Tomatoes are an incredibly popular choice for gardeners. These are delicious, highly versatile crops, genetically fruit, while used as a vegetable in cooking. However, growing tomatoes in a greenhouse requires specialized care, different from other crop types.
Growing tomatoes in a greenhouse extends the season greatly. This is especially ideal in places where there’s only a small window of opportunity for tomato cultivation. Greenhouses provide the ideal conditions for tomato plants, allowing them to grow for longer.
Because the plants are grown indoors, they need some help with pollination. Some growers bring in bumblebees, while others vibrate the plants manually to move the pollen to its receptor. This can be done by using electric vibrators, electric toothbrushes, or mist blowers in order to shake the plant and distribute pollen. If you’re not growing too many tomatoes, you can use a simple cotton swab or Q-tip in order to manually pollinate the plant. Do this every other day!
Ensure the greenhouse stays between 60 and 65 degrees F during the nighttime, and somewhere between 70 and 80 degrees F in the daytime.
Air circulation is essential when growing tomatoes. This helps maintain consistent humidity levels, and reduces the chance of disease.
If you’re planning on canning a big harvest of tomatoes to keep in your pantry or share with family, it makes sense to grow a large crop of tomatoes that ripens all at once. (A dozen tomatoes a week just isn’t as efficient for a canning project!) For a marathon canning weekend, then, look for “determinate” canning varieties. Determinate vegetables generally grow to a predictable size, switch to blooming and setting fruit, and then ripen all at once . Once determinate tomatoes have matured a single harvest, they’re done. If you enjoy marathon canning weekends and want to ensure you have plenty of vine-ripened tomatoes to work with, you can pencil in a date by calculating the days to harvest (printed on seed packets) schedule subtracting the days to harvest from your target date, and starting your seeds then. If you're really into canning and want a second canning date, you’ll need to start a separate batch of seeds based on that date.
Grape and cherry tomatoes are small, sweet tomatoes that you can toss in a salad straight from the garden. The big, round tomatoes that are great for slicing on your favorite sandwich or burger are the beefsteak varieties. These, and most general, all-around tomatoes are indeterminate varieties, and are perfect for keeping a steady supply of vine-ripened beauties coming all season long. Indeterminate tomatoes keep growing and setting fruit throughout the season, so there will typically be a handful of tomatoes in the process of ripening on each plant until they’re killed by frost.
Since determinate tomatoes grow to a predictable height and shape, they don’t typically require additional support. Freestyling indeterminate varieties are what tomato cages, stakes, strings, and other support contraptions are designed for. These plants also benefit from pruning, to keep them from getting out of control and taking over your greenhouse.
