Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: Goosegirl on July 04, 2012, 11:42
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Having successfully grown climbing French beans in my greenhouse (I only needed one!) I am trying sweet corn and also dwarf french beans this year. So far, they look good. I leave the door open all the time. Anyone else tried this?
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i haven't but im very interested in the idea - have you harvested anything from them yet?
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I did an early crop of mange tout in my tunnel, sown in February, and had a really fab crop from just one row of plants. They loved it in there. Next year I'm going to do some French beans too.
I'm also doing a few plants each of a variety of plants that are supposed to be cold loving, including Swiss chard, carrots, cabbage, kohl rabi, swede, celery, celeriac, just to see which work in there, and they're all doing very well. Most of them were in there when the temp was in the 40s in my tunnel, and it didn't seem to bother them at all.
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i haven't but im very interested in the idea - have you harvested anything from them yet?
Sweet corn a bit off yet, but the beans have lots of buds and are about to flower with no slug or snail damage, nor leaf discolourations (so far). Other years with the climbing beans, I grew two (reduced it to one in later years as they took over one side of my 8' x 12' greenhouse) and also all the pods grew straight, not curled upward from the middle like outside ones do. I replenished the tired soil in the g'house bed with some good soil from my raised beds outside, plus some well-rotted manure, and planted two blocks of corn,one at each end, and each block has four plants. Pollination by wind is going to be a problem, so I will have to rely on insects and giving them a good shake each day, plus a weekly feed of Maxicrop seaweed extract.
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I'm growing french beans in the greenhouse between tomatoes and it has been very successful, they started cropping when the outside plants were still tiny.
Last year i tried runners but the temperature was too high for them, the french have loved the heat.
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Have grown dwarf french beans in the polytunnel a few times, they tend to be much more prolific. We have one climbing french bean in there this year and we are growing minipop corn indoors again too, having been sufficiently pleased with the results last year.
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Things that do amazingly well in my tunnel are strawberries (cropped in May), celeriac (already swelling nicely), carrots and chiogga beetroot (been harvesting them for weeks) and sweetcorn (now up to roof and flowering). Even tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers prefer it to greenhouse. Trying melon for second year on the run but with no great hopes
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Next year, I'm going to try other veg that I wouldn't normally plant in the greenhouse - at least I might get something to harvest!
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Have got French beans and 2 winter Squash on one side of 8x6 greenhouse.
The beans have been cropping well for a few weeks and the quash are starting to set fruit. Never been able to grow melons so thats why I'm trying the Squash.
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Next year, I'm going to try other veg that I wouldn't normally plant in the greenhouse - at least I might get something to harvest!
Because the melon has bitten the dust, (and probably the cucumbers too sooner rather than later) I've already started some more courgettes off to take their place in case the outdoor ones don't produce anything this year (can't possibly make tomato sauces without courgettes in - not that I've got any tomatoes yet! ::))
A reminder of how Sweetheart melon can grow given half a chance (last year.)
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My dwarf beans are just about ready to harvest and the sweet corn is beginning to show its tassels and there's not a mark on any of their leaves! When the tassels form properly, I am going to get my hair dryer on cold setting and whoosh it over them most days to get the cobs to pollinate. If it's raining, then I will give them a good shake. Can't wait for next year to try planting things in the bed so I get early and late harvests. ::)
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Goosegirl, I have grown sweetcorn outdoors in the South East, (and very satisfying it was, too) but I have never seen insects pollinating it - maize is a grass, but surely there are no insects that pollinate grasses?
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No - it's the wind that does it, hence the hair dryer thought.
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Sad news - just looked at my sweet corn and the tassels are still white but the little corn core is poking up above the leaves with some kernels on but there is very little pollination happened. Maybe it was a bit too hot in there in order for for the cobs to be showing?
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Are you sure it's that bad GG?
I would say it's very common, in fact the usual thing for the very top of each cob to not develop proper seeds - make a small split in the sheath to have a look further down.
Sweetcorn have the annoying habit of leaving the appearance of silks to the last minute which means that the window of opportunity for pollination is short, especially if all the plants are at exactly the same stage. Outdoors is obviously more of a lottery (too much or too little wind, or very wet conditions at the time of pollen release) but I would have thought that indoors a good shake of the plants at the right time would work very well.
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Running your hand over the top male flower and then the tassels does help pollination of sweetcorn considerably.
In the enclosed environment you need to take control!! :lol: :lol:
Certainly should be warm enough for them to grow well, and you can control the watering too
French beans however are excellent under cover. I grew some this year in large pots early in the greenhouse at home and they were very successful.
Last year I had some the climbed up my tomato plants, which needed some careful watering, but they cropped well. They were a yellow podded bean from Spain