San Diego Tomatoes in Lath Houses

[LDx4]

Deborah, I knew that area of town very well. I lived in the subdivision right across from Southwestern College for about 5 years in the late 70s/early 80s. You're right, there wasn't much out there then. Now, with the Eastlake building boom, it's nothing but housing developments and looks nothing like it used to. I moved closer to downtown Chula Vista in the early 80s for another couple of years before moving north.

[LDx4]

I decided to go for it and planted out 17 plants that were growing like crazy. I had re-potted them twice and they were already outgrowing the 1 gal containers I had just put them in two weeks ago. So outside into 15 gal containers they went. They're in our modified greenhouse/lath house. Now I have to hope that the nighttime temps don't go too low! If it gets too cold, I'm going to try some covers or bubble wrap around each pot. This is the earliest I've ever planted out - I usually wait until the first week of April.

Lyn

[Delerium]

Your plants look great!!! I was <----> close to buying a small greenhouse at Big lots for $99 bucks but ended up putting it back because we decided that we might just build our own maybe later this year. When did you start these plants?

[Crandrew]

Originally Posted by LDx4

I decided to go for it and planted out 17 plants that were growing like crazy. I had re-potted them twice and they were already outgrowing the 1 gal containers I had just put them in two weeks ago. So outside into 15 gal containers they went. They're in our modified greenhouse/lath house. Now I have to hope that the nighttime temps don't go too low! If it gets too cold, I'm going to try some covers or bubble wrap around each pot. This is the earliest I've ever planted out - I usually wait until the first week of April.

Lyn

Looks awesome. If you are similar to zone 24 at all you will be fine. I planted out on Mar 10 last year and they did great. This year I had about 5 volunteers just come up in december and a few were 1ft by mid Jan.

Looking good

[LDx4]

Thanks guys!!

Delerium - I planted these seeds on Jan 15th. They were under lights inside and ready to pot up in about 2 weeks (!) and then grew even faster and I potted them up again to 1 gal containers at 4 weeks. They were outside during the day for the last 2 weeks.

Crandrew - yes, we are in zone 24 down here. I'm just concerned that the night temps might go down into the 30s, since we're in a small valley and not right on the coast. But, I have remay and bubble wrap for the pots if it gets down there. Did you keep your volunteers from the winter or did you pull them out?

Lyn

[Crandrew]

yeah those coastal valleys really do drop about 5-10 deg on a dry cold night.

[Alfredo]

Hello LDx4 (Lyn),

Just had to say that I'm still stuck on how beautifully built your greenhouse is ...wow. Your website is really nice too...the photos look great. That's a nice varied selection of tomatoes you have growing there.

~Alfredo

[LDx4]

Thanks Alfredo!

All the credit for the green/lath houses goes to my husband, who likes to build things Plus, we wanted them to look nice so that our neighbors wouldn't complain that our backyard looked like an industrial nursery!

We're definitely learning as we go, since neither of us have a farming background.

Lyn

[Crandrew]

I would love a picture update, I know you just potted up a bunch of stuff!

[LDx4]

Crandrew - since you asked -- here is my progress report...

As of Mar 24th, the following varieties have been planted out:


AAA Sweet Solano
Anna Russian
Banana Legs
Beaverlodge Slicer
Black Krim
Bloody Butcher
Brad’s Black Heart
Brandyboy
Bursztyn
Captain Lucky
Carbon
Chianti Rose
Cosmonaut Volkov
Csikos Botermo
Cuban Black
Dester
Dwarf Sweet Sue
Dwarf Wild Fred
Eva Purple Ball
First Pick
Fourth of July
Goose Creek
Iditarod Red
Ildi
Kimberley
Koralik
Madara
Magyar Piros Boker
Matina
Moravsky Div
Nepal
Prairie Fire
Red Siberian
San Francico Fog
Sibirskiy Skorospelyi
Sibirskiy Velikan Rozovyi
Sleeping Lady
Sophie's Choice
Stupice
Sub-Artic Plenty
Sweet Linda
Yukon Quest
Zolotoe Serdtse


I still have another 50 or so varieties under the lights, scheduled for plant out in a month to 6 weeks. It's starting to get confusing!! My goal this year is to grow about 150 different varieties, with about 50 duplicates, for a total of 200 plants. This may end up being too ambitious!

I finished adding pots to the first green/lath house on Mar 16th. These were small determinates and dwarfs that were added to the center rows (pic 1). Then, I added pots to fill half of the biggest lath/greenhouse on the 24th. Larger indeterminate varieties around the perimeter and dwarfs in the center aisle (pic 2). I planted cherries in two earthboxes outside in the yard (pic 3). My plan is to fill the lower yard outside the lathhouses with only cherry varieties, as I'm hoping that the rats and other wildlife will leave them alone .
My lettuce is still doing well, as the weather is staying in the high 60s during the day (pic 4).


I'm planting out the 2nd half of the big lathhouse this coming weekend. I have WAY too many seedlings left over from this batch! (pic 5)


Last pic is one of my garden helpers. Last summer he discovered that he likes to eat ripe tomatoes -- now I have to keep him out of the houses when the tomatoes start to get ripe!


I should have some pictures of the newest completed lath house in a couple of weeks -- my husband has promised to get it done in April (fingers crossed!).


Thanks for looking!


Lyn

[dokutaaguriin]

Hi Lyn,
Thanks for sharing the wonderful pictures, and stories! I, for one, had never heard of a tree rat!!!
How many square feet of space do you have under cover?
Jeff

[LDx4]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for commenting! Currently, we have 380 sq ft under cover in the 4 existing houses. After the two new houses are built this spring, we'll have 625 sq ft total under cover. That will pretty much fill up the available space in our back yard. Now I'm eyeing the garage roof, which is flat, as the next growing area!

Lyn

[Heritage]

Lyn,

Looking great! A beautiful, clean operation! Keep us updated.

Steve

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by LDx4

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Steve, last year I had ripe tomatoes in the beginning of June. We tried to heat the HF greenhouse (without removing the rib lath panels) and our SDG&E bill went up $200 in less than a month. Too expensive for us! We also thought about covering the new houses with 6 mil poly for the winter like hoop houses, but the cost was again too much for us. We had decent tasting tomatos right up to Christmas, but this recent cold spell a few weeks ago made the remaining tomatoes mealy and tasteless. So, the lath houses really don't affect the temps at all, except for near the roof where the polycarb panels block the wind. And Steve - many of the tomatoes I'm growing in the houses this year are coming from your seeds!

Deborah - San Marcos is not that far away! My husband works all over SD county -- he can travel up there!

Rockporter - here is a link to Home Depot for the lath that we used: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...&storeId=10051

Update, originally I couldn't find this lathe in my local store but the number is different than what you showed me, is this what you used? Will you sell a plan for a lathe house since I am in TX?
http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/2020933...1v&R=202093395

[LDx4]

Rockporter,

Unfortunately, that is not the same kind of lath. The link you've found is for flexible, non-ribbed lath, which is flimsy (like window screen material, only stronger). To build one of our houses, you would need 3/8" Rib Lath like this: http://www.clarkdietrich.com/product...h/3-8-rib-lath

Lowes also sells rib lath in our area. Do you have any Lowes that are close by? You might try calling them and seeing if they would drop ship it to a store near you.

I'll talk to my husband; I sure he can write up a building plan. I'll send you a pm when I know more.

Lyn