Mother's Mini-Manual: Greenhouse Gardening

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And remember: Many authorities suggest fumigating all soil used in a greenhouse with either heat and steam or with chemicals to kill pathogenic fungi, viruses, bacteria, nematodes and insects in the growing medium. For the small-scale grower who sets many plants out in pots, however, the Abrahams' pasteurization methods (outlined below) may be the most practical ways to rid earth of potentially harmful organisms:

Fill a baking pan with three or four inches of the dirt, cover it with aluminum foil, and insert a meat thermometer into its center. Then bake the container on low heat (higher oven temperatures will destroy organic matter and some beneficial organisms) for 30 minutes or until the thermometer reads 180°F. Or process the soil in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes at 5 pounds pressure.

You can also pasteurize your greenhouse growing medium with hot water. Fill a bench with earth, level it off (don't pack the dirt down), insert a meat thermometer into the flat and pour enough boiling water into the soil to bring its temperature up to 180°F. Allow the earth to dry for at least one day before you sow seeds in it.

CROP FAILURE³

Often greenhouse owners will wonder what causes blossoms to drop from their crops; they may ask why no fruit has set. Commercial growers often ask the same question. Fruitless plants and blossom drops are common among tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, muskmelons, watermelons, winter and summer squash, beans, and peas. Even sweet corn may drop the blossoms from its tassels. It's a common thing not only inside a greenhouse but also in the garden.

According to Dr. Leonard D. Topoleski, professor of vegetable crops at Cornell University, lack of fruit set with tomato, pepper, eggplant and other vegetables appears to be caused primarily by the lack of fertilization of the ovary, and not lack of pollination. In other words, you can have pollination, but for some reason, no fertilization. These five factors influence sexual union or fertilization and fruit set:

· Variety
· High temperature (above 90° F)
· Low temperature (below 50° F)
· Dry air
· Low soil moisture

Outdoors, the home gardener can't do much to control these factors, and all that can be done after the blossoms drop is to wait for the next cluster of flowers to develop. However, in the greenhouse you can control temperature, humidity and soil moisture content.

FLOWER DEVELOPMENT: Normally, with most vine crops, the first few flowers to develop are male flowers, called staminate flowers. These flowers develop only as a source of pollen and never become fruit. They are larger and more conspicuous than the female flower. These male flowers naturally drop early, so don't be alarmed when they do. The second flush or subsequent flower development is a mixture of male and female (pistillate) flowers. Outdoors, insects transfer pollen from male or staminate flowers to the female or pistillate flowers. In the greenhouse you can help nature along by transferring pollen with the tip of your finger or a brush. Usually fertilization occurs, and within a few days young cucumbers, muskmelons, squash, etc., start developing.

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