Heirloom tomatoes that grow well in a greenhouse

[john.barnesjr]

I'm looking for some heirloom tomato varieties that can grow well in a greenhouse because I hear that the only varieties that perform best in these conditions is trust, cobra, and other hybrid varieties adapted to greenhouse growing. I want to have heirloom tomatoes year round and have the freedom to save my own seeds.

[mdvpc]

John-if you do a search for mdvpc here, look at my winter greenhouse tomato threads, with photos. You will see my experience.

[KarenO]

The hybrid varieties you mentioned might be the best choices for a commercial greenhouse but mainly for trellising, uniformity in size and shape, packaging and shipping reasons. If your intention is to grow in a home greenhouse for your own use, I say grow whatever appeals to you. The main restriction in a small greenhouse would be the ability to heat it adequately in winter and the size of the plants. Heirloom indeterminate plants can be very large as you know so I suggest that you look at some of the new or heirloom dwarf tomatoes as well as determinates which might be easier to manage in a confined space but will give you the variety in color and size and flavor that you are perhaps looking for. Earlier varieties are more likely to produce for you before any disease issues cause big problems as well. Fungal foliar diseases can be problematic in a greenhouse so you will need to be on the lookout and deal with any problems that develop right away.
Brave of you to try it in Montana in winter. I have a small greenhouse up here in Alberta but I don't use it in winter. I will be interested to know what you decide to grow and how it works out for you. Good luck and don't forget to post pictures
KarenO

[Cole_Robbie]

Year-round in Montana sounds somewhat overly ambitious. I would think that you would need grow lights for the plants to get enough hours of light, plus a lot of expensive heat.

Russian varieties will tend to be the most cold-tolerant. I had Sibirsky Skorospelyi in my high tunnel and it did well in the cool early spring, but then it got sun burnt badly when the hot summer days arrived. I had good luck with Taxi as a yellow tomato. I have talked with other growers who have also grown Cherokee Purple with good results in high tunnels.

If I were you, alongside whatever heirloom varieties you choose, I'd plant a Big Beef or two as a control for the variety variable of your experiment. You may find that the Big Beef does well, but your heirlooms don't, in which case you probably just haven't chosen the best heirloom varieties.

[john.barnesjr]

Thanks for the advice I plan to move to San Antonio texas next year when I'm done with the military and get my greenhouse set up. Thanks

[mdvpc]

John

I just recently moved to San Antonio, I know there are several other San Antonio folks here.

[clkeiper]

I tried growing tomatoes in the greenhouse last year for a winter farmers market that I had scheduled for Dec. Needless to say it was not an utter failure, but a learning experience...We can't grow in the winter and get tomatoes to ripen. The only thing we can do is keep them on the plant hanging there green for forever...They just didn't have enough sunshine, day length or heat to be productive. That said, I heard someone say not long after that at a growing seminar, that" we keep the produce like it is in a refrigerator" in a greenhouse or high tunnel for the winter market. Not actively growing, just vegetating.

[saltmarsh]

I grew tomatoes in a make-shift hot house in Fall 2011 - Spring 2012 and my take is:

I grew the same tomatoes in the hot house which I grew during the regular season.

The area of the garden where the hot house was located received about 6 hours of direct sunlight during the normal growing season (shade from trees in morning and evening).

The same area received more direct sunlight but much less intense light during the fall and winter (leafless trees, inclination of the sun).

An electric radiant heater maintained a minimum temp of 52 degrees.

Inside temps ranged from 52 degrees to 134 degrees while outside temps ranged from 16 degrees to 92 degrees.

I made the mistake of pruning to 2 stems and orienting the plants North and South. The North stems were shaded by the South stems in the winter months and produce very little fruit. It would be much better to have planted a row of determinant plants such as Sophie's Choice on the South and a row of indeterminant
plants such as Ramapo (F9) pruned to a single stem on the North.

Lower light levels effect fruit growth, ripening and flavor. The tomatoes took about twice as long to ripen and ripened unevenly compared with the Summer crop. The flavor was better than anything available from stores, but wasn't as good as regular season tomatoes.

I had some pretty good tomato sandwiches for first time during Christmas and New Years but I spent too much time worrying about power outages.

Go for it, you'll learn more about tomato diseases than you ever wanted to. It's a good learning experience.

And if you have an ALDI's store and they have Mexican Greenhouse tomatoes on the vine for 60 cents a pound, you can have good tomato sandwiches while you wait for yours to ripen. Claud

[AKmark]

You can grow many varieties in a greenhouse with great results. What you may find with many heirlooms is the plants are beasts, jungle like trees. My friend grows hybrids that are tailored for greenhouse, he thinks I work too hard because I have to use a ladder to pick, or sucker plants, and I constantly have to tie them up. However, he knows who has the goodies.
Too see, I have a thread in container growing section (AK smart pots) has pics of many heirlooms in a greenhouse in Alaska. Its all fun.