to go out to it, you're in the snow area, where you're going to be doing you're gonna have to be clearing a path. If it's attached to your home, you open the door, you walk in, and you're golden.

Farmer Fred: 18:37

And I guess your only limitation would be the slope of the roof.

Mark Seibert: 18:41

Yes, because you know when you're attaching a sunroom or a greenhouse to your home, the width of how far you can go away from your home, which is the width of the greenhouse is a function of how much available space there is on your wall. And if you're attaching to the gable end to your home or to the side of your home, but where the greenhouse attaches, there is a roof slope. So up on the roof to that is natural and what you can do is to say if I've got eight feet or more going available to attach you should be able to get a reasonable size greenhouse attached to your home.

Farmer Fred: 19:16

Mark Seibert he's with sturdi built greenhouse manufacturing in Oregon. visit their website if you want to see some great pictures of greenhouses and more information including a lot of questions you should ask yourself before you buy a greenhouse sturdi built.com s t u r di with a dash B UI l t. sturdi-built.com greenhouses, Mark Seibert we learned a lot today. stay warm this winter.

Mark Seibert: 19:41

Thank you, everyone.

Farmer Fred: 19:46

If you really want to demonstrate to your friends what a great investment your greenhouse is. Well, here's a little trick. Serve them home grown tomatoes on New Year's Day. Now here's what you'll need to do to grow greenhouse tomatoes for the winter. first of all, you need to choose the right tomato. For the typical hobby greenhouse, that greenhouse might be eight by five, or eight by 10, or eight by 12. The cool season determinant tomatoes are the varieties that do best. They tend to be fairly compact plants that are under four feet tall. They don't put on lots of growth after they set fruit. determinant tomatoes usually ripen at the same time. So choose several tomatoes that will ripen at different times, going from seed to fruit in 50 to 70 days and that minimize any disease problems. Choose tomatoes that have built in disease resistance, they'll have letters like VFNT and a V for verticillium wilt resistance, F for fusarium resistance, and N for nematode resistance; T for tobacco mosaic virus, and A for alternaria fungus resistance. And here's the expensive part, you're going to need a warm greenhouse. so whether you warm your greenhouse via electricity or gas, you're going to need to keep that greenhouse warm even at night. To grow tomatoes in a greenhouse you need to maintain a nighttime temperature range of 55 to 70 degrees, preferably above 60 degrees for tomatoes. daytime temperatures should be in the 75 to 85 degree range. Tomatoes need light now there isn't that much sun in the wintertime it's kind of low in the horizon. So if you haven't installed a greenhouse yet, think about where it should be to get the best advantage of a low angle sun during the cold months. Make sure the building isn't shaded by any evergreen trees or other structures, you will need artificial light to aid the process. There are many artificial lighting systems available. we've talked in the past about led systems. fluorescent lights are probably the most economical you can use for 40 watt 48 inch long fluorescent tubes side by side, keeping them about eight to 12 inches above the plant. Although standard shop lights are okay. Investing in grow Lux wide spectrum fluorescent tubes will give your tomatoes more of the light spectrum that they can use. And you're going to find that same light spectrum in LED lights as well. The choice is yours. And of course you're going to be planting in the greenhouse soil. But there are issues with that if you plant directly in the soil that's at the bottom of the greenhouse that soil needs to drain readily. Make sure it's been amended with organic matter and isn't compacted. Building raised beds into the floor of your greenhouse works best. Make the size of the raised beds about eight to 16 inches high at least 18 inches wide. The bed can be framed by a number of things including untreated wood blocks, bricks, or whatever your imagination tells you. You can even grow tomatoes in plastic five gallon pots, but larger works better, such as half barrels and if you don't want to spend money on half barrels, a five gallon or a 15 gallon plastic pot does wonders. and another great container choice, if you'll excuse the plug, smart pots. These flexible fabric containers can grow anything you want in a greenhouse in the wintertime, summertime too, but fill it with the best potting soil you can find. there's a lot of good brands on the market. Ask around, do your homework before you buy a lot of potting soil. The ideal time to get your winter tomato started actually from seed was a few weeks ago, late September, but you can get started on it now. keep the seed beds evenly moist. Although the cooler temperatures of the fall and winter will cut down on the amount of water that tomatoes need. A drip system connected to a timer will ensure that the plants get the moisture they need. four to eight gallons of water per week per plant should be plenty and plants also tend to slow down their growth in the colder months. So cut your dosage of your favorite tomato fertilizer by half and maybe apply it once a month. So how do you pollinate your tomato plants? Well, in nature, bees and the wind do most of the tomato pollination in the greenhouse. you can accomplish that same task by either gently shaking or holding an old electric toothbrush next to the plant or twirling a small brush inside a tomato flower to transfer the pollen. And having a running fan is a great idea because not only will it help the plants pollinate, It will also help develop a sturdier plant. Now here's the part they don't like to tell you about the pests in a greenhouse. whiteflies can be the toughest challenge. Monitor populations with yellow sticky traps when you catch a few, take action. Maybe insecticidal soap or narrow range oils are effective, as is a blast of water applied on a regular basis on all the leaf surfaces. And frankly, if one of those tomato plants is heavily infested with white flies, just get rid of the plant, put it in the trash, don't compost it, put it in the trash. Alright, and here's why you tuned in: which greenhouse tomato varieties are best for the colder months? There are several. now all of these are determinant varieties. they ripen between 54 and 66 days, 68 days and the plantS themselves don't get that big, maybe three, four feet, maybe five feet at the most. So some of my favorites that I've used over the years include Bush Early girl, Bush Beefsteak, Oregon Spring V, Polar Baby, Prairie Fire, Red Robin, sub Arctic Maxi, Tumbler, and 506 Bush. 506 Bush only gets 18 inches tall, and they're pretty drought tolerant too, and they actually produce medium sized tomatoes. And by the way, the tomatoes we're talking about, get maybe at most six ounce tomatoes, some might get up to eight ounces. But generally speaking, four to six ounces is the usual size for many of these tomatoes. cherry tomatoes, of course, do well in a greenhouse in the wintertime. But remember, most cherry tomato plants are indeterminate, which means they will just fill your greenhouse with a nice green jungle. I'll have a link to this information in today's show notes. Time for a quick tip, Professor Debbie Flower has an idea about how to keep the kids entertained at home and maybe learn a little bit of science using a CD case and radish seeds.

Debbie Flower: 26:27

Yes, I saw a hint, and they said to use clear CD cases. they're very narrow, you're not going to get a whole radish out of it. But put a seed and some media in it. Open it up, lay it down on the table, put some media and moisture about halfway up the cd case, put a seed in there, close it and then turn it upright. And you can watch the roots. children, I'm thinking of, especially can watch the roots grow. It's your own root growing device.

Farmer Fred: 26:59

I would advise people to take out the CD insert, the black insert that's in there first. You have more room for soil.

Debbie Flower: 27:06

Yes. Yes, that's it.

Farmer Fred: 27:08

That's a nifty idea.

Debbie Flower: 27:09

I like I thought it was cute. Yeah.

Farmer Fred: 27:15

The Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast has a lot of information posted at each episode: transcripts links to any products or books mentioned during the show, and other helpful links for even more information. Plus, you can listen to just the portions of the show that interest you. It's been divided into easily accessible chapters and you'll find more information about how to get in touch with us. We have links to all our social media outlets, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Also a link to the farmerfred.com website. That's where you can find out more information about the radio shows. You remember radio, right? Now, if the place where you access the podcast doesn't have all that information, you can find it all at our home podcaster, Buzzsprout. Buzzsprout.com. Just look for the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. You'll find a link to it in the show notes. Garden Basics comes out every Tuesday and Friday and it's available just about anywhere podcasts are handed out. And that includes Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, I Heart Radio, Overcast, Spotify, stitcher, tune in, and hey, Alexa, play the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, would you please? Thank you for listening, subscribing and leaving comments. We appreciate it.