Help needed yet again please (re toms and peppers)

[Penellype]

Here in Yorkshire, unless you have room in the house or a heated greenhouse, there is little point in sowing early. I sow my Shirleys for the house in January, but the Sungold, including those mentioned above, are not sown until April.

[Lisasbolt]

Very interesting info, thanks everyone.

Although i live in a area were most grow veg, i do not know of anyone who has a tunnel or green house. We have daily markets in all the local towns and they sell every seedling available to grow at the time of year for pence. e.g this summer 10 pepper plants for 1euro that must be at least 2 months old. 40 onion seedling for 1euro, 8 toms for 1euro, 25 lettuce 1 euro etc etc. But they are all the basics.

That being said they are only selling, peas, onion, lettuce brassica family etc all for planting out.

I don't mind things failing, i have 100's of things that go wrong monthly i was just so excited to finally have the tunnel completed after being messed around so much.

[Scarlet]

How long have you lived there? Have you any growing experience at all? Did you grow in the Uk and if so what?
If they are only selling peas, onions, and brassicas that's what you should be planting now. That's your typical "winter/cold hardy veg. Broad beans, peas for pea shoots lettuce etc can all be grown in a tunnel now, with your daytime temps you should see much more growth than we do here. You should get very early broad beans.
I had a quick internet search but it's difficult finding info on growing conditions in other countries. Although the weather/temp tables say that you can expect below 10 nov-February. That says to me that you have a long growing window, not that you can sow any veg at any time of the year, just a couple of months either side of a uk growing season but with warmer daytime temps your plants will put on growth fast and you should be able to crop much sooner and for longer. I start tom plants early but I put them out in the GH during the day and bring them indoors if temps are forecast below 10.
Have you set a watering system up for the summer?

[Lisasbolt]

Yes have automatic watering for garden and tunnel.
It is so hard to say weather as all of Almeria is not the same, if you go just 5 mins (5 miles) up the road from me they have already had some snow. I am in a little dip which gives me a few extra degrees, bit further into town they get a couple more etc confusion i know. This is only my second winter, but with talking to neighbours etc i get a good idea. Although they think 20 degrees is freezing and walking around in great big coats etc and i'm here in my tshirts still

I thought that i would get away with some others things but time will tell i guess.

One thing i think i will do is… plant out some tomatoes etc August time that should take me quite a way through the winter. I did this in the main plot and i still have cherry toms, yellow pear, and good old moneymaker. Although the next couple of weeks i am pulling them up. putting green ones in the window etc. So think they should last a while longer in the tunnel.

[Lisasbolt]

I am going to hold bad planting more till January and then hopefully get them in the ground March/April
I will put them out day in at night.

[Kristen]

One thing i think i will do is… plant out some tomatoes etc August time that should take me quite a way through the winter.

Or you could so what the commercial growers do an "layer" your Tomatoes. Commercial growers crop their Tomato plants for about 12 months, they train them up a string (to an overhead cropping-bar support) but they have a ball of string wound around a hook onto the cropping-bar, and they upwind that and lower the plant - so in effect the vertical part of the tomato plant moves along the row a few yards each time it is lowered & layered.

[Scarlet]

It is so hard to say weather as all of Almeria is not the same, if you go just 5 mins (5 miles) up the road from me they have already had some snow. I am in a little dip which gives me a few extra degrees, bit further into town they get a couple more etc confusion i know. This is only my second winter, but with talking to neighbours etc i get a good idea. Although they think 20 degrees is freezing and walking around in great big coats etc and i'm here in my tshirts still

What were your night time temperatures during last winter - did you record any? In my area we often have warmer nights. Last year we didn't have a frost although my toms had finished cropping by Nov. This year we've already experienced several frosts. Look at your average weather temperatures and plan you seed sowing around them. Look at what plants they are selling in the markets. Read the planting dates on the back of seed packets.

I'm curious, what results you have had with growing tomatoes and chillies during the summer just gone?

[Lisasbolt]

I have never had such good results.

We have to go away for 3 weeks and left someone looking after them, well they only picked what they wanted to eat and when i got back 100's rotten all over the ground, so next year will have 100's of little plants coming up everywhere. We stripped every red one the day we left as well.
This what i picked when we got back



some look at past their best but made lovely sauce.

My profile pic is from my second planting out in August.

I had picked over 500kg's of Tomatoes. I am being serious :roll eyes: I am still harvesting but stopped weighing a while ago.

I didn't really grow any chilli's just a couple of plants as i have so many left from the year before.

But peppers again, 100's. My freezer is packed and i have 3 they are still flowering now.

I know roughly from memory what the weather was like. 1 cold night that didn't even really frost, more like when the condensation on the car is about to turn to frost. That was January and i remember being surprised as according to the locals it had been years and years since it was that cold. I didn't grow anything apart from garlic last winter so had no need to record. I must admit i have got just a little obsessed this last year

I think i have a real problem i grow far too much, i get too carried away. Neighbours/family and chickens love it though.

Thanks Scarlet, it's nice having a chat with someone, i don't know of anyone to chat with regarding this stuff. The OH goes blank after a few seconds

[Nicos]

I've still not got my head around some fruit and veg growing here after 7 years!...different parts of the garden/field differ in microclimate too.

Here is the history for Almeria so you can check up approx temps for your garden, give or take a few degrees...

Weather History for Almeria, Spain | Weather Underground

[bearded bloke]

Lisa, go & look at some of the commercial polytunnel/greenhouse growers in your area (see picture below), I watched a tv program about the costa del polytunnel & they were growing salad crops for continuous supply to supermarkets, but they were all using hydroponic tanks with controlled mineral addition NOT soil as a growing medium.