Wow you must have one heck of a GH! I'm not even thinking about planting out till end of May! Is your greenhouse attached to your house?

Zone 3 really? Would love to see that in person unless they are in a greenhouse.

Looks great Hudson. Are you using strings this year or is it the cattle panels I think I see in the pic?

How's the overhead costs on the GH going this year if you don't mind me asking? Did you all get hit with the high propane rate increase? So far this year we have gone from record setting lows straight to record setting highs. 35 degree nights last week to 95-100 degree days this week. Alarms have been going crazy in the GH!

Hope you have a good year.

Dave

Here is evidence that one can live in a cold climate and enjoy early tomatoes - it does take some planning, effort..
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Bravo, Hudson. I like What I see. RESULTS, rather than a lot of talking.
Having said that, I am in the flower stage back here in the PNW. Mine are out in the cold. Here is a picture of one of my sungold cherry.

Hi Dave - I like the cattle panel better in the middle of the GH - the grid is a little easier to manage the plants when we prune to more than two stems (I think) but we still use twine on the side beds until the plants reach the cattle panels sloped up the GH roof - we have a small GH though and do not drop the stem (twine) as the plants grow tall.

35-100 is a huge swing in temp! I know what you mean - we run a space heater at night and fans going during the day! I used light bulbs under a frost blanket again this year so not much heating cost - when the plants start climbing to 4' I have to switch to a space heater but only when outside temps drop below 32 degrees which usually only lasts a couple of weeks. I am all hobby, very small GH.

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Sharonie - Our GH is not attached to our house but we used triple glazed polycarbonate and it is somewhat air tight. We are able to grow earlier than most who have GHs in our area because of the material we used.

Jimmy - yes - we grow them in a GH which is still a handicap in zone 3 - haha

Hi Seysonn - your tomatoes look great - and you have them planted outside!!! Planting outside is much riskier and difficult to predict success - especially this early in the spring - yours look awesome! I feel similar about results as you - I love the photo part of this forum - I read so many post from gardeners that never validate their opinions/advice. Seeing is understanding/believing - haha

oh my, some soild greenhouse- very impressive, love it! Great job on those tomatoes too... this is so exciting to wait when they ripen...

2nd year here in Canon City and still learning about the Colorado weather and when to plant as well as what to plant. Nothing like when I lived down in Texas.

Maybe this year I will build a Green House and by the end of this year I may have it done. Then will try that for a better source and starters.

Got my Garlic in last fall and so far all is doing well. Onions are up and looking good. Beets are also looking good.

Just had two nights of snow, but so far so good on the Tomato plants and my Bell Pepper plants. (No protection).

Maybe others in my area can give there advice.

Hudson - I'd love to see more photos of your GH! How large is it? How did you attach the CP to the sides/ceiling? I've been growing on CRW trellis in th field, thinking of running a length down the middle of the tunnel (not heated), I have 10 6-ft T posts left I bought last year. I'd love to grow on the sides, was thinking peppers and maybe determinate tomatoes b/c tunnel is Quonset style, hoops bent all the way to ground, no straight sides (unless I buy more pipe). Looking for ideas to maximize 15ft width given limitations in the side wall height.

Ajsmama - here is a photo that may give you some ideas - we hang the cattle panel from the rafters on galvanized pipe that is height adjustable. The CP is also adjustable so we can leave as much space as we like between the roof panels and CP. We leave about 18" which seems plenty of room to allow the tomato plants to climb up between the CP and the roof panels. The plants climb twine until they reach the CP. When the bottom fruit is harvested and the leaves start turning yellow - we just cut them off so all the plant energy goes to the upper plant that is still producing fruit. Our GH is 16'w x 28'L x 16'h. We used triple wall polycarbonate panels on the walls & roof.

Thanks - wow, really high steep peak, you built for heavy snow? My HT is only 7ft there may be a problem with letting plants touch plastic so I'll probably just have to have tall plants in center, mabe rig up some sort of string net angled in on the side beds?

I love your raised beds - how wide are they? How wide/how many aisles?

Very nice GH

Thanks - The center bed is 12"h X 48"w - the side beds are 24"h x 30"w - only two aisles - one end has water and we are installing a sink - the other end has a spot for our GH heater and a couple of chairs on cold weather days - which is often! We are digging out the dirt now to pour concrete walks in the GH - bigger project than I had realized!

We can grow tomatoes to the ridge beam if we wanted here in Wyoming. The weather is cool enough in the summer with our triple wall poly that we do not need a shade cloth and the plants do touch the poly and are not bothered by it. This climate is great for a GH but really sucks for growing much outside. Cold weather veggies do well - but even beans have to be covered in the fall or the frost will get them just before we pick it seems!

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Thanks - when I saw CP in the center row, I thought it ran the length but now I can see you just have panels at each end. Do you FL weave the length of that row? Sure would save $ to do panels at end (maybe 2 in the middle, make 2 center rows with break in the middle since my HT will be 64ft long) instead of down the length. But other than the center post I don't see any T posts or anything else for support? Or are all those plants trained up strings going to that overhead pipe? They don't look like they've been pruned to single stem?

Thanks, sorry so many questions but growing under cover is new to me.

Hi ajsmama - sorry to confuse things - photos are taken at different times and my CPs are all removable so I can change configurations depending on the time of year and task at hand. The above photo was taken before the new season began - I remove the center bed CP panels so I can till the soil and prepare for planting.

I use the CP panels based on our needs for each year. This year we planted tomatoes on one side of the center post and ran the CPs vertical and at an angle (you may be able to see that in this photo. We plant cucumbers on the end CP panel. On the other end of the post we are running two rows of Vertical CP panels this year and planting two rows of corn (no photo) plus more cucumbers on the end panel. Each year we rotate some of the plants or plant different types of plants so we vary how we use the CPs. All of the CPs hang from the pipes above with twine so nothing is permanent and the CPs are easy to move - does that make sense?

In the fall we may plant the entire bed in Carrots - one year we planted tomatoes in cages (didn't like that as well) - another year we planted pole beans - always trying different options.

Oh, that is very interesting! I've just run the CRW down the middle, tomatoes on either side and tied to the wire behind them. Of course have tried FL weave too, lots of people have success with that but I didn't keep plants pruned enough. Gotta think about that slanted "fin" sort of arrangement. Less wire required than cages (I can see why cages didn't work for you if they were those 3-ring things), but a bit easier to tie to than a panel behind (esp. when planted in double rows, and high raised beds it's hard for me to reach w/o stepping in bed). Of course, out in field I had no overhead to tie the panels to, had to use T posts.

Poured last night after off/on rain all day (and really all week) so too wet to do anything out there today. Maybe pull some weeds from the old beds (beans going in there). Hope it dries out this week - I'd really like to start transplanting tomatoes Mem Day (and get the beans in before that).

Very impressive! I'll have to get my husband busy and see if he can build me something even half as nice!!

The Brandy Boy Tomatoes are very prolific and hardy - they have already climbed to the hanging baskets !

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Yes - first ripe tomatoes of the season in Wyoming (for us that is) - we can always count on Sweet 100s to ripen first every spring! Looks to be a great tomato year!

Congrats, Hudson. Good job. I am sure you did a lot of planning and work and it sure has paid off nicely.
Enjoy !

seysonn

I am so impressed. The greenhouse is beautiful and your tomatoes are gorgeous! I only hope to be as successful as you. You have put a great deal of thought and work into this. Congrats!
Sharon