Using community garden greenhouse in summer

[Brian Noy]

Our community garden at Augsburg College does quite well during the
spring and fall, but I'm not sure what exactly to do with it during
the summer. It's a simple hoop house, 10 by 50 feet, metal poles,
sheet of plastic. We tried rolling up the sides last summer (didn't
work so well given the structure design) to let it breathe and keep
cool, but it was awfully hard to keep it watered by volunteers, as it
dried out so fast and never benefited from rainy days.

This year, I was thinking to keep it sealed up, at least on the sides
to retain moisture. That means that we're looking at plenty of 100+
degree heat. Is there anything that would do well in that climate? I
was thinking maybe melons and okra. Any ideas?

[Carol Ford]

You might want to try sweet potatoes, although you'll have a devil of a time with just about anything when you get over 100 degrees. My passive solar greenhouse gets over 120 when we're solarizing the soil in mid summer. I tried doing hot peppers and melons earlier in the summer but found that the plants would drop their blossoms once the heat was over 98 degrees. If you've got drip tape in the greenhouse and install a timer water system, you should be able to have rolled up sides, Keep the moisture right and grow some sweet potatoes and keep them protected from frost long enough in the fall to get a good crop. You'll even have them in  good space for curing after harvest! That would be a lovely addition to a fall fest dinner at Augsburg. Y'all'd be the hit of the party! ;-)

Carol Ford

Garden Goddess Produce

Carol Ford

Office Goddess

Division of Sci & Math

Univ. of MN, Morris

for...@morris.umn.edu

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,

nothing is going to get better, it's not."

       -The Lorax, by Dr. Suess