Growing Fruit in Greenhouses

Did you know you could successfully grow all kinds of fruit in a greenhouse? Most gardeners know that they can grow strawberries and tomatoes in a greenhouse, but did you know you could also successfully grow melons, grapes, peaches, lemons, nectarines, and citrus fruits too?

There are several varieties of grapes that can be grown in a greenhouse environment including Black Hamburgh and Buckland Sweetwater. They are ideal grapes for growing in cooler conditions. Gardeners need to pay single attentiveness to giving the vines open, free-draining soil and to forestall waterlogged soils. They will need to maintain young plants, as they are first becoming established. Side-shoots that are produced in the summer will need to be pruned in the following winter by cutting them back to their last bud (spur pruning). A good ability fertilizer and adequate water that reaches to all of the roots are significant for good ability grapes.

Organic Fruit

Peaches and nectarines can be grown successfully in both the cool greenhouse and the heated greenhouse. The Humboldt and the Pine Apple nectarine varieties fit the cold greenhouse. The Peregrine grows great in a greenhouse as well as the Hale's Early range as long as there is someone else range close by for pollination.

Peaches and nectarines grown in a greenhouse will tend to have contract root systems so they will need to be watered oftentimes while their growing season and fed once the tree is established. You will need to change pollen from flower to flower using a small fine brush. You will need to do this by hand pollination everyday while the flowering period. The humidity of the greenhouse should be raised while the flowering season. When the fruits are about the size of walnuts you may need to thin them to about two fruits per foot of branch.

Citrus fruits such as lemons, oranges and tangerines can all be grown successfully in the greenhouse environment.

Growing any kind of fruit in the greenhouse is entertaining as conditions must be just right and pests and disease can be problems that need conquering but it can be done. Take heart though as there are several books on greenhouse gardening that cover growing fruits in greenhouses including: Greenhouse Gardening: Step by Step to Growing Success (Crowood Gardening Guide) by Jonathan Edwards (Paperback - Aug 1, 1996), Growing Fruit (Rhs Encyclopedia of Practical Gardening) by Harry Baker (Paperback - Mar 1, 2001) - Illustrated, and Grow fruit in your greenhouse: Grapes, peaches, nectarines, figs and others by George E Whitehead (Unknown Binding - 1970).

Growing Fruit in Greenhouses

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