Summer greenhouse

The summer greenhouse gets regular attention: daily watering; pinching out tomato plant side shoots; tying in cucumber and tomato stems as they head towards the roof; supporting pepper and aubergine plants as their fruit swell, making the plants top heavy. I find aubergines and peppers grow better for me in 8” or 9” pots; tomatoes, cucumber and melons are planted into the greenhouse border. 

Yesterday I thinned out some of the bunches of grapes, still green, which conveniently hang from parallel stems trained along the roof. It looks like a good crop this year. The variety is the well known dessert grape, Black Hamburg. 

There are automatic watering systems available whose main advantage is if you are away for a day or two. I’m not keen on overhead watering as tomato and aubergine plants are not keen on regular soaking of their foliage. There is also the risk of scorching as the water droplets act like mini magnifying glasses. A system of drip hoses feeding each pot or leaky hoses for the greenhouse beds are alternatives. 

However, I’m more than happy hand watering from a hose to the base of each plant, and as required to each pot. Regular, even watering for tomatoes in particular is important to avoid blossom end rot on the one hand, or their skin splitting on the other. The former results from under-watering and the latter from irregular watering leading to rapid expansion of the growing fruits.

I count to twenty for each plant. In my 16’x8’ greenhouse this year I have 12 tomato plants, 6 cucumber plants and 6 melon plants. That’s 8 minutes of watering the greenhouse border plants and maybe an additional 2 minutes watering the aubergine and pepper plant pots. On very hot days I might do this twice in one day.

We have started to harvest tomatoes and cucumbers on a daily basis so every visit has a reward.