Hi, we are considering getting a walk in plastic greenhouse but I am a bit sceptical about how much I can get out of it with no heating. Can I grow tomatoes all year round in this climate? Is it worth the investment?
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I bought a roll of bubble wrap for about $60 and wrapped the greenhouse with it, inside the the green cover. It seems to be adding about 5 degrees to the base temperature.
We don't try to grow anything in it, just get stuff ready to plant out. Works well.
Hi Samantha,
I am assuming that you live in Auckland? If you are in a frost free area it is possible to grow tomatoes and courgettes during winter in a plastic house. I do so in Northland every winter without heating. For beans or cucumbers you need heating in the colder months.
The house needs to be big enough though to hold some heat and you can add a whole heap of black painted drums with water if you like to store some of the heat during the day for the night. It also pays to site it where it will get the sun as soon as possible in the morning, so it will heat up quickly after a cold night.
Small plastic houses are pretty useless as by evening they will be the same temperature inside as outside, no matter what you do. I used to get lots of disgruntled customers in spring who tried to germinate pepper or eggplant seed "in the plastic house", needless to say the seed never came up but rotted in the cold wet pottingmix.
The best use of a greenhouse is to be able to have flowering tomato, peppers and eggplants in late october in 2 or 3 liter pots, ready to motor away in the garden and giving you veges before Xmas when they are expensive in the shop. And on the other end of the year (now) the plastic house will keep ripening all those peppers, chillis, eggplants that have set so abundantly now, but are stalling outside and it will also keep the basil going right into July.
By that time I am quite happy to get a good dose of cold weather crops on my dinner table and have lots of broccoli, cabbages, chinese cabbages, endives, leeks, celeriac, fennel and beetroot on my dinner table, before I clear out the rest of the summer crops form the plastic house to make way for the first seedlings that get potted up in July/August and are then growing nicely for the summer garden outside.
So yeah - it will be a very good investment provided you have a nice sunny place for it.
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We don't try to grow anything in it, just get stuff ready to plant out. Works well.
I am assuming that you live in Auckland? If you are in a frost free area it is possible to grow tomatoes and courgettes during winter in a plastic house. I do so in Northland every winter without heating. For beans or cucumbers you need heating in the colder months.
The house needs to be big enough though to hold some heat and you can add a whole heap of black painted drums with water if you like to store some of the heat during the day for the night. It also pays to site it where it will get the sun as soon as possible in the morning, so it will heat up quickly after a cold night.
Small plastic houses are pretty useless as by evening they will be the same temperature inside as outside, no matter what you do. I used to get lots of disgruntled customers in spring who tried to germinate pepper or eggplant seed "in the plastic house", needless to say the seed never came up but rotted in the cold wet pottingmix.
The best use of a greenhouse is to be able to have flowering tomato, peppers and eggplants in late october in 2 or 3 liter pots, ready to motor away in the garden and giving you veges before Xmas when they are expensive in the shop. And on the other end of the year (now) the plastic house will keep ripening all those peppers, chillis, eggplants that have set so abundantly now, but are stalling outside and it will also keep the basil going right into July.
By that time I am quite happy to get a good dose of cold weather crops on my dinner table and have lots of broccoli, cabbages, chinese cabbages, endives, leeks, celeriac, fennel and beetroot on my dinner table, before I clear out the rest of the summer crops form the plastic house to make way for the first seedlings that get potted up in July/August and are then growing nicely for the summer garden outside.
So yeah - it will be a very good investment provided you have a nice sunny place for it.