Greenhouses | Page 10 of 14

Autumn Leaves

You could let your summer crops finish in your tunnel or glasshouse, rip them out and leave it for the winter. But why leave it empty when it most profitable?

Now is the time to start sowing all those vegetables that will cost you so much in the shops. Apart from the pleasure of harvesting your own salads all winter, they will be fresher than anything you can buy.

Clean up your glasshouse or tunnel first. Remove finished crops and wash it down to let in maximum light for the winter. Dig over the soil and if available add in some organic matter: it rots away faster in the warm conditions than it does outdoors. Feeding and fertilisers are rarely needed. Plant out any seedlings of salad and other crops that you sowed last month. Sow carrots and radishes if you want.

Sow salad-leaf seed in drills; that way anything that comes up between drills is a weed. Keep it well watered. The simplest way to harvest is cut-and-come-again: snip off everything leaving the stumps to re-sprout a second crop behind you as you move on down the rows. If you find it growing faster than you eat it, feed the surplus to livestock or compost it. You may be surprised by how few rows will feed your household.

There is a vast range of crops to choose from. Check your local seed-shop but also your half-used seed packets; many outdoor varieties can be sown this way. Lettuce is popular, but there’s chicory and endive, mustard and cress, rocket, mizuna and Chinese greens, komatsuna and pak choi, spinach, corn salad (lamb’s lettuce), winter purslane and orache. Why not start with mixed leaves?

Peter Whyte

Polydome customer photo competition

We are looking for photos of customer’s Glasshouses and Polytunnels in use – inside and/or outside shots. The ideal photos will be taken in sunshine (hopefully our summer will return) and be attractive images that promote the structure and the use of it. They should be one mb in size or larger.

They can be with or without people in the shots and images of the interior will ideally show lots of healthy prospering plants (flowering or fruiting) as well as the Greenhouse or Polytunnel in which they are in.

We will really appreciate customers participating because we have lots of photos of Glasshouses and Polytunnels immediately after construction but very few that show the Greenhouse or Polytunnel after it has settled in and been in use. To show our appreciation, everyone who participates before the end of September will be entitled to a 30% discount off their next accessories purchase (to be redeemed before the end of the year, limit of €1,000 order value). We will use any of these photos as a resource going forward to show prospective customers what your type of Greenhouse or Polytunnel looks like and a selected few may be used in promotional things such as advertisements and brochures.

We will select the best images and show them in our blog on our website and with permission acknowledge the participants. Each of these participants will receive an additional voucher for €50 to spend on accessories.

Please get snapping and send your images by email to jonathan@polydome.ie or send on a CD or DVD to:

Jonathan Pyle

Director

Polydome

Crinkill House

Birr

County Offaly

Glad to say today we are already receiving entries on day one of the competition.

Photo attached courtesy of Christophe Mouze, (Clare Island Retreat Centre)

Taking cutings, Peter Whyte gives some tips

August is the latest month for taking semi-ripe cuttings. Fuchsias, Pelargoniums, evergreens, perennial climbers and most deciduous shrubs can still be propagated now, if you use the warmth of a glasshouse or tunnel to boost their growth.

Choose non-flowering shoots or cut the flowers off. Cut off slips 7-15 cm long by cutting just below a node (the thickening on a stem where a leaf or side shoot grows outwards). Clematis does better when cut between two nodes. Alternatively, tear off a side shoot of the right length with a piece of the main stem still attached like a foot, and cut off the ‘toe’ leaving the heel. Remove any leaves that would end up buried below the surface. Take plenty of cuttings: some won’t grow and the tighter they are crowded together the better they root.

Fill a container with a mix of two parts peat or leaf mould to one of sand, and water it well. Dip the bases of the cuttings in hormone rooting powder if you want, and lower them into holes dibbled around the edge with a pencil or similar. Firm the compost in well to ensure good contact with the cuttings.

The cuttings will lose water through their leaves and wither unless kept in the shade. Place them under solid staging, or rig up a shade above them. Use tinfoil or white plastic instead of black plastic, and keep it up from the plants to prevent heat build-up.

Lay clear plastic over the cuttings to keep in humidity. Hold it off the plants with hoops of wire or similar. Pelargoniums and plants with grey, silver, silky or hairy leaves resent humidity and are best left uncovered. Check the cuttings regularly and remove any dead bits. They are ready to pot on when they start growing.

Holiday Tips

Holiday tips

Whether it’s Bali or Ballybunion, everyone wants to go away for a break. So what happens to your tunnel or your glasshouse while you’re gone?

Automatic watering is ideal. Be sure to set the controls well in advance so you’re sure it’s working well and regularly, and delivering enough water. Ventilation is easier; you can leave the vents wide open in mid-summer without fear of night frost but automatic vent openers are less liable to storm damage. They need no electricity and are easy to fit. Wedge doors nearly closed or screen them with wire mesh to keep out pets and wildlife.

Bribe a neighbour to keep an eye on it with free produce or a promise of looking after theirs later. Automatic watering and ventilators are good but nothing beats the human touch: unexpected problems can crop up (pun deliberate) and the comings and goings of neighbours deter thieves.

Move out pots to a sheltered, shady spot where they can get rain or be watered if needed. Remove more bottom leaves from your tomato plants than usual: the leaves on the top 70cm of the plants contribute most to their growth. This reduces their need for water and lets more fresh air around the plants, which helps control fungus diseases.

Remove flowers and developing fruit from plants to reduce the amount of unwanted and over-mature fruit growing while you’re away. It also further reduces the plants’ need for water.

Tidy up and clear out any weeds; also dead and dying leaves, dropped fruit and other plant remains that could host diseases. Bon voyage!

Written by horticulturalist Peter Whyte

Growing tips for Tomatoes

Everyone with a polytunnel or glasshouse is tempted to grow tomatoes – and why not? They taste so much better when picked just before eating. Here are a few tips for the best crops.

Choose well-flavoured varieties like Shirley or Alicante. Some traditional varieties like Moneymaker are insipid. If you are buying plants, look for healthy ones about 20cm tall. Yellow leaves indicate poor feeding or cultivation and bluish or purplish leaves indicate chilling: such plants will take time to recover and crop later. Drawn, leggy plants will be the same.

If planting in the soil try to have the plants in slight hollows rather than on top of mounds, so water will soak in rather than run away. Water them in well, and let the ground surface dry off between waterings. Vine tomatoes need support: if using canes put them in before the plants to avoid root damage. Strings are better than canes for plants in grow-bags. Cherry tomatoes are wide and bushy plants, so give them plenty of room to spread.

Feed the plants with high-potash feed as per the instructions, starting when the first fruits appear. Tie in the growing vines to canes or wind the support strings around them regularly, as stems are hard to train when they thicken up. Hook very long trusses up on themselves or higher leaf-stems to keep them up from mud and slugs.

Break out sideways any side-shoots growing from the angles between leaf-stems and the main stem. Snap off upwards any dying bottom leaves to let light and air around the fruit. Bush tomatoes need no training. Pick a tomato by thumbing down on the knuckle just above it while twisting the fruit upwards. The green oil on tomato plants is irritant; wash your hands with soap and water afterwards.

Peter Whyte B Agr Sc (Hort), Nat Dip Sc (Apic), Dip Tr & Ed, MI Hort

Monty Don at the Polydome stand

UTV’s radio station U105FM broadcast at the Hillsborough Garden Festival from our Greenhouse on Friday. It was fascinating to see them getting ready – looking for satellites and then to meet Radio and TV presenter Carolyn Stewart who dealt with all the joys of outdoor broadcasting with calmness and panache. She interviewed BBC TV Gardening Guru Monty Don in our Greenhouse as well as musicians and folk associated with the Show not least of which was Jonathan Pyle, Director of Polydome. Carolyn Stewart and Monty Don are seen here in the photograph.

Polydome’s first day at the Hillsborough Garden Festival

The Hillsborough Garden Festival is starting today. Here is our Greenhouse which is a Janssens Victorian SL. The site was challenging with a 40cm slope across it but despite it being a first time for Director Jonathan Pyle it was completed thanks to a tree surgeon who provided some logs to level it and neighbourly help from fellow exhibitors when an extra pair of hands was needed.

UTV’s Radio Station U105.8 have taken up residence inside our Greenhouse and will be live on air at 12 noon until 3pm and they will be interviewing Monty Don among others.

This magnificent Rhododendron is the largest in Europe.

These Yew Trees have been painstakingly trained and trimmed into barrel shapes.

Garden Festival at Hillsborough Castle

Looking forward to the Airtricity Garden Festival at Hillsborough Castle next weekend (17th, 18th and 19th of May). We will have a Janssens Victorian SL Greenhouse up and Jonathan Pyle (a Director of Polydome) will be there to meet and greet visitors to our stand. Monty Don (pictured) will be appearing on Friday 17th. Hillsborough Castle is a beautiful location for the festival which has been running for some years and is one of the main events in the Gardening Calendar in Ireland. Further information on the Garden Festival can be obtained at the organisers website: http://www.gardenshowireland.com/

Polydome Googled by Google

Internet giant Google ordered a Greenhouse from us recently. One member of staff suggested she would like to grow carrotts so they acted and called us. We visited the site and as it was very exposed to the wind recommended a Janssens Junior Victorian Greenhouse which they ordered and it was promptly delivered. We suggested they put it up themselves as a team building excersize and as there are good instructions, a dvd as well as our free telephone support the experience should be a pleasant one.

A distinguished visitor

Had a distinguished visitor in last week, the former RTE reporter Mr Charlie Bird. We checked to make sure he didnt mind us blogging about his visit. Charlie is looking at one of our Western Red Cedar ‘Growhouse’ Greenhouses and we had a pleasant chat over a coffee. A pleasure to meet him. We all including Zara had a little laugh because she didnt know who he was (she being from across Irish Sea).