Vegetable crops for joint cultivation in the greenhouse

The optimal design of the greenhouse - in the article DIY greenhouse

Competent selection of an assortment of vegetables for joint cultivation in a greenhouse is an important issue, but this is only half the battle. The most remarkable, unpretentious and fruitful varieties and hybrids may turn out to be completely useless if they are incorrectly formed (relative to specific conditions) or the peculiarities of agricultural technology are not taken into account.

Tomatoes

As you know, tomatoes are divided into three main groups according to the type of growth:

• Superdeterminant,
• Determinant,
• Indeterminate.

The market mainly offers greenhouses with a ridge height of 2 m. For a more rational use of the volume and area of ​​the greenhouse, the last two groups of varieties are of primary interest.

Tomatoes of the first group can be used to get a super early harvest. They are planted as a compacting culture along the outer contours of the side ridges of the greenhouse in one row, with a distance between plants of 20-25 cm. They are formed into one trunk with the obligatory removal of all stepchildren. It is advisable to leave no more than one brush on the plant. A maximum of two clusters, if the variety or hybrid is small-fruited, with a fruit weight not exceeding 50-60 g. In any case, the varieties or hybrids are selected to be ultra-early ripening, compact and slightly leafy, with a fruit weight not exceeding 100 g. After harvesting, the plants are removed from the ridge.

Determinant tomatoes are the most popular of all three named groups. They are so "plastic" in the formation of a bush that they can be adapted to almost any conditions and growing time. With proper formation, they will optimally occupy the volume provided to them in a greenhouse of almost any configuration and size. (Cm.Growing tomatoes in a personal plot - Formation of determinant tomato in unheated greenhouses and shelters, schemes 1 and 2).

Indeterminate tomatoes yield evenly and continuously. But not everyone likes them because of the higher setting of the first brush and the greater distance between the brushes than in other groups of tomatoes. (Cm.Growing tomatoes in a personal plot - Formation of indeterminate tomato in unheated greenhouses, scheme 1).

Here, too, you can get out of the situation:

• Place such tomatoes on the central ridge where the greenhouse is at its highest.
• Focus on varieties and hybrids with shortened internodes.
• Choose varieties and hybrids with a generative type of growth, rather than a vegetative one.

For several years I have been growing my favorite variety "Slavyanka" with an intensive type of growth. And she adapted to form it into two stems in order to slightly restrain the "rapid growth" by the fruit load (with such a formation, you should not choose varieties and hybrids with a fruit size of more than 120 g, otherwise there will be an overload of plants with fruits). The variety has a small foliage and drooping foliage. When formed into several stems, the bush, taking up little space, retains good illumination and ventilation. The fruits are very tasty, dark pink in color. Despite the multi-stem formation, the cultivar still maintains strong shoot growth. I use this feature and plant it at the north end of the greenhouse at the beginning of the side ridges. There I let him grow freely above the front door, where he does not bother anyone.

The planting density of determinate and indeterminate tomatoes ranges from 30-45 cm between plants in a row, 50-60 cm between rows. When growing plants with 2-3 stems, it is necessary to increase the distance between plants in a row. In this case, it is not the number of plants per unit area that is calculated, but the number of shoots.

As a rule, several varieties and hybrids of various heights, foliage and ripening times are grown at the same time.If the plants are not grown in several stems, then here the planting density of 40-45 cm by 60 cm can be taken as a basis. You should alternate with each other, for example, plants with powerful horizontally arranged leaf plates and plants with drooping long foliage, etc.

The start dates and the duration of the arrival of the crop can be controlled. Here, too, options and combinations are possible in order to choose the best option for yourself.

For those who are able to grow a lot of seedlings under conditions, it is advisable to plant superdeterminant ones to the main tomatoes, as described above. At the end of May - early June, the first fruits will already come from them. My window sills do not allow for this, and I grow a couple of balcony tomatoes of the Zhemchuzhinka variety. Then I plant them one at a time in the balcony boxes and put them on a stand on the south side at the end of the greenhouse paths. When the weather is favorable, we take them out of the greenhouse into the garden. This variety grows in huge cascades and bears fruit until mid-August. Up to 2.5 kg of fruit can be removed from one plant. PHOTO - 6.

For those who can grow or acquire seedlings aged 30-40 days, it is enough to form plants according to the classic scheme described above. (Cm. Growing tomatoes in a personal plot - the formation of determinant tomato in unheated greenhouses and shelters, schemes 1 and 2; and the formation of indeterminate tomato in unheated greenhouses, scheme 1) and have early ripening, mid-ripening and some late-ripening tomatoes in your arsenal for further ripening of fruits. The main harvest wave here will be in the second half of July - early August.

The picture is a little different when mature seedlings are grown, which at the time of planting have flowering one, two brushes or even set fruits. Here is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the first products arrive early. But with the classical formation of plants, the main harvest wave occurs in early-mid July. And by August, almost the entire crop has been harvested.

We have to use non-standard formations, taking into account the dimensions of the greenhouse. For my greenhouse, for example, I grow most of the determinant varieties and hybrids, and a small percentage of indeterminate ones. I form indeterminate plants in two stems and let one shoot from several plants to free growth under the vault of the greenhouse. They continue to receive products at the end of August and the beginning of September. The bulk of the tomatoes are already yielding and being removed from the ridge. Such a formation allows me to make a large ridge height - 3.0 m.With a low ridge height, it is unacceptable.

But the gardeners who are "cunning for invention" have found a way out of the situation here as well. They plant at the end of the greenhouse, where there is no door, 2 or 4 tall plants (depending on the number of ridges) and, lowering them, are laid parallel to the ground, through paths at a height of 30-40 cm from the soil surface and fixed. As a result, the upper parts of the plants "change places" and continue to grow. It is convenient to do this from the south side, where there is no way to let the plants along the end of the greenhouse, due to the shading of the rest of the plants. On narrow ridges, where tomato plants can only be planted in one row, it is also convenient to use the “plant lowering method”. Here the plants are laid along the ridge towards each other.

The other "end of the stick" lies in the fact that the second wave of flowering of such plants occurs just in the very heat. And here it is necessary to apply additional agrotechnical measures to "preserve" the crop. You should be especially careful when choosing varieties and hybrids, otherwise all work will be in vain, and by August you can be left with "one tops".

Cucumbers

Gardeners cultivate cucumbers more widely than tomatoes.The culture is more early maturing, not requiring such a long growing of seedlings. For those who have greenhouses, domestic breeders offer a huge selection of high-yielding F1 hybrids, adapted to our climatic conditions, which often surpass foreign ones. For spring greenhouses with solar heating, with additional or emergency heating, hybrids for spring-summer turnover are suitable. For greenhouses located in close proximity to fruit trees, shade-tolerant hybrids of spring-summer circulation, as well as hybrids for summer-autumn circulation, are suitable.

Modern hybrids for spring-summer growing terms mainly differ in shade tolerance, pickling qualities, the size of fruits and their number in a node, the degree of branching, the duration of the fruiting period and potential yield. All cucumbers are subdivided into parthenocarpic, parthenocarpic, and bee-pollinated. They also differ in the ratio of the number of female and male flowers: into hybrids of the female type of flowering and hybrids of the mixed type of flowering with a predominance of female or male flowers.

Read the article Cucumber: how to choose the right variety

All this makes it possible to choose an assortment for different growing conditions. Parthenocarpic hybrids are gaining increasing popularity among gardeners, since here fruiting does not depend on the presence of pollinating insects. For gardeners, F1 hybrids have even been bred with their favorite large tubercles and dark thorns: "Goosebump", "Darkie", "Matrix", "Dynamite", "Egoza", "Cappuccino", "Mamen's Favorite", "Mamen's Son", "Mumu "," Parus "," Pechora "," Proletarsky "," Suzdalsky "," Mother-in-law "," Tournament "," Uglich "," Ustyug "," Erica "and others. Almost all of them are suitable for salting and canning.

For fans of bee-pollinated cucumbers, there are modern F1 hybrids with a female or predominantly female type of flowering. Plants with a predominantly female flowering type are very convenient to form, since the female nodes are located on the lateral shoots in the two nearest nodes to the central stem. For plants of the female type of flowering, it is necessary to plant up to 10% of pollinator plants. And often the leading manufacturers of these seeds immediately put pollinator seeds into the packaging. These are F1 hybrids with a predominantly male flowering type - "Casanova", "Boyfriend", "Runner", "Bouncy", "Levsha", etc.

All these achievements have also changed the agricultural technology of plants. Modern F1 greenhouse hybrids have a very high potential yield, especially their bunch forms.

For best results, split feeding is recommended. In addition, for each "group" of F1 hybrids, its own optimal plant formation scheme has been developed.

Rice. 1 “Scheme of the formation of plants of bee-pollinated cucumber hybrids (type Athlete F1) with a predominantly female type of flowering.

Rice. 2 “Scheme of the formation of plants of bee-pollinated hybrids-pollinators (type Casanova F1) with a mixed type of flowering.

Rice. 3 “Scheme of the formation of parthenocarpic cucumber hybrids, in the leaf axils of which up to 3-4 ovaries are laid.

Rice. 4 “Scheme of the formation of plants of parthenocarpic hybrids of cucumber with a bouquet type of flowering.

Rice. 5 “Scheme of the formation of plants of parthenocarpic cucumber hybrids in greenhouses with a low roof.

In all shaping schemes, second-order shoots are pinched, leaving one leaf and one node.

All these different formations, plus the various characteristics of the hybrids themselves, provide an inexhaustible source for experimentation and the selection of optimal options for specific conditions.

If the greenhouse is not high, and the height to the trellis is significantly less than 2.2 m, then it is better for the side ridges to pick up hybrids with shortened internodes, and then form them according to one of the above schemes. Just keep in mind that the foliage of such plants is somewhat denser.I have a tall trellis in my greenhouse and hybrids with shortened internodes and a bouquet type of flowering experience fruit overload in unfavorable years. As a result, more ovaries are shed than conventional bunch hybrids.

Cucumbers are a rather densely leafy crop and, for example, in order not to overshadow the greenhouse, I plant hybrids with a bouquet type of flowering along the central ridge. They are very light-requiring and are planted a little less often than others, and many have rather compact foliage and long internodes. Their yield is very high, which more than compensates for the sparse planting. From 7-8 such plants, our family picks from 90 kg to 120 kg of fruits. The record harvest that I managed to get from one plant per season was 20 kg (hybrid "Three Tankers").

When growing hybrids with a bouquet type of flowering and good branching, much fewer plants are required to get the required amount of production, they bear fruit for a very long time. It is necessary to "feed on time" such hybrids, often and little by little, otherwise their cultivation loses its meaning.

I have adapted to this method of formation: after the main shoot has given up almost the entire crop, I give nitrogen fertilizing, and new bouquets begin to grow in the axils of the leaves. In parallel with this, I begin to gradually remove the leaves from the main stem. I start with the lowest of the oldest leaves, and go almost to the trellis itself, I don’t remove any more leaves. As a result, the entire stem is well lit and quickly overgrown with new shoots.

If the plant on the crown is somewhat weakened, then I choose 1-2 of the strongest shoots (formed on the main stem below the trellis) and let them in as a continuation shoot. Of course, the leaves on these shoots are not so large, and they do not bear fruit so abundantly, but they yield until late autumn. Sometimes, with good weather in August-September, the total weight of such fruits from a plant reaches 15-20% of the total weight of the crop taken from it. This is especially noticeable on plants that were "lazy" to bear fruit in the very heat, but then "feed" later until autumn.

I'll make a reservation right away that we plant cucumbers early, in mid-May, with 16-20 day old seedlings. And they have a long growing season. For such a long time, only cucumbers with good branching can bear fruit. Of these, hybrids with a bouquet type of flowering have the most compact formation, which is important in small-sized greenhouses. Since they have an increased shoot-forming ability, they are constantly overgrown with new bouquets or short shoots. This allows the crop to arrive before the cold weather.

We plant several hybrids at the same time, 2 pcs. each, since the same hybrid has different annual yields due to different weather conditions. One helps out in the spring and early summer, because it tolerates temperature fluctuations better, the other in the heat, and the third bears fruit until late autumn. All this together guarantees that even in the most unfavorable year, we will not be left without a harvest.

When growing several crops in a narrow greenhouse, one may encounter such a problem - the cucumbers planted with seedlings on the central ridge by June grow to a trellis, while the tomatoes on the side ridges have not yet begun to yield and are loaded with fruits. Both crops at this moment have the maximum load of fruits and begin to experience a lack of sunlight in the lower tier. Cucumbers may begin to shed their ovaries. Tomatoes will delay the ripening of fruits and, as a result, problems with the tops, buds and upper ovaries will begin.

If the crops were certainly not planted too densely, then a more sparse planting cannot always help here. Most likely, this will greatly reduce the total yield of these crops per unit of greenhouse area. When I faced this in my old little greenhouse, I got out of the situation by changing the shape of the cucumbers.

Firstly, I switched to hybrids with a bouquet type of flowering and good branching (they have the most compact in diameter formation of the main shoot).

Secondly, it formed the main shoot "in stages". After 12 knots, it pinched the top of the main stem, leaving the strongest lateral shoot (preferably the second from the top) as a continuation shoot. The second pinching was done at the trellis itself. On the main stem, through one knot (almost to the trellis itself), she left additional lateral shoots, which she pinched onto one sheet. I removed the fruits from them. Further, under the trellis itself, she left three lateral shoots with fruits (the fourth was allowed to continue with a shoot), pinching them into two or three leaves. Then the main shoot was formed further according to the standard scheme for such hybrids. (See Figure 4).

After the first pinching of the crown, the plants immediately began to bear fruit. Pinching above or below 12 knots led to overloading of plants with fruits. In the first case, due to an underdeveloped plant, including the root system, which stops its active growth with the beginning of fruit picking. In the second case, due to the large number of fruits that simultaneously started to grow, with a relatively small number of leaves. Additionally, the leaves left on the lateral shoots compensate for their lack on the plant.

With this formation, cucumber plants reached the trellis much later, and the tomatoes ripened on time.

Pepper and eggplant

In the greenhouse, it is advisable to grow medium-sized and some medium-early tall varieties or F1 hybrids with large and medium fruits. To date, domestic breeders have bred many such varieties and hybrids that can satisfy the need of both an inexperienced novice and a skilled seasoned gardener. Some hybrids give aesthetic pleasure with their unusual fruits in shape and color.

These crops are more thermophilic than tomato and cucumber. In the greenhouse, they need to be given the warmest and brightest place. They should be located only on the southern side of the ridges. If this culture is not given a lot of space, then you can plant them at the end of the eastern and central ridges, so that the morning sun caresses their leaves as early as possible. It is better not to mix pepper and eggplant with each other on the same ridge, since eggplants are more leafy and consume more water. But if this is not possible, then closer to the south you need to plant pepper, and then eggplants. You can even block the ridge by digging in the slate across so as not to flood the pepper plants close to the eggplant when watering.

In unheated greenhouses, the main thing is to achieve even fruiting, without pronounced periodicity and to adjust the fruit load in time in unfavorable weather.

Eggplant

About the choice of varieties - in the article The best varieties and hybrids of eggplant

I tried various shaping methods and came to the conclusion that it is best to shape the eggplants into two stalks without leaving stepchildren.

Since the conditions in an unheated greenhouse are highly dependent on the vagaries of the weather, the classic method of forming in two stems, leaving the stepsons and pinching them on one fruit and one leaf greatly overload the plants. In addition, it is necessary to periodically remove the first leaf at the base of each stepson, otherwise the flowers, not getting enough sun, do not set fruit. Later, fertile stepchildren must be cut with pruning shears, which additionally injures the plants and increases the risk of bacterial and other infections.

When formed into two stems without leaving stepchildren, they are removed at a young age. With careful execution of pinching, no contact of hands with plant sap occurs. Further, the plants do not require additional thinning, they are not overloaded with fruits, and the flowers are well illuminated by the sun.

Some varieties and hybrids have a "compressed" dense bush shape (Photo 1). Their shoots and leaves are directed vertically upward, almost parallel to each other, and do not diverge, as usual. This causes additional difficulties, since the bush is not ventilated and the flowers are sometimes squeezed between the leaves. The "Romantic" variety belongs to this type. In this case, I insert some kind of spacer between the stems. The edges of the spacer must not injure the plants. Thus, I achieve the required angle of divergence of the shoots (Photo2).

Eggplants can be successfully grown in a greenhouse and in a pot culture. For normal fruiting of medium-sized and tall eggplants, a pot of at least 15-20 liters per plant is required (Photo 3).

Eggplants grafted onto a tomato bear fruit very well. They are much less affected by bacterial diseases and even slightly increase yields. Photo 4 shows the beginning of fruiting of the grafted eggplant of the "Kashalot" variety.

Read more in the article Grafting eggplant on tomato

Pepper

About varieties - in the article The best varieties of sweet peppers for open ground and film shelters

In an unheated greenhouse, modern varieties and hybrids of medium-sized and some tall medium-sized and large-fruited peppers can be successfully grown. Having slightly changed the classic formation, I achieved relatively even fruiting during the season, even in large-fruited peppers.

I form medium and large peppers differently. In the middle lane, summer weather is not stable and the same formation in an unheated greenhouse leads to an overload of large-fruited plants and the discharge of not only the ovaries, but all the buds on the tops of the shoots.

I form peppers with medium-weight fruits in two stems. In places where the stem branches, I leave one shoot (the strongest) to continue growing, and pinch the other, leaving one leaf. I remove the fruits from the "pinched" shoot.

I form pepper with large fruits in one shoot. The formation of the shoot itself is the same as that of a medium-fruited pepper.

If the variety or hybrid has a small foliage, then on the "pinched" shoot with both formations I leave an additional two or even three leaves. Otherwise, the "overload" of plants may occur, as well as the fruits will suffer from sunburn.

Plants formed into one stem are planted more often than with the second formation. This increases the yield from 1m2 of the garden, the plants grow upward, and not to the sides, which allows more rational use of the greenhouse volume. True, this requires more seedlings.

Such formations load the plants gradually, and the harvest begins to arrive earlier than with the classic formulation. The crown bud (the very first one) when forming into one stem does not need to be removed.

With both formations, in case of unfavorable weather, you can always remove an additional 1-2 fruits and unload the plants on time, preventing massive shedding of flowers and ovaries.

When picking fruits in technical ripeness, when, with a slight pressure on the unripe fruit, numerous crackles are heard, plants can be formed in any of the above ways. To date, varieties and hybrids of sweet peppers have been bred with light-colored fruits that do not taste bitter and are suitable for use in technical ripeness. In the photo - variety "Maestro", the plant is formed into two shoots for picking fruits in technical ripeness.

When picking fruits in biological ripeness, when the fruit takes on the color characteristic of the variety or hybrid, it is better to form plants in one shoot. Harvesting fruits at biological ripeness reduces the potential yield of the plant by about 30%.

Physalis vegetable

Physalis vegetable is the most cold-resistant and shade-tolerant culture. In the greenhouse, it also needs to be formed, otherwise the bushes will grow strongly and become overloaded with fruits. During the period of growing seedlings, it is necessary to remove one of the shoots immediately after the first branching.

In the future, it is only necessary to periodically look through the fruit-bearing bushes and cut out the weak branches directed inside the bush that are not capable of bearing fruit.

In physalis, it is necessary to tie each shoot at the beginning of the growing season, as they grow, the twine must be twisted around the shoots. In the future, you can simply make a circular garter for the entire bush.

Physalis fruits are tied throughout the growing season. In order not to overload the plant and to avoid cracking the fruits, they can be removed when the stalk turns yellowish. These fruits are easily separated from the plant and ripen very quickly at home. Do not wait for the fruit to fully ripen and the cap to turn yellow.