Hi,
I'm new to gardening and especially greenhouse gardening. However, I want to grow tomoatoes in a greenhouse as I live on the Northenr CA coast and there's too much fog to grow them outdoors. I might be too late already to start, but can you tell me what variety works best and can I grow them from seed this late into the year.
My greenhouse is not heated.
I'll be grateful for any advice on how to go about starting these plants.
Hi Davitt,
I get your hardiness zone as 10.
I'm concerned more about cooling your greenhouse then heating it. Tomatoes will stop producing in heat over 90*F. You would definitely need some type of venting, possibly automatically controlled by temperature and humidity if you want to protect then from the mist of the fog in early morning, yet allow for cooling during the heat of the day in summer. You may also need to hand pollinate your plants.
I don't see why you can't grow your tomatoes in a foggy area. I saw them growing along the coast of Peru where the fog and mist would come in every night and lift during the day. Everything had a coating of dust on it.
Newt
I get your hardiness zone as 10.
I'm concerned more about cooling your greenhouse then heating it. Tomatoes will stop producing in heat over 90*F. You would definitely need some type of venting, possibly automatically controlled by temperature and humidity if you want to protect then from the mist of the fog in early morning, yet allow for cooling during the heat of the day in summer. You may also need to hand pollinate your plants.
I don't see why you can't grow your tomatoes in a foggy area. I saw them growing along the coast of Peru where the fog and mist would come in every night and lift during the day. Everything had a coating of dust on it.
Did you know there is a variety called 'San Francisco fog'?Tomatoes for the Fog-Bound
Farmers in cold, foggy regions who want to try to defy the climatic odds and grow tomatoes should take a hint from Deborah Connell, of Cat Walk Garden in Fairfax: Grow Stupice tomatoes.
The Stupice "is great in fog," Connell said last summer at the Point Reyes Station farmers market, which reopens this year in May. An extremely cold-tolerant, hardy variety from the Czech Republic, it produces small fruit that ripen early. Connell’s sales pitch apparently worked with shoppers in the often fog-shrouded coastal town where she sells tomato seedlings and later in the summer, tomatoes themselves. The Stupice seedlings often sold out.
Two other good bets for the fog belt are Green Grape and Green Zebra tomatoes. The Green Grape is a "two-bite" cherry tomato, Connell says. Both produce small fruit that ripen when they're green.
For tomato growers in warmer settings, Connell has two other suggestions. Both have heirloom eating qualities but without an heirloom’s horticultural shortcomings.
A variety she calls Tanya’s Best comes from seeds she saved from her fields of mixed varieties of tomatoes. Of uncertain lineage, it appears to be a cross between a Russian tomato called Bull’s Heart and an old variety called Brandywine.
The Brandywine is a favorite among heirloom-tomato aficionados, with a lineage that has been traced back more than 100 years. But like many older varieties, it is prone to cracking. Enter a commercial variety called the Rutgers, which was crossed with the Brandywine to produce another of Connell’s favorite varieties, the Red Rose, a dark-pink, disease- and crack-resistant tomato with the flavor and texture of its 19th Century parent.
Newt
Thanks so much for this reply Newt and for the links which I will read carefully.
My greenhouse actually does have automatic venting set to the temperature so when it reaches a certain temp the slatted windows open.
It doens't actually get really hot here on the coast, even in the height of summer, rarely above the mid 70s and often below it in the afternoons especially when the fog rolls in from San Francisco.
My greenhouse actually does have automatic venting set to the temperature so when it reaches a certain temp the slatted windows open.
It doens't actually get really hot here on the coast, even in the height of summer, rarely above the mid 70s and often below it in the afternoons especially when the fog rolls in from San Francisco.
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opabinia51
- Super Green Thumb
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I haven't looked at Newt's answers yet but, I'll add that most tomatoe varieties do well in greenhouses. You are not behind schedule at all. You should be starting your tomatoes indoors about now, for that you will need to purchase some grow lights. There are some nifty apparati that you can buy that will clip onto any shelving that you can screw your grow light bulb into.
What seems to work best and most efficiently is to spread like tomatoe seed over a tray and then dust the seeds with more soil. Allow the plants to grow until the cotyledons are nice and big and then indvidually lift the little plants (with there roots) out and place in a small pot with soil. Place your pots into another tray and continue to grow indoors until danger of frost is gone. Then simply transplant into your green house.
Try some heirloom tomatoes because the colour and flavour of these tomatoes is just amazing and the varieties are endless (500 different varities raning from the size of a currant to the size of a volleyball).
What seems to work best and most efficiently is to spread like tomatoe seed over a tray and then dust the seeds with more soil. Allow the plants to grow until the cotyledons are nice and big and then indvidually lift the little plants (with there roots) out and place in a small pot with soil. Place your pots into another tray and continue to grow indoors until danger of frost is gone. Then simply transplant into your green house.
Try some heirloom tomatoes because the colour and flavour of these tomatoes is just amazing and the varieties are endless (500 different varities raning from the size of a currant to the size of a volleyball).
The danger of frost is over here already: we rarely get it actually. Can I use your method and start straight away in greenhouse? My greenhouse doesn't have light though so maybe I do need to start indoors. I'll definitely try some heirlooms since there are a lot around here. Thanks for replying... I'll let you know how it goes. I used to live in Vancouver many years ago but wasn't growing tomatoes then 
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opabinia51
- Super Green Thumb
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- Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:58 pm
- Location: Victoria, BC
Hi Davitt,
If the weather is warm enough, you shouldn't need to start the plants indoors (the seeds that is). And for a light, you could just run an extension cord to your greenhouse if that would work.
Read the planting instructions on any seed packets that you purchase regarding germination temperatures before deciding to go either indoors or outdoors to germinate your seeds.
Have fun with your experiment and keep in mind that tomatoe plants love (all plants) organic fertilizers. Kelp meal is a slow release organic fertilizer, liquid fish and liquid seaweed fertilizer work great, compost is free and full of nutrients and aerated compost teas are great as a foliage spray.
Break up eggshells and add them to the soil mixtures that you use to prevent blossom end rot on your tomatoes.
Good luck and let us know how your project goes!
(I love picking tomatoes off the vine and eating them, Currant tomatoes are so full of flavour, amazing! You can eat Lemon Boy like a plum, it is so nice and sweet.)
If the weather is warm enough, you shouldn't need to start the plants indoors (the seeds that is). And for a light, you could just run an extension cord to your greenhouse if that would work.
Read the planting instructions on any seed packets that you purchase regarding germination temperatures before deciding to go either indoors or outdoors to germinate your seeds.
Have fun with your experiment and keep in mind that tomatoe plants love (all plants) organic fertilizers. Kelp meal is a slow release organic fertilizer, liquid fish and liquid seaweed fertilizer work great, compost is free and full of nutrients and aerated compost teas are great as a foliage spray.
Break up eggshells and add them to the soil mixtures that you use to prevent blossom end rot on your tomatoes.
Good luck and let us know how your project goes!
(I love picking tomatoes off the vine and eating them, Currant tomatoes are so full of flavour, amazing! You can eat Lemon Boy like a plum, it is so nice and sweet.)
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garden girl
- Cool Member
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- Joined: Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:10 pm
- Location: Humboldt County, CA
I live on the coast also, tomatoes do wonderfully outside here! I started mine really early, but now is fine. I am going to keep mine in a greenhouse for a while until I'm sure we won't get any more heavy rains that might beat the plants to heck, but then they're going in the yard. A good thing to do is stake/cage to keep them off the ground because of morning fog/ wetness in our areas. have fun!
I know that this thread is old, but wanted to add my observations of this afternoon re. Stupice tomatoes.
My girlfriend Nancy is out of town this week and asked me to go by her house and put the mail inside and to "keep an eye on" her plants.
Hmmm...this one here must be the Stupice...very red...it won't last until she gets home on Sunday, will it?
Can't have it fall into the dirt, can we? And, of course, refrigeration of beautifully ripened garden tomatoes is a crime!
But my personal history of eating raw tomatoes is, I fear, a sad one...
Or WAS! until this afternoon. I gently tugged at Stupice #1. It wasn't quite ready, so it's still on the plant. Stupice #2 came off quite readily. I smelled its aroma: good tomato aroma. I hesitantly bit into it, remembering my disappointing experience with my own Romas from my own yard a few years ago.
OMG!
WOW! What an amazing tomato.
I don't know whether she planted this one from seed or transplant, but it was quite clearly ready on August 15 in USDA Zone 9/Sunset Zone 17.
Unfortunately for me, her Zone 17 is a little warmer than mine is; none of my tomatoes have even begun to get color yet--the few of them that've set fruit. Also, her tomatoes are planted in the ground next to a south-facing wall, so they get as much heat as is available.
So next year I'm going to give Stupice at least a 5-gallon pot against a south-facing wall. (The *only* way it can be against a south-facing wall *is* in a pot....)
And Davitt (if you're still around)--or others in San Mateo County--you're in Sunset Zone 17. See what the local nurseries or gardeners have to say about successful tomato varieties in your area.
Cynthia H.
USDA Zone 9, Sunset Zone 17
My girlfriend Nancy is out of town this week and asked me to go by her house and put the mail inside and to "keep an eye on" her plants.
Hmmm...this one here must be the Stupice...very red...it won't last until she gets home on Sunday, will it?
Can't have it fall into the dirt, can we? And, of course, refrigeration of beautifully ripened garden tomatoes is a crime!But my personal history of eating raw tomatoes is, I fear, a sad one...
Or WAS! until this afternoon. I gently tugged at Stupice #1. It wasn't quite ready, so it's still on the plant. Stupice #2 came off quite readily. I smelled its aroma: good tomato aroma. I hesitantly bit into it, remembering my disappointing experience with my own Romas from my own yard a few years ago.
OMG!
WOW! What an amazing tomato.I don't know whether she planted this one from seed or transplant, but it was quite clearly ready on August 15 in USDA Zone 9/Sunset Zone 17.
Unfortunately for me, her Zone 17 is a little warmer than mine is; none of my tomatoes have even begun to get color yet--the few of them that've set fruit. Also, her tomatoes are planted in the ground next to a south-facing wall, so they get as much heat as is available.
So next year I'm going to give Stupice at least a 5-gallon pot against a south-facing wall. (The *only* way it can be against a south-facing wall *is* in a pot....)
And Davitt (if you're still around)--or others in San Mateo County--you're in Sunset Zone 17. See what the local nurseries or gardeners have to say about successful tomato varieties in your area.
Cynthia H.
USDA Zone 9, Sunset Zone 17