You can start with indoor planting, and using lights. For that all you need is some space to put them where the temps will be above 50 degrees or so. A lamp or two, or go with the more costly lights. I have a 6 foot long by two or so foot wide spot on my reloading bench. I have 3 lamps I am using to grow the plants. Though I have been putting them outside in a shady area on the warm days to get some wind on them. I also put a fan on them when I can. This helps to make for stronger stalks on the plants.

As far as production goes they need wind on the flowers for pollination to happen. So if in a green house put fans near them. Also properly used, and mixed fertilizer will help. If you can also control the humidity when plants are flowering. If it is too humid it is darn hard to get the plant to set fruit. If it gets too hot it is hard to get the plant to set fruit, and also it takes longer for the fruit on the plant to ripen.

Peppers are more picky about blooming in the heat than tomatoes are, also if they get too hot they will abort the fruit. (By this I mean the undersized fruit will rapidly ripen. Blooms will open, and fall off.) Some type of evening shade will help with this.

I did have great luck with the Bonnie Plants Gypsy Pepper plant last year. I got lots of tasty sweet peppers off of it, and it set peppers even when it was scorching hot here (105 for a high with lows in the mid 80's) I had taller plants planted on the south side of them to shade them from the evening sun when it is was the hottest.

Attached is a picture of my now indoor growing area. (Note this is my first time to use lights. I only have a 12 inch by 3 inch window sill that will give enough sun so I am Using my reloading bench till the weather cooperates.)

Much earlier planting under protected cover into plastic covered pre-warmed soil. Also improving sun exposure as much as possible. Then there is growing shorter DTM varieties.

See the current discussion over on the Vegetable Gardening forum about this question for more details.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: other discussion about this question

There is no magic bullet, no short cuts: Dave said it all , pretty much: Short DTM varieties ; Extending season from the front end.

For tomatoes, there are a lot of short DTM (EARLY) options. I am growing some (under light indoor now) that have DTM from 50 on up to 65. Of course those are the claimed numbers on the packages. YMMV.

Peppers are are different story. The super hots will take all season long to ripen up. But sweet and mild ones (harvested immature, green) can also have various DTM. But I have found peppers quite tricky and unreliable and unpredictable. That maybe just my experience or lack of it.

Where do you live? I live at 6000' in northern AZ. I have already put 2 tomato plants outside and used my plant protectors. We have been exceptionally warm, and we do have lots of sun. Freezing temps at night are not bothering them at all.

You mentioned that you have a greenhouse. That is your ultimate ticket to much earlier harvests- But you must manage it properly. I grow over 750 tomato plants in the ground of 2 greenhouses every year. You could do the same with peppers but I wouldn't mix both in the same structure because tomatoes quickly shade peppers and you'll get results that you have already mentioned.

Greenhouse plants will need more regular management and preplanning. You'll need to provide for water needs and ventilation. I'm not sure why your plants died but mine always live almost twice as long as outside counterparts, basically until I determine to cease care. Granted your zone is a chalenge but if there is wood on the prairie you have a source of cheap heat to give plants an extra-early start. With a little effort you could be harvesting tomatoes by June 1.

Thanks everybody for respond... I guess there was a bit lack of details from my part. I do have heated greenhouse with grow light, ventilation and cooling systems, irrigation and all those things. I been growing huge quantities of plants for few years now. Starting plants early it is not a problem. Making them produce early is. Just seems that either it is small seedling or 3 ft plant get transplanted I still harvest the same time as everybody else.
I am just picking your all brains maybe there is something to be done for early harvest :) Some unconventional practice.
As far as pot growing. I grew peppers, but they need lots and lots of fertilizer in container. Not even sure if I should been eating it that much fertilizer. After first batch of peppers harvested plants slowly started dying - leaves and blossoms just started falling off.
Tomato in containers... I used about 80 gal pots with 2-3 tomato in each. To begin with I tried mix in bone meal and blood meal into compost, but it didn't seemed to help. Then I started with tomato fertilizer. Then they started growing. And still very little, usually quite small tomato even on beefsteak varieties. Out of 60 tomato plants I was picking maybe 6 lb of tomato a week. And then I just stopped watering them. The end.
I tried DTM varieties like classic Early Girl, heirlooms Early Annie, Manitoba. They were maybe a week earlier then others. Actually Sun Gold cherry tomato started ripening before everybody else.

To twolips: My garden is in zone 4a. Just few days ago it was -30 F here. Now it is warming up, but its is gonna be a while until I even have chance to dig hole in the ground. Planting outside not gonna hapen until early June, if I will be very lucky maybe end of May.

My Operation...

Hi Prairie,

That's quite an operation you have there! I'm jealous!

It seems that your lights are very high though - unless you raised them to take the picture.

Sun Gold IS supposed to be early. I bought a plant last year, but it turned out to be a red imposter!

Other early varieties are Stupice, Matina, Sophie's Choice, Bloody Butcher, Jagodka and Kimberley. Stupice was early for me in the past, but I'm trying some of the other early varieties this year.

Linda

All of the basics are covered above, but there are a couple of items that I can add. First, a summary of what works:

1. Grow on black plastic which warms the soil.
2. Cover with clear plastic which holds the warm temps around the plants.
3. Maintain high soil fertility, a tomato plant is a very heavy feeder.
4. Use short season adapted varieties.
5. Start plants in a greenhouse under controlled conditions.

Tomatoes have a very specific number of growing degree days to mature fruit. You can't defeat this internal biological clock, but you can modify the amount of heat around the plant to speed up the clock. This is easiest done by planting healthy plants into a low tunnel in which the soil is covered with black plastic. Your description above does not indicate use of low tunnels. This would be the most significant change to speed up fruit maturity.

Variety selection is critical. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Stupice, Kimberly, Glacier, etc. are not particularly short season. After you get through gasping, here is why. These varieties are specifically selected to produce a first ripe fruit in the shortest time possible. They are indeterminate varieties that produce fruit over an extended season. You are NOT after the first ripe fruit, you are after the shortest time until the majority of the fruit on the plant is mature. This requires a different approach to selecting varieties. There is also a question about size of fruit, most of the early varieties are 2 to 4 ounce tomatoes in the size range of a golf ball. I suspect you would like the option of growing some slicing size tomatoes in the 8 to 12 ounce range. Here are some varieties to consider:

Sub Arctic Plenty - 4 to 8 ounce, flavor is not particularly good, but stress tolerance is excellent
Jagodka - compact determinate golf ball size fruit, super early full crop maturity
Sasha's Altai - relatively large plants, 4 to 8 ounce fruit, good production
Bloody Butcher - relatively large plants, 2 to 6 ounce fruit, medium days to full crop maturity
Lyuda's Mom's Large Red Ukraine - nice slicing/canning size fruit, good flavor, most of the crop is mature in 80 days from transplant

I could list about a dozen more varieties, but the above are a good starting point.

To labradors: Well the middle grow lights are my secret weapon. They are 1000W each so if I hang them any lower it would burn plants. The florescent lights are not particularly effective and I just use them usually for taller plants (or when I run out of room on main bench with HPS and MH lights). LOL, sorry to hear about you Sun Gold tomato. Try again, they really very tasty.

To fusion_power: unfortunately low tunnels or any flimsy plastic covered buildings it is not an option. Here we have 45 mph or stronger winds every week. It wouldn't stand a chance.
Thanks for variety list thou. You right I am after medium to large tomato. And yes, I am looking for main production more then first ripe tomato.

Hi Fusion,

That's an interesting point that you bring up about early tomatoes and I'm sure you are right. Last year I was surprised that Cherokee Purple produced my earliest tomato - and then I had to wait and wait for more fruit, and I didn't find it very productive.

You don't mention taste in your list. I know it's difficult to have everything - earliness AND taste in one tomato.

I don't really care if it's a cherry or saladette in size, but could you possibly tell us what would be your choice for an early tomato with some taste?

Thanks,
Linda

Several things jumped out at me in your follow-up post.

Just seems that either it is small seedling or 3 ft plant get transplanted I still harvest the same time as everybody else.

That sounds like a nutrient issue and nothing can stunt a plant faster than transplanting a 3' plant.

Some unconventional practice?

No unconventional practice but usually it is some conventional practice being missed. For example, are these all being grown for production in containers? Not real clear from your post. If so then what soil mix is in the containers? That is the most common cause of problems in container growing. Growing in containers is a totally different ballgame than in-ground growing so have you done any reading on the Container Gardening forum here? Great info on mixes, feeding, tips and techniques, etc.

As far as pot growing. I grew peppers, but they need lots and lots of fertilizer in container. Not even sure if I should been eating it that much fertilizer.

Yes they do, any container plant does since it leaches out every time you water. One reason why liquid ferts works so much better than granular ones do. But which specific fertilizer are you using? How much and how often? And no, you are not "eating it" anyway.

Tomato in containers... I used about 80 gal pots with 2-3 tomato in each.

Real potential problems there.

To begin with I tried mix in bone meal and blood meal into compost, but it didn't seemed to help.

No they won't. Both are slow acting and unless there is an active soil microweb in the container - which would be unusual - they aren't useable by the plants. Using organics in a container is a whole other set of issues.

Then I started with tomato fertilizer. Then they started growing. And still very little, usually quite small tomato even on beefsteak varieties.

Timing of the application as discussed in the thread I linked above is crucial. What type of fertilizer?

After first batch of peppers harvested plants slowly started dying - leaves and blossoms just started falling off.

Usually caused by over-watering issues that leads to root rot. Especially common if soil (dirt) is in the containers.

In your first post you said I do have greenhouse and tried to grow those thing in pots, but that way they produce small quantities of fruit lots of leafs and usually ends up dying before summers end.

As others have mentioned you have the ideal set up then for growing a good tomato crop in that protected environment. Even I can do it down here in my greenhouse with much greater heat problems. So if it isn't working in yours then, assuming good environmental controls and adequate sun exposure, the cause isn't that they are in the greenhouse, its in the methodology - the container mix being used or the nutrient methods being used. More details please on those. Especially nutrients and timing of applications since you mention "lots of leafs and small fruit". ...

Hi Prairie,

I don't know much about lighting, but I have read that it's the lumens that we should go by when buying fluorescent lights. I wonder how many lumens your big guys put out.

For the small grower, it seems the most we can find in the big box store fluorescents would be about 6,500 which I believe are called "daylight". People say to have the plants really close to the bulbs (2" - 4") otherwise they get lanky.

I'm about to try this again, having moved to a house with sunny windowsills. I'm planning to give my plants some extra light in the hopes that they will be bigger come planting time.

Linda

I just gonna budge in Lindas and Fusion conversation with my 5 cents about early and tasty variety. I read somewhere that Early Girl was invented not only to be early variety, but mainly to be grown in no watering gardens. Pretty much watering promotes faster growth and dilutes flavor. I personally not a fan of Early Girl, but I never tried to grow it without watering either.

To Linda about lights: The florescent lights I have are 5000 lumens and the big guns are 96000 lumens and one light cover 8'x8' bench space. You don't have to be big grower to get those they are available in greenhousemegastore. You can buy only 1 if you interested. Just need to consult your electrician before and they are a bit costly. But in my opinion they make day and night difference, well worth money.
Information I have says: low wattage light (54 watt florescent) should be 12"-24" from plants; medium watt (400watt) 12"-36"; high watt (1000watt) 18"-48".
To digdirt: thanks for your interest in my gardening project! I will answer your questions in the next message and hopefully you will point out what I am doing wrong.

To digdirt:
Well transplanting 3' tomatoes was blind shot in the dark to try to make them produce faster. Well, if didn't exactly worked. Actually they did the same as little 6" ones. Produced the same time. I though maybe if i grow them in large biodegradable pots they wouldn't go through that much shock. Just a thought.
I grew great mix of different tomatoes: container varieties, determinate varieties and heirloom indeterminate. They all did about the same. Soil mix been used: 30% composted manure, 20% garden soil, 50% pro-mix or sunshine.
Fertilizers. For peppers I used usual miracle gro 10-10-10; for tomato Shultz tomato fertilizer. Once a week.
You think 2-3 tomato in 80 gal were too many? I planted one variety in each pot.
Thanks for shedding light on bone/blood meal. Didn't know that.
I am not sure if over watering caused my peppers to die. Soil in the pot dried out every day so I watered it. Honestly I don't remember if root ball was rotten once I dumped pot out. My theory was that maybe root got too hot in the pot once summer progressed... That was just my theory.
I know that lost of leafs and few small fruits point to too much nitrogen. What particular fertilizer I should use that would be effective?
And yes, I know there is holes in my gardening methodology. I don't have horticulture degree or any other official education. I kind of trail and error kind of girl. That is why I look for answers here :)

Then some suggestions to trial and error for you, ok?

1) eliminate the 20% garden soil to eliminate the root compaction problems and switch to just the mix and the composted manure and if you can get them make the other 20-30% bark fines. Or check into the 5-1-1 mix suggested on the Container forum.

2) try growing again in the GH with a better mix. If it has heat you can plant 6-8 weeks earlier than you can outside and the makes a BIG difference in production. Jetsetter is one variety I have excellent results with all summer long in the GH. Keeping the heat down is my problem but by planting so early I get good fruit set before the heat becomes an issue.

3) consider setting up a drip system on an auto-timer in the GH for those plants and incorporating some fertigation into it once a week using any good water soluable fertilizer. My personal preference is Earth Juice products but there are several good ones available. Even fish oil emulsion and one of the kelp/seaweed liquids are excellent and a great source of the needed micronutrients. You can also use MG with fertigation but it dilutes it more which I find works much better than a full strength dose does.

And timing the feedings to the plant's cycle makes a big difference. eg. if it is blooming and trying to set fruit don't feed and kick it back into new growth mode. Wait a week.

4) my concern is not so much that you can't do 3 plants in 80 gallons as it is the shape and depth of a container that size that has caused me problems with multiple plants. Wide and relatively shallow (12-18") ones work 10x better than narrow and deep ones. Less root binding and better distribution of water and nutrients and better effective drainage.

I used to use some deep 30-40 gallon half-whiskey barrel types for 2 plants and discovered the root mass was coiling and binding itself up badly resulting in poor water and nutrient uptake. Cut back to 1 plant in each but still had the same problem.

When I switched to long shallow tubs of a similar size my production with even 3 plants in them skyrocketed. The soil temps stay more stable and the roots don't bind up or coil, and no rotted root mass.

Just somethings to consider.

Dave

PS: no degree here either, just 50+ years of trial and error in the nursery business. :)

I have an issue with winter turning straight to summer. Once the temps get too hot, the flowers fail to set. My planting date is 2 weeks ahead of yours.

What I do is plant tomatoes with wall o waters in mid-March to mid-April. I start them in Feb. I plant deeply. I plant about 55 plants and usually some start producing before the heat sets in. Usually, a few produce through the heat and then take off in the fall.

To Dave:
Thanks for all advice. Them 80 gal tubs were not too deep. They are for sure wider then they are tall. I guess your observation about tall pot makes sense since tomato roots not really growing deep but tend to spread wide.
50 years! I wish I could pick your brains some about your nursery expertise in things other then tomato too.

To austinnhanasmom:
Hm... I think your situation is a little different. For me mid-April ground is still frozen. Actually I start my tomato just early to mid April, other way they get too tall and root bound. Our last frost date is early June.