Growing tomatoes (fruit) in small greenhouse in winter

[TJS]

Hi All,
I have a 6x8 HFGH. I was thinking of trying to get fruiting tomatoes growing in there this winter. I can probably supply enough suplemental heat to keep the temps in the 50s at night. I'm in coastal SC. Anyone tried this? I'm thinking of maybe sungold toms, what do you guys think?
Tim

[dcarch]

Originally Posted by TJS

Hi All,
I have a 6x8 HFGH. I was thinking of trying to get fruiting tomatoes growing in there this winter. I can probably supply enough suplemental heat to keep the temps in the 50s at night. I'm in coastal SC. Anyone tried this? I'm thinking of maybe sungold toms, what do you guys think?
Tim

I think Sungold may be too big for your HF GH.
Try smaller determinates and cold tolerant types.

dcarch

[TJS]

How abouy black cherry? Any that you recomend?
Thanks, Tim

[Sherry_AK]

In my g/h, Black Cherry gets as large, or larger, than Sun Gold. Of course, my growing conditions are unlike yours!

[dcarch]

Green Grape is much smaller, I think.

dcarch

[amideutch]

TJS, here's a couple links that might interest. Ami
http://gurneys.com/product.asp?pn=15...cd2=1182860587
Santiam
75 days, determinate — Released by Oregon State University. Early and large-fruited. Good fruit set under cool temperatures of western Oregon. Great for slicing. Good tart flavor. No seeds in the first fruits. Victory seeds sells this variety.

[mdvpc]

Tim-I grow tomatoes in a greenhouse in El Paso all winter. You need to have sufficient light during the day-that is crucial. Also, what would your temps be during the day? I grow dwarves and very compact varities-like scoresby dwarf, mano, etc.

[vegomatic]

Why not Sungold? Train the vines to spread or just prune it.

-Ed

[dokutaaguriin]

I would try small plants (cherries) like Red Robin, or Yellow Canary about 100 days from seed for both of these varieties. You could grow them in a 2 gal pot without too much difficulty.
Jeff

[TJS]

I did grow Kimberly tomato this winter and so far have only gotten 4 fruit but there's more on the way. This year was experimental and successful so next season I will start earlier and grow more plants. Very cool!

[dice]

I took some cuttings last fall and have been growing
them under 4' flourescents beside a window. I wanted
them for crossing, but what I found was that the smaller,
early cultivars (Fireworks II, Odessa, Aurora in this case)
kept flowering right through the winter, but the later big
indeterminates (Pink Oxheart, Persimmon, Box Car Willie)
developed a couple of clusters of flowers after transplanting
the cuttings and then stopped. I have not seen any flowers
on those since the end of November.

All have had the same soil, fertilizer, water, etc, so it seems
to be a difference in how they react to lower light levels
and growing in a small pot.

The early ones would set fruit whenever I moved them
around to do this or that, but I was not really interested
in self-pollenated fruit from these, so I mostly snipped
them off at pea size. (I did have one really tasty Odessa
fruit a couple of weeks ago that I had let ripen, and there
are a couple of Aurora fruits on that one that I am letting
ripen now.)

I would avoid the big, mid-season and later indeterminates
in a winter greenhouse (unless you are in Florida or some
place like that with a lot of light all year around) and stick
with the smaller determinate and dwarf cultivars.

[feldon30]

Sounds like another candidate for the Dwarf Project.

[dice]

PS: Aurora is not really a determinate, but the plant is
about the same size as a lot of determinates, and it
is particularly known for doing better than most in
cloudy weather.

[Nightshade]

Thank you for the information about Aurora, Dice. I have one growing outside that is currently doing an impressive job of setting tomatoes for the second time this year. In the high desert, at the end of July not less! I wondered if the plant was making it's swan song with this next harvest, but it sounds like not. Oh, joy! Aurora is a keeper for the winter garden.

Because I do so much undercover gardening, I'm very interested in trying compact and miniature tomatoes. I'm currently trying to resuscitate a NBD and Orange Pixie plant indoors, now... all that's left of my summer test crop, after late frost and ravening squirrels.Have any suggestions for me, Micheal, something that i can keep at 18" or 2 feet, which is how much space there is on one of my shelving units?

Jeff, I grew Red Robins and a Sophie's Choice in the windowsill garden last year, and got huge amounts of fruit from them....and they were all in one gallon pots. Sophie really needed support toward the end, but the Red Robins were sturdy enough without it.

I think the Robins are worth growing just to watch how fast they get up and get started. They were little Tomato Growing machines, and it gave me quite a psycholgical boost though the winter to have teeny-tiny tomato blossoms to be checking out. Taste? Ok..better later than early,and probably would have been better with some extra nutes in the soil.

While I was googling around to find out what other people do for indoor tomato varieties, I saw an online article in a May 9 edition of a Kansas Sity newspaper, in which somebody referred to the Red Robin type miniature tomatoes as "bird's nest" tomatoes. Am I missing a whole tomato classiification here? Have ya'll ever heard that term before?

Jan

[mdvpc]

Jan-there are definitely some selections for you. I usually grow dwarves that are 3' or less, so check with some other growers, but this is my recollection of possible varieties:

siberian
silvery fir tree
glacier? (I am growing for the first time this year)
pearly pink orange (cherry)
lime green salad?
khurma (from Andrey)
balkonzauber
tumbler
pelican cherry
tricot czech
mano
adam 1
puck
patio king?
window box (not window box roma)
whippersnapper

Thats all I can think of now.