Midsummer Greeenhouse Report

13 years ago

A few years ago, a dear garden friend taught me that it's impossible to have every crop thrive every year. Some years you get a bumper crop of plums, but a mediocre raspberry harvest. Sometimes you'll be giving away cucumbers but wanting for carrots. This philosophy has helped me a lot, so that I don't get all worked up when some parts of the garden are lackluster.

But the greenhouse has always been stellar... up until this year. It started off with a bang in the spring and early summer, but then it looked like the tomato plants had blight -- but blight is rare around here because it's arid. And I start everything from seed with my own clean pots and my own clean pots; where would blight come from?

Outdoor tomatoes were suffering the same fate, except the varieties that were doing well outdoors were doing poorly in the GH and vice versa.

Along with tomatoes, my cucumbers were barely even growing, and it took me several tries to get basil and some annuals to grow.

Bummer!

Meanwhile, all of my garden energy was going into prepping for being on the garden tour. (Note to other gardeners: never do this.) I realized what the greenhouse may be missing is my usual doting and fussing. So I dialed my pampering efforts up.

I replaced the mineral filter for the misting system (the plant leaves looked crusted - perhaps it was mineral buildup?), I kept after sickly looking leaves, even though trimming off the dead stuff made the plants mostly naked. I went to our lovely organic plant store and had a long talk with them. I engaged in a routine of soap spray for spider mites, foliar spray of compost tea for general plant health, and a nice liquid fertilizer for a root drench. I also used rainbarrel water for a daily leaf spray to deter spider mites and get rid of the minerals.

The plants started to look a lot better. With the outdoor annuals that were showing similar symptoms, I just started watering them a lot - and they rebounded right away!

The day after the garden tour (phew), I spent a couple of hours tying up new plant stems, applying a generous layer of our own fluffy compost, and generally fussing over things. I can finally pronounce that our GH is doing better. It's not up to its usual, over-the-top productivity, but it's a lot better. I'm no longer sad when I walk in there. Tomatoes are forgiving plants because they always want to make new suckers and stems. Things are ramping back up!

Still a little sparse, but so much better than 3 weeks ago!
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Cucumbers are so small and slow! Come on cucumbers!
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This is Ernie's Plump, one plant. It's new this year and it's the best tomato I've ever grown!
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A sign explaining a bit about the greenhouse for the garden tour. People loved it but I was so bummed that it's not up to its usual standards!
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Anyway, that's our story for this summer. I will have to think about how to recover from this for next year. Ideas and suggestions welcome!

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Comments (6)

7deuce
13 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
As always, thanks for taking the time to show us your beautiful greenhouse. I hope you fix the problem and have a great next season.
livelydirt
13 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Thanks for the update Karin. Still don't have my own new GH because the threatened subdivision abutting our land finally became a reality this year and has caused me no end of grief, expense and work to accommodate them. The land was vacant since time began and the mining company that owned it assured me it would never be sold, so go ahead and develop and use it... HAH!!!! they lied. Anyway, I will try to at least get the foundation poured this year, and really try to get the glass on. Your stories, and the likes of Hudson, encourage me, even if everything isn't always 100%. My outdoor garden is very healthy and growing, but with the vagaries of weather, I only harvested my first tomato today (Moskvich) and had my first real BLT of the season. Keep posting. Love hearing from you.
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hudson___wy
13 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Great to see photos of your GH Karin! Appears you are on the rebound alright! Do you have some photos of your "Garden Tour"? I agree with LivelyDirt - you always inspire - even on a lack luster year!

Here is a photo of our Sweet Baby Girl cherry tomatoes that we planted this year because of your recommendation. Sweet Baby Girl has been wonderful! We made an overhead trellis for them at about 6' of plant height - as you can see - they are growing overhead and producing awesome!

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karin_mt
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Thanks for the encouragement folks!

Lively - a mining company lied?? No way! (sarcastic)
I feel your pain though. Having development next door all of a sudden would be a shock. Hang in there.

I am trying Moskvich this year too. It was also our first tomato of the year and I like how big and fat they are. I have a whole pile of them on the brink of ripening and then I will bust out the BLTs!

Ah, Sweet Baby Girl... that is such a wonderful plant. I'm glad you are also having good results with it Hudson. In addition to the fantastic taste, I can't get over how long the trusses are, each one with 20 or more tomatoes on it. I am so happy mine has recovered. Most of the fruit are still green but in another week or so it will kick back into production and we should be smothered in cherries for the rest of the season.

Below is a link to a thread about the garden tour. (with lots of pics) It was quite a drama for me because of the intense effort to get ready. And then to be a hostess to 500 people! Phew. But now the place is so tidy and all kinds of odds and ends that were languishing are completed. So on balance it was a good thing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Tour thread on the perennials forum
hudson___wy
13 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
What a perfect - beautiful garden and home!! I had the impression that your GH must consume most of your time because of how great it always looks - but after seeing your garden - How do you keep up with it all! Very Impressive !!! You guys are hard workers!! Thanks for sharing!
karin_mt
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Thank you Hudson. Your photos always strike me as immaculate too - with every detail planned and executed perfectly. But maybe that's how other people's gardens tend to look? Anyway, I usually can't keep up. I almost never have the whole place looking clean all at once. But yeah, I love working out there even if it's rarely perfect. At this point I am striving to simplify the big garden areas with more shrubs and fewer perennials. But then again, most of my free time goes toward building the latest stone wall project, so I can't claim that I'm really trying to minimize my work in the garden!

That said, I've hardly done anything since the garden tour other than water and harvest. The break is quite nice!