The greenhouses are an experiment. So I kept simple records. But I soon knew by watching the plants which ones I'll grow again and which ones I won't bother with.
Results (to date)-----
Zucchini - 64
While we don't eat lots of zucchini, we do use some. Plus it's a good trading item, so I will grow it again. The best performer was Desert. I'll stay with that one plus try one other parthenocarpic variety for comparison. But I will only grow a few plants at a time in the future. 6 would be plenty. If I start 6 new plants once a month, I should keep a steady supply of zucchini to meet our needs.
The plants last about two months before looking too mature. But then they are also suffering with fungal diseases. So by staggering the plantings, I hopefully will keep plants thriving well enough before I yank them at 2 to 2 1/2 months of age.
The greenhouse effectively conquered the pickle worm moth. In the field I was never able to get zucchini because of this pest, plus powdery mildew and stem borer. The greenhouse solved the pest issues.
Cucumbers - 84
We eat some though not as much as I grow, that's for sure. But like zucchini, it's a good trade item. Saber turned out to be the most productive variety. The growing conditions weren't ideal, so I'll try all the varieties again in order to compare.
The greenhouse effectively kept out the pickle worm moth. Powdery mildew is an issue, but the Saber variety did best when it came to fungal disease.
Lima Beans - 18 cups shelled beans
Both Dixie Speckled Butterpea and Jacksons Wonder proved to be good producers in the greenhouses. I also grew a lima called Succotash but it was a rather poor producer, so I won't grow it in the future. I never could get lima beans before when growing them in my open gardens, so the greenhouses brought success. I'll definitely keep growing lima beans in the greenhouse. We love these beans in soups. We managed to consume all those beans ourselves, using none to trade or sell.
Sweet Peppers :
Slim fryers - 82
Miniatures - 316
Standard Bell - 17
Pretty and Sweet was an outstanding producer of mini peppers, and unlike other minis I've tried which were rather bland, these had flavor. The Mini Bells were not worth the garden space. The skinny frying peppers were nice only in that they were very early and productive, but we weren't so apt to eat them. The standard bells all did fine. In the future I will grow the standard bells, possibly a plant or two of Petty and Sweets, and some frying types that I haven't tried yet.
The greenhouse situation made it possible to grow some decent sized, flavorful sweet peppers. When grown out in the gardens in the past, the peppers were small and tended to be affected by pests. So the greenhouse was a significant improvement.
Standard sized bells are the only variety people are interested in for trading or selling. Something to think about when growing peppers again.
Tomatoes- 81 lbs
Greenhouse success -- no fruit fly damage. No aphids (was this just luck?) No stink bugs.
Greenhouse problem -- powdery mildew and leaf spot.
So although I won against the pests, diseases were a problem that I don't usually get in field grown plants. Ah, a game of give & take.
All in all, I'd call the greenhouse tomatoes a major success. I've been getting plenty of gorgeous tomatoes. And I've been able to grow some of the tasty ones, which normally succumbed to fruit flies.
I grew 3 types of plum tomatoes, all of which I like (Orange Icicle, Black Icicle, Amish Paste). I plan to try growing these out in the field gardens to see if they are resistant to the fruit fly. Some plums are fairly resistant while others aren't. I grew 2 slicer types. One I liked well enough to grow again (Black Beauty) in the greenhouse. I plan to try other slicer varieties in the future.
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