Update On Our Seedlings And Greenhouses

This is an update from (May 2nd) a previous post.  We start many of our seeds in peat pellets and then transplant them into peat pots when they get bigger.  We do this to extend our growing season, because it is so short in Eastern Idaho.  That is because, we are at a 5,000 foot elevation at the edge of a high desert, and at a 43.9 latitude.  This is also a zone three climate.

During the day we take the seedlings out to our greenhouse for the sun, then we bring them into the house in the evening.  Some freeze tolerant vegetables we plant in the greenhouses before we can plant outside in our garden.

  So, by using our greenhouses to extend the growing season, so that it starts earlier and ends later, we can eat fresh vegetables over a much longer period of time.  This greatly reduces the amount of food that we have to preserve in order to have it throughout the rest of the year.

The picture on the left is showing our seedlings in peat pellets.  The picture in the center shows the same plants.  And the picture on the right shows lettuces and peas in the greenhouse.  The outside overnight temperatures have been 13 to 25 degrees (May 2nd), so the tomato and bell pepper plants have to rotate inside the house until the overnight temperatures are above freezing.

(May 15th). We now have the lettuces, melons, tomato, Chinese pea, and pepper plants planted in the greenhouses.  The tomato, pepper, and melons will have to be covered with a sheet if the overnight temperature gets down to about 25 degrees.  The peas will be fine because they don't have pods on them yet, which are killed by a freeze, and the lettuces (we have found) will survive in the unheated greenhouses with an overnight temperature down to 9 degrees.  We also have flowers planted to attract bees into the greenhouses.  We will have to  use a small paintbrush and hand pollinate the blossoms on our vegetables when they form, because it will still be too cold here for bees early in the spring.  

Details:
   Through our efforts we are now able to raise fresh vegetables typically nine months of the year. We give a detailed description of how we construct our greenhouses, and how we grow our food in our e-book, ‘Greenhouse Growing and Construction: How We Do It.’