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Most vegetables can be grown in a greenhouse year-round, but not without a little help from you . Creating the perfect growing environment in which vegetables will grow can be a challenge though, with heating during the cold season and cooling in the warm, monitoring the greenhouse is essential for the plants’ growth and your success.

First we should start by understanding some greenhouse lingo. Cold greenhouse, cool greenhouse and warm greenhouse are common terms you’ll see quite often. They aren’t three different houses, only one with different temperatures maintained inside. Just a note, these minimum temperatures represent night temperatures, not temperatures maintained during the daytime. The sun heats a cold greenhouse and usually has a minimum temperature of 28 degrees F maintained. No growth occurs in this type of house but you can over winter plants that are not frost sensitive. Cool greenhouses are heated during the cooler months either with gas, oil or propane to a minimum temperature of 45 degrees F. This is just warm enough for a little plant growth and frost sensitive plants can be over wintered here. A warm greenhouse is where all the action is. This house is heated at night during most months and a minimum temperature of 55 degrees F is maintained. A wide assortment of plants can be grown during the winter, including exotic varieties and most vegetables. The one drawback to growing year-round in a warm greenhouse is the heating cost, which can be high for someone living in an area with a long winter season. Maintaining 55 degrees at night during the winter can be a little costly. There are ways to cut down on heating costs and we will discuss them in future articles. Cooling a greenhouse during spring and summer, where temperatures can reach well over 100 degrees, is just as important. Tomatoes for example will stop growing when the temperature starts to inch toward 90 degrees.

In our greenhouse, peppers, cucumbers, beans, eggplant, melons, squash and of course tomatoes do quite well. Carrots, lettuce and radish can also be grown inside. When searching through catalogues for seeds, look for varieties made specifically for greenhouse production. They will have qualities that will make growing them easier for you and assure your success. For example, ‘Alicante’ tomato is meant to grow in a cool greenhouse because it can tolerate cooler temperatures and ‘Tornado’ is an excellent bush type that stays compact, a good idea for the greenhouse.

Remember everyone’s season is different, so grow according to your areas climate. Manipulating the environment by heating in fall and winter and cooling in spring and summer will insure the proper growth of your vegetables so you can be harvesting all year long.