The Greenhouse Is Open From April To November - Three Harvests Per Season

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Tomatoes are ripening

The most important thing for a gardener is to provide himself with green products as early as possible. The first greens of lettuce, onions and spinach, as well as radishes, we eat on May 9, the last - in late October - early November, growing it as a catch crop in a greenhouse.

Our greenhouse is 6 meters long and 3 meters wide and stands on a foundation covered with cellular polycarbonate. Unlike a film greenhouse, cellular polycarbonate retains heat in the cold, and in the heat it is not very hot in the greenhouse. Therefore, we start sowing in the greenhouse much earlier than in the foil greenhouse.

We prepare our greenhouse for sowing in the fall. This preparation consists in removing the soil layer on the bayonet of a shovel (we move it under the apple tree), in washing the polycarbonate and disinfecting it. We bring rotted manure, compost into the greenhouse, dig up and level the surface of the ridge with a rake. And now the greenhouse is ready for spring. In winter, I put a good layer of snow on the ridges several times. The earth needs melt water, and since we do not dismantle our greenhouse for the winter, we ourselves have to provide the soil with "living" water (just like in a fairy tale).

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In early spring (in mid-March) I cover the beds in the greenhouse with black foil so that the earth warms up faster. The first sowing begins on April 1. Our greenhouse has three ridges that run from west to east. I sow plant seeds so that the very first greens or radishes can be pulled out and sent to the table, and seedlings of tomatoes and cucumbers can be planted in the vacant space. On the first ridge (along its southern side) I sow spinach around the perimeter, in the center - one row of onion sets for greens, and to the left and right of it - French breakfast radish.

On the central ridge, on the side, I plant a salad of the Lollo Bionda variety and a head salad of the Mowgli varieties, Russian size, Arctic. I already plant seedlings, which I sow in bowls at home in early March. I sow the same spinach around the perimeter as on the first ridge, but I also place 10 kohlrabi cabbage seeds in a row with it (the interval between seeds is 10 cm so as not to thin out). Kohlrabi will grow in a greenhouse. On the third ridge, which is located along the northern side of the greenhouse, I sow dill around the perimeter, and in the center one row - onion sets for greens, and radish to the left and right of it.

After planting, I water the beds with water with a growth stimulator and an activator of the immune system - HB-101 (2 drops per one liter of water) and cover with lutrasil. Further care consists in timely watering the plants with warm water. I try not to allow the soil to dry out - radishes do not like this. For better growth and development of plants, once (after the emergence of seedlings) I water the herbal infusion of nettle. To do this, I tightly put nettles in a bucket (a whole bucket), pour boiling water and leave for 24 hours. I dilute the concentrated solution with water so that this bucket is enough for the entire greenhouse.

We begin to take the first harvest for the holiday - May 9. First, I take out radishes and greens where I will plant seedlings of tomatoes and cucumbers. On the same day, I immediately plant tomato and cucumber seedlings there. In the holes for seedlings I put a teaspoon (without a slide) of AVA fertilizer and a pinch of nitrophoska or azofosk fertilizer.

Cucumbers varieties Chinese farm Cucumbers varieties Chinese farm

In film greenhouses, seedlings are usually planted later. The film does not keep warm at night, and the plants will die when return frosts come (and nobody canceled them - we have such a climate). Unless you have to additionally cover the plants inside with foil and woven materials, or leave burning candles and lamps inside.

Heat-loving crops (cucumbers, tomatoes, summer flowers) are planted in film greenhouses when the first flowers of lilac and mountain ash open on your site (data from: Atlas of the Leningrad Region. - M.: Main Directorate of Geodesy and Cartography under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, 1967, p. 7). It is better to plant seedlings in greenhouses made of cellular polycarbonate in early May, when it is not very hot in it, and the seedlings take root better.

As the tomatoes and cucumbers grow, radishes and greens are gradually removed and eaten. By the end of May, only grown and matured tomatoes and cucumbers grow on the beds. Along the ridges with tomatoes (along the perimeter) in an empty space, I again plant the onion sets on the greens.

It should be noted that I plant onion sets all the time throughout the warm period. To do this, in the spring, I buy several kilograms of onion sets at a sale. Sort it right away. I plant small and sprouted onions in April, I plant medium ones in June, and large ones are stored in a box in room conditions until July and August.

I feed tomatoes and cucumbers once every ten days. In the first half of the vegetation period, I alternate the infusion of mullein, liquid fertilizer "Ideal" or Kemira universal (only Finnish fertilizer). Before flowering, I water the plants once with HB-101 (2 drops per liter of water) and spray it once (1 drop per liter of water). In the second half of the growing season, I feed the plants with ash infusion. Instead of phosphorus fertilizers, I use fish broth. To do this, I boil the fish heads (I collect them from early spring and keep them in the freezer), dilute the broth with water and water the plants at the root. Cucumbers like these dressings very much.

Tomatoes varieties Russian size

In the twentieth of July, I pinch the growing point of tomatoes so that all pollinated brushes can grow by mid-August. I remove tomatoes from the bushes on August 15-20. I don't keep it on the bush any longer, since late blight appears at this time in our climatic conditions (the exception was 2010, when all the tomatoes were ripe on the vine). In place of the tomatoes, I immediately plant onion sets, dill, radish, lettuce, spinach, Parade onion seeds for greens - all in the same way as in spring. By the end of September and at the beginning of October, we again get radishes and greens of salads, spinach, onion feathers to the table.

Cucumbers also bear fruit in October. To achieve this, I go for a trick. I plant only 5-6 cucumber bushes on a cucumber garden - we don't need it anymore. I grow cucumbers of hybrids Ginga F1 - four plants and “Chinese farm F1 (long-fruited, very tasty cucumbers) - two plants. In the spring, I do not plant all the plants in the greenhouse, but two Ginga F1 cucumber plants and two Chinese farm F1 plants. In early July, I sow two more Ginga F1 cucumbers on seedlings, which I plant in the space left for them on the cucumber garden.

By the end of September, the cucumbers planted in May are already producing poorly, and the plants planted in early July are at their peak. If autumn is without severe frosts, then we remove the cucumbers until the end of October. In September and October, I water the cucumber plants with nettle infusion and HB-101 once a week. I do not fertilize with fertilizers, as fertilizers "work" in warm weather. And in the soil there is still a supply of nutrients.

This is how our greenhouse works from the beginning of April to the beginning of November

At the beginning of November, I take soil from a cucumber garden and sift it through a special geological sieve No. 5 for growing seedlings for the next season. Then I begin to prepare the greenhouse for the new season. We have enough vegetables and herbs not only for ourselves, but also distribute them to our friends. In addition to tomatoes, cucumbers and greenery in the greenhouse since spring we have grown cuttings of roses, which were presented in spring in bouquets.