Vegetables can be planted pretty much any time of year if you use greenhouse vegetable gardening plans. Cultivating them in a hothouse is similar to raising vegetables in the garden in summertime. You simply need to take several extra steps in order to artificially provide what they would get in a natural situation.
There are two different methods of using a portable greenhouse. One is called the cold greenhouse technique and that’s when just the sun during the day gives the greenhouse its warmth. The temperature at nighttime commonly goes down to about 45 degrees at the coldest and heat does kick on when it gets very cold outside. No growing occurs in this kind of greenhouse, but you can maintain many plants that will come back in the summer such as rosemary.
To cultivate vegetables in a garden greenhouse in the wintertime you need warmth and therefore you would use the warm greenhouse method. This method does tend to cost a little money since the least temperature that can be maintained is 55 degrees F and therefore a heating system must be available. The majority of heating systems for greenhouses are either gas, propane or electric.
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 outdoor plants. There’s little room in a greenhouse and you don’t want it to be used up with just a couple of types of vegetables.
An essential natural action that must be undertaken artificially is pollination. Insects, particularly bees, do not dwell indoors. 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 night. You’ll know the flower is ready when the petals begin to curve backwards. Pay close attention to this because there are only three days that the flowers will be producing pollen to pollinate the vegetable.
You will have to supplement sunlight during the winter too so plan on supplying grow lights in a winter greenhouse. Plants generally need 8 hours of sunlight per day. You’ll also have to supply water and fertilizer on a regular basis.
Raising vegetables in a greenhouse in the winter might be a little more difficult and time consuming, but the results can be astonishing. Just think of going out to the greenhouse mid January and harvesting a tomato right off the vine. You will have a little taste of summertime in the dead of wintertime.
