2013 tomato crop

[Rgold1963]

Originally Posted by Heritage

Ron,

I assume you get your heirloom/OP seeds from various sources. Do you do any pre-plant seed treatments (bleach, hot water, dry heat, etc,...) to eliminate pathogens? What is your biggest disease threat?

Thanks,
Steve

I did use new sources this year. Most of which were found through this site.
I don't use any pre planting treatments and have not had any disease problems so far.
The biggest disease threat I face in the greenhouse would be botrytis. It's always in the air and if you let the conditions in the greenhouse get to appoint where it can start growing, it can get bad real fast. Botrytis loves dark, cold, humid conditions which can easily happen if you turn down the heat and turn up the humidistat which I have seen too many people do over the years thinking they are going to save money. Unfortunately, it always ends up costing a lot more than if they had left the setting where they should be. Another problem with turning down the heat and turning up the humidistat is that you end up with a lot of condensation on the plastic which then drips on to the leaves and if it sits overnight like that, late blight can devastate a crop in a matter of days.
The best prevention is to keep the environment where it needs to be and not get caught up in "I could save some money if I turn the heat down" theory and things usually go pretty well.

Ron

[Rgold1963]

Originally Posted by CrazyMtn

I have a few questions about you rain gutters. Are these standard 4 or 5 inch rain gutters like these.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_12066-322-RW...t=vinyl+gutter
What kind of soil do you use in them, water with drip irrigation, do you drill holes in the bottom for drainage? What kind of spacing on the plants do you go wider then normal because of how narrow the gutters are? Just something I have never seen and would like to try.

Yes, those are the ones I use. Be sure you get the standard and not the "K" style.

They are completely empty, no growing medium used at all. There is a 4' drop over the 100' length of the rows. At the low end, I use a bog Rubbermaid tote as a reservoir with a small pump in it. I run a 3/4" line up to the far end where a drip line with no emitter is placed in each row. Gravity returns the water/nutrient back to the reservoir. It runs 24 hrs/day. I made lids out of sheets of corrugated plastic and drilled 2" diameter holes every 8 inches. For lettuce and basil, this is the appropriate spacing. When I put other crops in like peppers and melons, I use every other hole to give them more room.

Ron

[efisakov]

Thanks for the info, Ron.

[Rgold1963]

So it's been around 4 weeks since the last update. Things are really busy and the plants require a lot more daily maintenance now.

[FreyaFL]

Wonderful setup! Thank you for sharing your knowledge, videos and photos here, I've greatly enjoyed them all. Now, I need to figure out how to setup a gutter like you have to go with my little aquaponic system. You made it sound easy!

FreyaFL

[GnomeGrown]

Looks like a clean, well run operation.

Nice work, Ron.

[Paul R]

Its been a pleasure watching the progress, thanks.

Paul R

[Rgold1963]

Thanks everyone. Just placed my first order for bumblebees for pollination. They will get here on Thursday and take over that chore at least. Still a lot of varieties with no open flowers but I am expecting to see them open soon. First open flowers were on Temptation which always seems to be the first ripe every year. Looking forward to picking the first of them in about 4-5 weeks!
Interestingly, blonde boar has open flowers already and it was 2 weeks behind the majority of the varieties this year. I have not grown it before but am hoping it does well along with the other varieties I got from Wild Boar.

[Granite26]

Any updates Ron? Love to see a new picture showing how it is going.

[Rgold1963]

Hi Granite26. I will get some new pictures this week. Things are crazy busy this time of year. I started selling at the farm market on Saturdays a couple of weeks ago and am trying to keep up with everything by myself. I have been picking Temptation and Sunsugar for a couple of weeks. All the heirloom varieties are still a couple of weeks from ripening it appears. They are not as productive in the low light as some of the greenhouse types I usually grow but I am sure they will be worth the wait. The English Cukes are producing huge amounts and so is the lettuce. Picked the first basil to sell yesterday morning before the market and have picked a few zucchetta in the last week too. If we could get a few sunny days, things will really take off.

Ron

[Granite26]

Sounds like things are going well! Hope you get some sun. Our week looks like it will be dismall here.
Hope things continue to go well. Dont worry if you are too busy to post up photos. I was just amazed by your set-up and was curious. Thanks