How does your polytunnel/greenhouse grow this year?

[Odsox]

Some photos of my patch now that things are growing a bit better. Warm sunny days followed by cold nights in April did not go down too well amongst the inhabitants of my tunnels, but they just about survived.

The greenhouse looks quite well, been picking these on a daily basis since last week to have on our breakfast muesli ....

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... and the rest of the hydroponic tubes are full and thriving with dwarf French beans in the front, Calabrese and Cauliflowers in the other end of the front pipe, with peppers and cucumbers in the middle of the back pipe with dwarf sweet peas at the end....

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... and in the roof, the grapevine is just about to flower, and on the right the Apricot tree is loaded with fruit again.

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The west polytunnel looks full with yet another hydroponic pipe. In the pipe are several varieties of tomato with the same varieties in the soil across the path and at the far end of the pipe are some more cauliflowers and some Savoy cabbage. At the far end of the tunnel are my garlic plants and some multiple sown onions and another grape vine, this time a seedless black one that is going to fruit for the first time this year. On the shelf is a trough of spring onions, then a trough of experimental dwarf peas, then 2 troughs of carrots with a trough of salad turnips in between them. On the extreme left you can just see my early potatoes that I've been digging for a while and the bottom left is empty, waiting for some sweetcorn to be planted and front right is the remains of a early pea row that is just about finished.

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The east tunnel is pretty well empty. There are 3 rows of broad beans down the bottom and a row of mange tout peas in front of them. On the left are 2 solitary Butternut squash and the 2 on the right are Potimarron squash plants, plus one at the top which you can't see is a Candy Roaster squash. The rest is just empty bed waiting to be filled with runner beans, courgettes and sweetcorn (I'm growing 2 varieties of sweetcorn this year, and as I save seed I have to grow them in separate tunnels)

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[doofaloofa]

That looks fantastic Tony

my little tunnel has becom a wet weather workshop and staff room whilst I'm building the extension, but still has a little salad and the celery from last year, battling on

The Avacado survived, but was severly frost pruned, and I have a few other tenders plants in pots knocking around

[diggernotdreamer]

Looks Fab

[mamos]

That is looking fantastic Tony
What feed do you use in you hydroponics system?
Paul

[Odsox]

Hi Paul
I use fermented fresh seaweed, comfrey leaves and a little compost, plus I have had to add some Epsom Salts as the cauliflowers are showing a slight deficiency in magnesium
Before I used bog standard commercial mix but decided to try to get the hydroponics system organic in line with the rest of the garden.

[doofaloofa]

Will you write a book on it?

[Odsox]

On the nutrient or my hydroponic system ?
I have already written some details over on the main site .... http://www.selfsufficientish.com/main/2 ... explained/

[Green Aura]

Here's our polytunnel Mk.3. After the storms in January we've reclad it and removed the raised beds (which frankly never performed well), put down some heavy duty weed membrane and resorted to first principles. When we first started growing tomatoes, we grew them in tubs, which conveniently held one growbag. We're currently waiting for some Tagetes as we forgot to sow any - there'll be one in each tub as well.

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This was taken this morning.

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This was it in January!

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This is a variety of tomato we got from Canada (figuring they have similar growing conditions ). It's called Silver Fir and has beautiful delicate foliage. They're the ones in the middle row at the back to compare the leaf size with the other tomatoes. Has anyone tried these before?

[doofaloofa]

On the nutrient or my hydroponic system ?
I have already written some details over on the main site .... http://www.selfsufficientish.com/main/2 ... explained/

The whole lot

With all the comparative growing and your inventivness it would be an iteresting read

[doofaloofa]

@Green Aura, what's the story with the planks attached to your tunnel rings?

[Odsox]

This is a variety of tomato we got from Canada (figuring they have similar growing conditions ). It's called Silver Fir and has beautiful delicate foliage. They're the ones in the middle row at the back to compare the leaf size with the other tomatoes. Has anyone tried these before?

No but .... if you like the taste and save some seed, I wouldn't mind growing some next year for my "early toms" experiment.
If you have flowers almost out on that truss oop't where you live, it must be a good candidate.

If those plants by/under your table are peppers, then I'm impressed, they look much better than mine.

[ina]

All very impressive. I really should have used the good weather spell yesterday to put up my mini greenhouse again, but unfortunately the good weather coincided with a laziness spell...
And this year I won't grow a tomato (the greenhouse is only big enough for one plant!), but I've got a cucumber coming on.

[Green Aura]

The wooden struts are holding the polycarbonate onto the frame doofa. We started off with ordinary polytunnel plastic but the wind just shredded it after a couple of years. The polycarbonate has withstood several winters and all but the (hopefully) freak weather we had in January. Even then the sheets on the windward side held fast, it was the sheets on the leeward side that popped off but most of them were retrieved and reattached. We've had to add an extra plank due to the warping of the frame.

Tony, you would have had some seeds this year but for my being otherwise engaged at the crucial time. And dnd too. Expect some back end. Ina, if you want a tomato plant I can send one to you - we have loads of spares.

The peppers are chillies. We did incredibly well with them last year which has spurred us on to expand our range - including one specifically for making kimchi (can't wait to see how that one turns out).

One of our standby "can't be bothered to cook" meals is spaghetti con alio et olio. While I didn't dislike it, I was never overly keen, until we tried it with our home grown habaneros - what a difference. I always thought chillies were more or less different size/heat of the same thing but I was stunned at the difference in flavour of just the 2-3 varieties we grew side by side on our windowsill.

There are some peppers in the potting trough but I'm afraid they are B+Qs finest (OH was too busy sowing chillies to remember to do the sweet peppers)!

[Green Aura]

Everything's growing well now, albeit very slowly due to almost complete lack of sunshine. But we should have tomatoes in the next week or two.

I'm happiest about are the two citrus trees. Not only did they survive the January storms (we weren't sure at the time) but are now in full leaf again and have blossom.

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Mamos, if you're looking, this shows the heat sink set-up a bit better. The solar panel is SW facing, above the door (where I'm standing to take the picture).

Oh and the bottles of wine were us celebrating summer (it was a Friday this year).

[Odsox]

Looking good Maggie.
I don't envy you growing sub-tropical plants where you live, I'm always impressed by your results.

Thought I'd update the pictures at the top of this post.
You'll be pleased to know there have been a few failures this year, or things not doing as well as I had hoped. Mainly due to this non-summer we are blessed with this year.

The greenhouse has performed quite well so far, although the strawberries have not produced as much fruit as I expected. The dwarf French beans in the foreground have finished and I'm just waiting to take seed for next year and the grapes are running riot again.

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The west tunnel (photographed from the other end) has had it's problems. The hydroponics has performed well with loads of cauliflowers, but the tomatoes at the far end haven't been too good (yet). I am growing several different varieties in the hydro tube and the same varieties in soil on the other side of the path. Neither have done very well, mainly because it was too cold for too long in the spring. They are catching up a bit now though.
The sweetcorn (front right) are a bit pathetic. That could be my fault as they are from saved seed from an F1 variety.

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The east tunnel is better although I failed with my leeks (on left) and had to BUY some plants
Through the bean forest you can just see the other variety of sweetcorn I'm growing for comparison, and they are doing too well, over 6 feet tall and pressing against the polythene roof.

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Finally a success story. Peppers are fussy things, most are not happy growing hydroponically, but this variety loves the little commercial hydro unit. I counted about 40 peppers on the 3 plants and we've eaten quite a few, and there are still lots of flowers to come.
They are a nice size for 2 people with a very nice flavour and thick walls, so methinks I shall be growing that again.

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