Hi Clarence

So many questions to ask.. like when did you plant beans and did you buy tomoato starts or did you start them from seed.. my self-seeded tomato's are just now in full bloom and producing.. where as my early started tomato's have been producing since july. Did the heat stunt the beans?

Overall, its very odd that you have no flowers on either tomaoto's or beans at this time of the year in a garden, so something has gone wrong but I can't say its the weather per say.. I have a general feel of where you might be and if I am right then I do know from fellow gardens on my main Ottawa garden group that a number of them had total slow down/no growth in the major heat wave unless they were doing a small garden and watering all the time.

However the last three weeks have been a good mix of weather/water and we are all reporting excellent garden growth, productions and yields increasing. The carrots and beets are a little more easy to guess at.. typically when you have lots of top and not much bottom growth its a soil issue.. it means that your soil was to rich in nitrogen. Normally it just means that you used a good amount of compost to feed the soil that year.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/carrot/carrots-not-forming.htm

Sorry I can't be of more help here.. if you want to tell me about soil, about water plan, about set up, I might be able to offer more ideas..

Everything was from seeds and due to eye surgery, went in last week of may. Based on feel of soil, I figure I was keeping things damp enough during the July heat spell.

One factor may be to much shade. Not convinced because plants are tall, so moisture and soil must be good, but that’s all I can think of. Will wait and see what happens, may just be late. Definitely planting in more sun next spring and doing some seedlings inside, to get a jump. Will keep you posted.

Interesting note: I was listening to the owners of vineyards in BC-talking about the grapes being ruined by the summer of smoke. The taste and growth of the grape is very bad apparently!

Interesting note: I was listening to the owners of vineyards in BC-talking about the grapes being ruined by the summer of smoke. The taste and growth of the grape is very bad apparently!

NO, say it isn't so...not the grapes!

Hey...I'm a wine drinker!!! Very important I have my wine. 😀

Question. Call it climate change, hot, damp dry... season or whatever.

Assuming one has enough fuel, would a greenhouse not be the most predictable? You can grow year round and always have fresh produce.

Excuse my ignorance if I am missing something but it sounds to me that this might solve a ton of issues?

If fuel is abundant and size of structure is the remaining issue. What size would the green thumbs on this board recommend for family of four.

Exterior gardening still be an option, but greenhouse being the filler in case of a bad season

Question. Call it climate change, hot, damp dry... season or whatever.

Assuming one has enough fuel, would a greenhouse not be the most predictable? You can grow year round and always have fresh produce.

Excuse my ignorance if I am missing something but it sounds to me that this might solve a ton of issues?

If fuel is abundant and size of structure is the remaining issue. What size would the green thumbs on this board recommend for family of four.

Exterior gardening still be an option, but greenhouse being the filler in case of a bad season

I sort of tried this years back on a small scale (9x14).....this is what I found, heating the structure was not a problem (I built a good one), but growing still was and for my area light was the issue, things just will not grow, grow well, or right with the light levels we have through nov, dec, jan, feb. I think the days are just too short and lack intensity.

With that said, with a green house that you can keep warm, then you can extend your growing season right up to nov1. regularly I have been going up to the end of oct picking fresh tomattoes in mine. They may not really be growing much in oct but they are staying fresh on the plant.

Its 4 degrees right now (I just came in) and the temp is forcast to hit 0 c, out in the country it will fall below 0 so that will be a killing frost for much of the gardens around here. So that initself is a good reason for a green house, there could still be many weeks of growing yet with one.

Now if you want to run grow lights, and I suspect a lot of them to provide produce for 4, then I would think yes it should work but I would not want your power bill!

I did try LED grow lights a long time ago, cant remember for sure but roughly 2006-2008 period, they were the new thing at the time that everyone was raving about. I found them a complete waste of my time and money, more upset about the money!.....I don't know if they have improved since but I am sceptical.

Hey Clarence,
Yes, you can moderate more in a greenhouse, and if SHTF and you were on site to manage the greenhouse -it can be awesome!!! I find my greenhouse can get really hot during the dry spells, to the point that I would loose plants to the heat. If you're not on site to open and close (operate the greenhouse) it's difficult. If your on site and can adjust as needed-works like a hot dam!! I'm working still-unfortunately!!! Another great idea is to simply make hoop houses for each garden box-this allows you to work with the garden space you already have. A small greenhouse with a bunch of covered boxes is all I use! Using this technique I grew greens all winter long!! I should clarify...I could only grow lettuce, Swiss chard, spinach during the winter. I will attach photos of these covered boxes ideas. There are great books out there on these.

Tonight, I had to put the hoops on 5 of my beds and brought some of my potted into the greenhouse. We received a frost warning tonight. There are examples of rather large homemade greenhouses covered in plastic on line, if interested!
For a family of four you would need a fairly large area covered. I still think the idea of covering each box is the way to go!!!

I did put money out for heat activated levers that will open and close the windows in the greenhouse (for when I'm at work). I haven't put them in yet but they should work better then. Until then, I have to be careful what and when I put in the greenhouse.
Below is a pic of a video-not the video-sorry! But...you get the idea!

There is a book written about growing in the winter that you may enjoy. It's by a female author, I will find it in my library and add her name. This is from her book! I believe she lives in Ontario.???

what sorcery is this? where does she live?

Ya, sorry peppercorn. You make me chuckle!
Here's the book info! I can tell you from experience it works very well! I had to harvest mid day so the veggies didn't go mushy
But yes-magic!!! Name is Nikki Jabbour -and sorry she's from Nova Scotia not Ontario.

hmmm ….she appears to have her own snow machine, or a can of green spray paint.

I found her.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7X19TJ1cxA

I didn't recognize the names of some of the plants she grows, well kale and carrots I recognized...I will go finish listening to her interview.

Thank you one and all. Can’t do it this year but next year should be on my list... May start to clear area and doing some prep this November and early December.

Peppercorn. You mention fail of LED. I uunderstand the issue of power for old lightbulbs but if we have power, it still provides a viable option for good, available food. If running on solar or wind, it’s obviously more of a challenge but do you believe it’s that hard ( cost to power one or two 40 or 60 watt bulbs ) to overcome? Sounds like your way the heck up north so obviously different from folks closer to US border. You have my sympathies for zero degrees. Getting to 32 tomorrow!

Grow bulbs at 40 or 60 watts? I am not aware of any, any serious grow bulbs. When I last looked into it, it was high pressure sodium, or metal halide bulbs,with the smallest metal halide that I found being at the 400 watt level and most of the high pressure sodium at the 1000 watt level. Now this was 10 or more years back when I looked into it, maybe things have changed.
The absolute best place to go is a place that sells equipment for grow ops. those guys know there stuff and can rattle off the square footage and spectrum covered by every type of bulb. Turns out pot and tomattoes like roughly the same conditions. They have it down to a science.

Grow bulbs at 40 or 60 watts? I am not aware of any, any serious grow bulbs. When I last looked into it, it was high pressure sodium, or metal halide bulbs,with the smallest metal halide that I found being at the 400 watt level and most of the high pressure sodium at the 1000 watt level. Now this was 10 or more years back when I looked into it, maybe things have changed.
The absolute best place to go is a place that sells equipment for grow ops. those guys know there stuff and can rattle off the square footage and spectrum covered by every type of bulb. Turns out pot and tomattoes like roughly the same conditions. They have it down to a science.

Will do. I was thinking these bulbs would in a smallish are to be enough to beef up lousy overcast Canadian winter days

Costco has grow LED multi spectrum grow lights on for something like $38. They can’t be very power hungry... has anyone tried them or similar?