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My first attempt at growing seedlings in a small greenhouse has been very rewarding. Still much work to do on the greenhouse but here is a progression of results:

[img]https://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/lakngulf/2011_001_Greenhouse/Zgh000.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/lakngulf/2011_001_Greenhouse/Zgh001.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/lakngulf/2011_001_Greenhouse/Zgh002.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/lakngulf/2011_001_Greenhouse/Zgh003.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/lakngulf/2011_001_Greenhouse/Zgh004.jpg[/img]

I may be picking beans and squash in the next few days, and MANY plants have been transferred to the garden

Very nice job! Very nice, indeed! [img]https://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh27/Kisal_photos/icon14.gif[/img]

Wow, awesome Congrats on all the lovely looking plants!

OK...I'm gonna apologize ahead of time but I've been wondering for a while now...

I am trying to figure out the whole green house thing. I know seedlings will get leggy if the grow lights are not directly (couple of inches) above the seedlings as they grow. So a greenhouse doesnt have this effect? Is it because you are using actual sunlight instead of artificial? Am I completely missing the point of a greenhouse?

Sorry if I am hijacking this thread. I LOVE your greenhouse and love seeing your pics and I'm debating whether I want to build a small one in the next year or so...

SOB wrote:Sorry if I am hijacking this thread. I LOVE your greenhouse and love seeing your pics and I'm debating whether I want to build a small one in the next year or so...

No hijack here, and good questions. Others with more experience hopefully will chime in but here are my thoughts:

Good sunlight (or light) is needed for germination and growth. I started mine on a shelf with a grow light just above them, moved them to five inch peat pots and put them in the greenhouse. As I have said before, the greenhouse location is not ideal but the best I could do. While the leaves are off the trees my greenhouse spot gets some good sun, and that is the time of the year I need it.

That being said, if you will look closely at picture four you will see some "leggy". My tomatoes plants were as healthy looking as they have ever been, lots of leaves, etc, but they were tall. So tall, that I planted horizontal instead of vertical. Soon I will post some pics of the tomatoes in the garden and you can see that this method seems to work well. I had to move three plants and WOW, I could not believe the roots that had already formed on the stem portion of the plant.

Also, along the edge of the greenhouse I have some plants (tomato and squash) that I will leave there to hopefully produce fruit. The amount of sunlight in the greenhouse now has decreased enough that I think the garden tomatoes will have blooms before the ones in the greenhouse. And, though very healty, the GH tomatoes have become quite leggy.

I am definitely pleased with my results, and already have plans on how to make it better. I only had a small electric heater this year, and will run propane for heat next year. I do plan to install the grow lights so the whole process takes place there.

Here are a couple of pictures of the "leggy":
[img]https://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/lakngulf/2011_001_Greenhouse/P1010062.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/lakngulf/2011_001_Greenhouse/P1010064.jpg[/img]

Beautiful starts! I'm very impressed with you results. Even the "leggy" ones! This is making me all the more excited to get my own greenhouse up and running.

When you put the leggy ones in the garden do you bury them to the leaves?

BP wrote:When you put the leggy ones in the garden do you bury them to the leaves?

Yes, leaving only the top of the plant above ground

Thanks. I have some Brandywine and Delicious that are on the leggy side while the Better Boys are not.

Lessons Learned

Got my plants up and going, and now most are transplanted to the garden. Some are doing great, and some are just doing. Here are some lessons I learned during my first year of a small greenhouse for starting and growing plants.

1) Sunlight: As I have stated, the spot that was most handy for building this starter house was a lean-to attached to a shed I was building to house my tractor. Unfortunately, the lean-to faces west and has lots of trees around. During the winter, with no leaves on the trees, the spot worked well for starting and repotting the plants. They grew well as some pictures have shown.

2) My early transplants got good sun and did well. As we got into spring and the leaves grew, the plants were looking for sun and became very leggy. I am limited on my time frame for good sun

3) I tried to grow some tomatoes, squash and green beans in the green house to get an early harvest. Sunday night we enjoyed some green beans and squash, but not sure the amount of production will be worth the effort. Again, more sunlight is needed for that

4) A couple of the tomatoes are putting on some blooms and might produce, but others are already six feet tall and show no signs of production. Perhaps, I should plant beans where I have the tomatoes. That is probably what I will do next year.

5) Hardiness of Plants: My previous method was to start indoors and then I would move plants outside when the weather would do, and bring them in when it was too cold, or bad weather. The plants grew well in the green house. Some of them seemed to have gone through some trauma (scorched leaves) when I transplanted them to the garden. Perhaps a hardiness method is needed.

6) The plants grew faster and some were too big when planting time arrived.

7) Some starter plants I put directly in the soil, they grew well, but were difficult to dig up and transplant. A starter pot or tray of some sort is needed so as to more safely move the plant to the garden.


Overall, I was pleased with the process. I hope to use the greenhouse from start to garden next year (will need a heat source), and I hope to do a better job spacing the plantings so as to have the plants at a good size for transplanting to the garden.

What else should I have learned?