Growing plants in the Rockies» Summer

The summer nears an end

Chris — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:46:52 +0000

Well its the end of august, soon the leaves will turn and the snow will come!

We are still getting the odd strawberry, lots of herbs, peppers and tomatoes.

But there are no more lettuce plants for a while, which is a bummer. But soon we will have some more.

The Giant Tree Tomato plants are amazing, and giant, they are trying to put a hole in the roof. We also have tomatoes on them, they grow quick, real quick as you can see from the pics.

Bib lettuce seeds ready for the winter	The greenhouse	Toms still going
Romaine lettuce seed...poor little thing	The giant tree tomato plants	This is a giant tree tomato, tomato. 1 week old and look a the size of it.
Red peppers	Roma and early riser tomatoes still producing

Reimerseeds.com seeds are a sprouting in 1 week

Chris — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:37:12 +0000

I am impressed, 1 week and we have seeds from the tomatoes , lettuce and cucumber. In less than one week, and ALL the seeds I planted seem to have come alive.

I am still waiting on the celery, but I am hoping they will come alive this week.

Cucumber seed (yes 1 seed only was planted) from Reimer seeds sprouted in 3 days!!

Sub Arctic Tomato seeds 1 week later

Arctic king lettuce, 1 week after planting the seeds ...cool

A new growing season begins

Chris — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:51:11 +0000

Well as summer draws to a end slowly … and with the reminder that its going to end soon with the night time temps around 39 degrees last week!! Its time to look towards winter plants.

I found www.reimerseeds.com who like many others, had seeds for plants that tolerate cold temps.

We purchased for winter:
- Sub Arctic Tomato (fruits when in the 30 degrees temps!)
– Window box roma tomatoes
– Salad bush cucumbers ( another colder winter vegie that grows in small containers..apparently)
– Cold set tomato (another down to freezing temp type tomato)
– Tall Utah Celery (if it can grow in utah it can grow in a greenhouse here I think!)
– Artic king lettuce (the name says it all)

We have changed our planters for the winter, so we can put rope lights in the soil to keep it warm (yes rope lights are cheap and simple for heat!) We purchased some flat and long plastic storage containers from big lots for $8 each, painted the sides black and drilled holes in the bottom for the drainage.

The heater strung up and set to 60 degree for night time temps	This is where celery and arctic king lettuce has been planted for the winter	Some sub arctic tomato plants are planted here the new winter planter boxes.
This is the roma tom on the left and the early bird tom on the right, still fruiting.	Bok choi in the planter tubes along the walls, the soil was replaced after the lettuces finished in here.	Cucumbers in the planter bags for winter
Bib lettuce in the tubes starting from seed, these are great in salads	This is the poor eggplant after it was attacked by aphids, we seem to have rid the greenhouse of nearly all the bugs, and this plant is growing back slowly	Bell peppers are still growing and fruiting.
The herbs are loving it, in fact we have too many and have to freeze them weekly.	The head of the giant tree tomatoe which is now getting toms on it	The giant tree tomato plants and trying to break thru the roof.
The roma toms and early bird toms	These toms took the brunt of the aphid attack, although now aphid free I had to cut them back a bit to get them thru it all, but all it well now	Bell peppers a little stumpy but growing well
New seeds!

Its hot up here in the mountains!

Chris — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:38:19 +0000

Well the heat is here, people tell us its only going to be hot up here a couple of days… well wasnt that a lie! With 14 days as of today already this month higher than 90 degrees I think they maybe were away on vacation last year this time!!

But the greenhouse is getting hit by the heat, even with the vents open and shadecloth on the roof and back wall its stinking hot, but so far all is well. Well maybe not, there was a lot of seedlings that were old and I tried to plant then and get them to grow, but they didnt like the idea with the heat and all died!

The full little green house	Peppers galore	Tomatoes, eggplant, brocolli and peppers in the far corner
The herb end of the greenhouse needs some harvesting	peppers, looks like soon we will have lots of them	Strawberry plants hanging and alone wall, with roma tomato plants against the wall and herbs growing in trays on the floor

Weekly update

Chris — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:27:42 +0000

The previous weeks heat has caused some of our lettuces on the sunniest side to go straight to seed which is a bummer, but they will be replanted and we will try again, and out tomotoes are producing now at the rate of 2-3 tomatoes per day.

The giant tree tomatoe plants as you can see are really giant, and growing, I think they will need their own greenhouse soon! We also have some bugs appearing on the tomatoe plants and eggplants, being non organic farmers… we plan on having them dead with good old fashioned insecticide shortly.

The greenhouse in its full and busy state	Herbs are growing like crazy, we have never grown herbs successfully before so we are impressed.	Peppers are everywhere now
Romaine lettuce and strawberry plants are great, the romaine is actually sweet tasting	Eggplants, some growing upside down and with some little bugs on them	Toms
A giant tree tomato	The other giant tree tomato	Some of the lettuce thats dont to seed

Weekly update – July 4 weekend

Chris — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:48:30 +0000

The growth is mad in the little greenhouse, we are able to have a salad each night out of the lettuce and mesculan and we were able to get our first tomatoe from the green house a 0.5 lb steakhouse tomato.

The giant tree tomatoes are also huge, at 4-5ft and growing so we will see how big they will get!

Ichiban aka Egglplant with fruit on it	Roma toms on the left and Early bird on the right, both covered in green toms	Lettuce ready to pick
Some of the toms soon to be harvested	Steak house toms	Herbs are crazy
Steak house tom getting red and ready	Bell Peppers with fruit	Giant tree tomato plant number 2
A giant tree tomato plant	Onions are nearly ready as you can see by the plant falling over	Green peppers
Red and yellow pepper plants	Mesculan mix	The greenhouse full of green
Its busy with growth in there	Strawberries hanging and in the pipe are about to fruit again	Lettuce, you can see we have harvested and used some

Weekly update

Chris — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:40:13 +0000

Check out the growth, its amazing….we need a bigger