greenhouse film and seedlings

I ordered some new plastic covering for my greenhouse on Monday from Farmtek. It is 6 mil plastic with a 4 year life; it is supposed to pass 90% of the sunlight. Farmtek lets you order custom lengths in various widths. The piece I ordered is 20 feet wide and 32 feet long. It was delivered today; not bad service!

I started my tomato seedlings last Sunday. I planted half Big Boys and half Plum tomatoes. They are sitting in my south facing window.

My first 'root cellar' experiment

I had good luck with my first attempt at storing carrots in a 'root cellar' this year. I followed the directions at this link. I didn't slice the tops off the carrots as described in the link; I just cut the leaves off close to the tops. Basically I carefully harvested my carrots, removed the green tops, put them in a 5 gallon pail lined with a plastic bag and covered them with peat moss. I added some water to the peat moss to moisten in. I put the pail in a cool part of my cellar in early December. I dug out some carrots today, 2.5 months later, and they were just as crisp as when I harvested them; they are just sweeter. I'm excited that this worked so well; now I know I can grow more carrots next season and keep them fresh for months at a time.

Odds and ends

I just realized I didn't finish posting my experiences with my greenhouse during the last quarter of 2011.

We had an early snow storm in October 2011 which dumped 4 inches of wet snow on the greenhouse. This was the result.


I was able to remove the snow and the pvc frame popped back up. The only damage was holes in the plastic cover, caused by stakes for my tomatoes. I patched the holes as best I could with plastic and clear hockey tape. Next year I am going to add 2 additional longitudinal pvc pipes about half way up the sides to reinforce the ribs. I'll have to drill some holes in the ribs to attach the longitudinal pieces with tie wraps. It should make the frame stronger to resist the wind as well.

I took down my greenhouse in early December 2011. Since it was my first time taking it apart, I wanted to do it on a warm day without snow on the ground. I removed the wood lath holding the plastic and put the plastic on the lawn to dry, holding the corners with fire wood. Note the holes in the plastic from the snowstorm.


This is the spinach, lettuce and carrots that were left in my garden when I removed the cover.


Some of the areas that need improvement for next season: The pvc ribs kept moving off the top of the door frame, which resulted in a rip in the plastic covering. I ended up holding the pvc pipe in place with some plastic tubing. Next season I may make an indentation in the wooden frame for the pipe to fit in, as well as rounding off the sharp corners.


I braced the end wall with boards nailed to the beds. This did not work that well with all the wind we get at my house. I am thinking of sinking a 4x4 post into the ground, next to the door frame for additional support.