Growing Tomatoes In A Greenhouse

There are two main reasons for growing tomatoes greenhouse style! Either the climate you live in does not produce enough hours of warm sunlight per day, or you wish to grow tomatoes throughout the winter months. In the first scenario, planting in a greenhouse will let you control the growing environment to suit the plants needs. In the second scenario, growing tomatoes in a greenhouse is the only option during the cold winter months. It is not difficult to grow tomatoes in a greenhouse that taste delicious.

Options

You have several different options available to grow your greenhouse tomatoes. You can dig them straight into the soil, within your greenhouse, or you can grow them in containers (at least 12” diameter, or about 10 gallons). To avoid any greenhouse related problems, you can use special seeds developed specifically for greenhouse growing. You may either start your tomato plants as seeds or seedlings.

Tomato Varieties

There are plenty of tomato plant varieties to choose from, so spend some time deciding what you would like to enjoy, come harvesting season. Here are a few popular ones to get you started: cherry tomatoes, plum tomatoes, beefstake tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, grape tomatoes, pear tomatoes.

The Greenhouse

Make sure your tomatoes are going into a ‘healthy’ greenhouse. If it looks dirty or unhealthy in anyway, you must prepare it first, by sanitizing the place. Tomatoes are prone to bugs and infections. Companion planting methods will help reduce pest problems, while making use of the valuable space within your greenhouse. Basil and lavender are great for this purpose.

It is a good idea to wipe down the inside of your greenhouse and sterilize any pots before use. You want to be certain there are no bugs left!

Greenhouse soil will need to be replaced about every two-three years as it will become devoid of nutrients after this time. Old soil can also be the carrier of disease, so it is recommended to use fresh soil to prevent the spread of disease.

Space

Because space is limited in a greenhouse, indeterminate tomatoes are great to grow. They will give you lots of fruit over an extended period of time. To stop the growth of these tomato plants, simply pinch out the main stem.

Watering

If you do not setup an automatic watering system, then the greenhouse plants will be entirely dependent upon YOU for water. If you go away, you will need to organize a friendly ‘water person’ to take care of your plants. It is best to water your tomato plants with water that is the same temperature as the surrounding environment to avoid shocking your plants.

Lighting

During the winter months you may need to supplement your lighting with grow lights. High-pressure sodium lights are best for tomatoes as they encourage flowering and fruiting. Lights should be used up to 16-18 hours per day. You tomato plants need to be in a location of full sun, or near a heat source of some kind.

Heating

You must maintain a constant temperature in your greenhouse or your tomatoes will not produce fruit. Aim to keep the greenhouse temperature above 60°F and below 90°F. In most areas, this will require some heating during cold weather.

Support

A great way to support your greenhouse tomatoes is with stakes. Place them at either end of the greenhouse and run some thin rope or string between them. Use these ‘lines’ to support the growing branches of your tomato plants.

Lastly, you can hang a couple of bananas in the apex of the greenhouse to encourage the last fruits of the season to develop. If they do not, there are plenty of green tomato recipes to try out, such as chutney. Although more effort needs to be put into soil preparation, sanitizing for diseases, and solving the watering issues, growing tomatoes in a greenhouse is almost the same as growing them outdoors.