Around here, middle Missery, the hope is to get tomatoes by the Fourth of July. Folks don't put out the plants until about the middle of May. This is the time of year I go crazy with the garden, and I've got most of my early stuff in the ground already, but I just had an interesting idea....interesting or crazy? I happen to have lots of PVC pipe and joints left over from an earlier not so hot idea where I was going to use it to construct trellises for tomatoes. It was too floppy for that. However, I also have a quantity of plastic sheeting left over from covering a crawl space. So.....I was thinking about making a portable "greenhouse" or cold frame and using it to cover a few tomato plants in the garden. The temp right now is in the 70's, but that is unusual for this time of year, and I can expect it to get back to the usual 50's, with lows in the 30's. Anyone think this would work? How tall should I make the frame if I need to use it for a month? There are always lots of tomato plants available this time of year. I don't know if people just put them out and hope for a miracle, or if they do something like what I'm thinking.
I bought a 6-pack of Early Girls 2 weeks ago that I transplanted into cutoff milk jugs and have kept in the sunroom. They're really growing and I'm hoping to be able to slice the plastic off them gently in the beds as I transplant them about mid-April. I tried the plastic cover idea last year and the plants just kinda sat there, I'm thinking because the soil itself never really warmed up enough to stimulate them. It did give me the opportunity to plant when the soil was dry enough, if I had waited the rain would have really postponed planting last year. I worked my garden spot good this past weekend and got my tomato bed hilled up. It sure looks ready to plant but we need some warmer nights I fear.
lots of people do what you're thinking of. If you do a search on hoophouse tomatoes, you'll see how people build high tunnels from PVC for tomatoes and other early crops.
Another method is to use a plastic bag as a liner in some sort of container. This pulls out of the container easily and comes of the root ball easilly.
I'm thinking of doing exactly what you suggest. I've got a bunch of PVC around and I think it might make a good hoop house frame. I haven't actually tried it yet (I'm painting the inside of the house these days) but it sounds like a good idea.
I've got a bunch of tomatoes started indoors and they are getting pretty happy - nearly time for a transplant, so I'll have to do something soon. If you do it, post somthing to let us know how it goes...
Well, I think I'll give it a shot, since I've got all the materials and the garden spot is ready. The PVC I've got would lend itself to triangular frames. I'll take a picture of the finished product. I won't be doing all the tomatoes I'll eventually put in this year; probably only 10-12. Since I got basically no tomatoes last year, all I need is one to win! [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]
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